76th Annual SECA Conference

Babies are learning language from the moment they are born. As we learn more about how the brain develops, we have learned the importance of talking with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Current research practices for supporting early language and literacy place a specific focus on the connections between language and brain development. Dr. Patricia Kuhl from the University of Washington has conducted extensive research on early language and brain development. Her work has played a vital role in how we understand the effects of exposure to language at an early age supports the structure of the brain during the most pivotal developmental stage. Research from Dr. David Dickinson at Vanderbilt University explores specific ways adults can support language in young children through responsive interactions. 85% of brain development takes place during the first three years of a child’s life. The connections between oral language and literacy development show a supportive relationships to executive function skills, vocabulary acquisition, and home language and the impact of these on all future learning. By exploring specific techniques for talking and increasing conversational turns to support language development through child-directed speech, narrative talk, reading books, using home language, and storytelling activities adults working with children can support families in providing opportunities to increase the quality and quantity of spoken language through everyday practices. We will explore initiatives and programs that provide ways for practitioners, childcare workers, and families to gain access to resources to support practical strategies for increasing language and supporting brain development.

We know children learn best through play, but how do we facilitate play intentionally to prevent challenging behavior? In this session, we look at evidence-based play methods that are actionable and easy to implement. Simple strategies to build trust, engineer empathy skills, facilitate negotiation, and engage in sensory play with children displaying challenging behaviors will be shared. Join us and share some of your own strengths and struggles over play-based learning.

Young preschool children with special needs have limited capacity to communicate and connect to the real world. The surrounding adults play a critical role in the development of these preschoolers. However, there have been so many challenges nowadays due to the varied family structures and limited resources available for these family members after pandemic. There were very limited resources nor publications about practical partnership among family members, preschool teachers, and a higher Ed institution for the preschool children with special needs. This two-year Trilateral Approach provides a real opportunity to make the ideal evidence-based practices which happen in the real life of young preschool children in Eastern Kentucky.
This presentation will focus on sharing the firsthand activities that Families of preschool children with special needs from Eastern KY region went through and the effects of collaborated works among families, preschool teachers and the higher education institution for the development of preschool children with special needs along with its chain consequences on the development of siblings through family play activity time.

This interactive session equips early childhood educators with the foundational knowledge of sensory processing in young children. Led by an occupational therapist with 27 years experience in pediatric field, the session explores how children experience the world through their senses. Participants will gain a practical understanding of sensory processing challenges and discover how to recognize signs in their classrooms.

Through engaging activities and real-life examples, educators will learn simple strategies to create supportive environments that cater to diverse sensory needs. The session will cover topics such as:

*The sensory system and its impact on learning
*Identifying signs of sensory over- and under-stimulation
*Adapting the classroom environment to promote sensory regulation
*Easy-to-implement activities that cater to different sensory preferences

By the end of this session, educators will feel empowered to create classrooms where all children can thrive and learn comfortably.

This session creates space for early childhood education practitioners and future practitioners to engage in activities and conversations centered around intentional and purposeful planning of opportunities and activities aimed at helping young children grow and develop a variety of math skills, processes and thinking.

Most teachers, therapists and childcare facilities are hesitant to deal with children with special needs, especially autism spectrum disorder because of the challenges they present.
We are breaking the barriers of limitations with a combination of awareness about disabilities and empowering parents. Facilitating inclusion helps all of us understand that we have more in common, being different physically or emotionally is just a normal part of life.

Children and Lead: What You Don't Know Can Hurt Them

Children under 6 are the most vulnerable to the effects of lead poisoning. The good news is that lead poisoning is 100% preventable. In this fun and informative session, participants will learn about the dangers of lead, common sources of lead, lead exposure prevention, and community resources for families.

In this session, we will share basics of coding in early childhood, computational thinking, and engineering. We will discuss methods of integrating literacy with these STEM disciplines. We will share methods that we used in our preschool classroom to integrate literacy with computational thinking and engineering, through lessons that included storytelling, problem solving, coding, and constructing. From activities ranging from coding a classmate to reach the Three Little Pigs house, sequencing familiar stories and creating our own, and engineering a boat for the Gingerbread Man that would float, students were able to explore STEM concepts through a literacy lens.

Meaningful planning is an essential practice to support optimal development for young children. This session will help participants plan and create activities that are meaningful. Participants will learn ways to extend learning through their interactions by implementing the CLASS tool. Participants will engage in hands-on activities to discuss ways to extend learning opportunities in meaningful ways.

In the last five years, extreme weather events in Louisiana have become more common as the rate of occurrence rose from 2.2 events per year to nearly 6 events per year (5.8; NCEI, 2024). The result is that young children under the age of 5 years old are growing up in a region where extreme weather events are commonplace. Yet, it is rare for early childhood curricula to address climate change (CC). Young children play an important role in the future of our environment because they frequently experience and will inherit the ongoing consequences of the increased incidences of extreme weather events.

This presentation shares the story of a 25-year-old female art teacher working at a school with students who identify as 50.5% Black, 28.4% White, 12.7% Hispanic, 6.9% Asian, and 1.5% Native American. The teacher began a lesson on CC by introducing a graphic text featuring an otter and his family in an extreme weather event requiring them to move their home. To promote dialogue with the children and gain an understanding of their experiences, she circulated around the room and asked children to discuss their drawings (i.e., “Tell me about your drawing” and “What happened?”). Results show that young children related to the displacement of the otter and relayed their own stories. Further, adults make attempts to insulate children to protect them from the stress of CC events. However, despite these efforts, children and adults in New Orleans face the stress of an uncertain future.

This session will help participants learn strategies for designing physical spaces and open-ended play provocations using loose parts that help young children develop skills in all developmental domains and individual approaches to learning.

Are you seeing escalating challenging behaviors in your classroom and/or program and feeling unsure how to create an effective plan to help both the teacher and child? This session takes a deep dive into the creation and use of easy to implement, actionable behavior change plans. Participants will be trained on FirstDay’s ABC-123 plan for effective prevention and responses to challenging behavior. Time and guidance will be provided to understand the key steps in a behavior change program and make specific plans to implement them in your own programs and classrooms.

Making sure that families have their own voice in activities planned just for them is, first of all, respectful and second, the best way to encourage participation and host successful events. Using a specially designed template, participants will use the ideas presented to plan an event for implementation when they return home. Together we will share our best ideas and learn from one another to create some great take-home strategies. The free template and a curated resource list will be available after the session.

This session will provide early childhood educators information about the importance of building background knowledge. It will also demonstrate how educators can use literacy to and engaging activities to build background knowledge. The participants will then have the opportunity to create a short literacy lesson that builds background knowledge with a group that has a measurable objective and an engaging activity.

Have you ever tried to support a child who displays challenging or mistaken behaviors? Do you often struggle with helping dysregulated children return to a regulated state? As Early Childhood professionals we aspire to promote safety, security, and a sense of belonging in the classroom. By using evidence-informed pedagogical practices as a foundation, our presentation will explore best teaching practices for preschool-aged children. As professionals we know the importance of providing a calm and regulated space for young children through the implementation of social emotional learning and trauma-informed practice. The purpose of our session is to assist early childhood professionals in supporting children who may become dysregulated, defensive, and reactive in the classroom. When children experience heightened states of arousal, they exhibit one of four primary reactions—fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. We will explore each of these responses in depth and provide resources for professionals as they navigate associated challenging or mistaken behaviors.

This session highlights the critical role of family engagement in fostering young learners' growth and development. Participants will explore the benefits of building strong partnerships with families and discover practical strategies, resources, and activities to actively involve families in the classroom. The training will provide creative, culturally responsive approaches to strengthen communication, promote collaboration, and create a welcoming environment for families to support their child’s learning journey.

What makes a natural scientist? Wonder, curiosity, a sense of purpose, and PLAY! We know that children learn best through a hands-on playful environment, but isn't that too much work to set up? When there is so much on teachers' plates, how can we connect science, STEM, literacy, and executive function in a playful, seamless way? In this workshop, participants will learn how to take a playful approach to integrating experiences across the curriculum -- while maintaining their own joy and ease. Join us as we develop a toolbox of practical ideas for connecting storytime STEM curriculum experiences that organically harness play to create opportunities for reading, writing, math, science, and executive function throughout the day. The workshop experience is hands-on and encourages active and engaged participation throughout.

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase, “Teaching is not what it used to be” these days. What brought on that phrase? Is it really that teaching has changed or is it something else? We also hear the comments such as “Since the Covid……” as well as the increase in challenging behaviors and increased social-emotional needs. Addressing the needs of these students and their families cannot be done by the classroom teacher alone. We will need to work together with the other experts and professionals internally within the program and externally within the community.

In this session, we will examine the concept of partnership and how to transfer aspects of the ideal definition to the existing early childhood education field.

Wake up with Dr. Maria LIVE. Let's go inside the mind of preschoolers and pretend to feel their big emotions while interacting with storytelling, music, and art. Then, learn to breakdown the big emotions as an interactive learning process and disciple preschooler BIG Emotions in your classroom. You will be using your dramatic play skills, dancing, and coloring with Dr. Maria. Come have a FUN Learning experience with Dr. Maria.

Training and coaching practices used to prepare educators in Early Learning Centers include children with disabilities yet, successful inclusion in preschool education requires teachers to modify the instructional setting, use effective instructional methods and strategies, adapt instruction, and provide equal learning opportunities for all children. The lack of special education knowledge, skills in evidence- based practices, and teaching experiences to fulfill these roles is one of the most significant barriers to effective inclusion of children with or at risk for disabilities. The criteria for staff development effectiveness would require an understanding of content and pedagogical knowledge that requires countless hours.
The proposed VP-GEEP is a multi-component workshop approach model is a structured and purposefully directed site-based professional development workshop model that identifies special education concepts that will engage educators with a hands-on approach, and promote a collegiality and collaborative exchange of ideas, practices, and strategies to improve children’s outcomes in context. Site based educators are aware of critical contextual characteristics and therefore, can apply contextual based evidence-based practices to intervene and plan for the child with disabilities based on their needs, and resources. The mnemonic VP-GEEP is a purposely designed seamless workshop model that will assist teachers in Early Learning Centers recall special education concepts. Each letter in the model represents a concept that educators will collaboratively learn, apply, and implement strategies and practices in context.

In our preschool classroom, children engaged in a project on recycling, tackling the question: "How can we throw away less trash?" Through this project, they were able to engage in a project with a community and environmental impact, utilize critical thinking and problem solving skills, all while addressing the early learning standards. In this session, we will share about the important components and phases of project work in a preschool classroom, exploring the topic through our own implementation of a project with the children. We will explore the seven essential project design elements, how to determine if a project topics meets all these elements, and ways in which to make learning integrated and meaningful. Through project-based learning, teachers can cover important standards, teach valuable skills, all while giving children opportunities for agency, allowing them to be at the helm of their own learning. By looking at a project that we did with our children, participants will be able to see what a project looks like when put into practice.

Children often find themselves overwhelmed by emotions and upsets. This can lead to challenging behaviors. Through specific strategies and connection and self-regulation, children can move from upset to cooperation and participate in learning experiences. Strategies will be shared and practiced in preventing challenging behaviors, as well as responding to challenging behaviors. Participants will learn, practice, and evaluate experiences and structures useful with young children in reducing challenging behaviors.

This presentation will provide an overview of the brain research which supports understanding of basic play principles, diversity in play styles, and advanced play concepts and interventions. Participants will learn how to improve the play environment, increase likelihood that the needs of all children are met, expand poor play skills, increase focus and attention during play, transfer play to higher symbolic levels, and use play to support behavior.

Literacy doesn’t start with children decoding and encoding text; rather it begins as children engage in functional and playful conversations and oral storytelling experiences supported and facilitated by their teachers and other caregivers. In this session, participants will better understand the role of oral language and storytelling in young children's literacy development. Session participants will learn effective ways to prompt children for language success and learn storytelling activities such as story acting, storymaking, and creating oral mentor texts. This interactive session will help participants plan playful, and developmentally appropriate learning experiences designed to build a literate foundation in young children.