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Course Descriptions

Session 1: Consultation in Early Childhood

If you provide consultation in early childhood programs, are interested in learning an effective approach to creating change and improving your skills as a consultant, then this training event is for you! This two-day course provides a framework for collaborative consultation. It is appropriate for consultants who provide consultation to early care and education providers to enhance the overall program quality, the quality of care for infants and toddlers, the social-emotional development of young children, or to include a child with special needs.

Participant Objectives

During the training course, participants will:

• Reflect on the principles of how to be a catalyst for lasting change

•  Review the definition of consultation and key features of a collaborative approach in consultation

• Consider the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to be an effective consultant

• Practice communication skills essential to effective consultation

• Identify 8 consultation stages, their key goals, tasks and related challenges and

• Explore ethical considerations in consultation

Following the session, participants will complete and return a Consultant Observation Checklist.

Presenters:

Virginia Buysse, Ph.D.
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Pat Wesley
Project Director, Partnerships for Inclusion, Carrboro, NC

Session 2: Appropriate Services for Young English Language Learners: Language, Culture, and Practice

Most of us have worked with children who speak a language other than English at home. There are many questions in the field, however, regarding best practices in classroom practice, home visiting screening, and assessment with this population of children and their families. This presentation is designed to answer practical questions about providing services that will best support young English language learners. During this workshop background research will be presented to provide a well-rounded picture of bilingual development and the relationship of native language support to long-term academic outcomes. The presenter will then lead the participants through a series of activities to support them in improving their current practices with culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Lillian Duran earned a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU). Last year she reestablished the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) licensure program at MSU. Lillian has worked for 10 years as an ECSE teacher both in Prince George's County, Maryland and in rural Minnesota. She became interested in early second language acquisition when she and her family moved from the Washington D.C. area to New Ulm where she worked as an ECSE Lead Teacher for the River Bend Education District for three years in many communities with high Latino populations such as Gaylord, St. James, Madelia, Arlington, and Sleepy Eye. She then worked for two years with Mankato Public Schools as a birth to three home visitor with a growing population of immigrants from Somalia and the Sudan.

Session 3: Speech and Language Goals and Objectives: Embedding Communication Target Skills in the ECSE Teaching Process

Early childhood special educators have long been motivated by the desire to provide high-quality service delivery for young children with disabilities and their families.  Essential to successful service delivery is the blending of cross-disciplinary practices that are grounded in evidence-based practices.  While not always the preferred service delivery model, national associations such as the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) and the American Speech and Language Association (ASHA) do recommend an inclusive setting as the preferred learning environment within which evidence-based practices be delivered.  Yet, many practitioners do prefer a “pull out” model where speech and language direct service occurs outside of a young child’s natural learning environment.

Come to this highly interactive session where we will stretch our professional imaginations to conceptualize an authentic learning environment for young children with disabilities where speech and language IEP goals and objectives are embedded in the ECSE classroom teaching process.  It is recommended that teams of early childhood special educators and speech language pathologists attend this session together.

Presenter: Jane Minnema, Ph.D., St. Cloud State University

Jane Minnema completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Educational Psychology with a major in special education and minor in program evaluation.  Beginning her career as a Speech-Language Pathologist, Jane became an Early Childhood Special Educator when PL 94-142 created center-based programming for preschool age children with disabilities where she remained in practice until 1994.  After five years of working as a policy analyst at the University of Minnesota, Jane entered preservice training in the Early Childhood Special Education program at Saint Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, MN.  Her current research is focused on various aspects of culturally and linguistically diverse parents of children with disabilities.

Session 4: Positive Behavior Support

Positive Behavioral Support (PBS) is a problem-solving process that helps us understand why children behave the way they do; it is a positive approach to addressing challenging behavior that has been demonstrated to be effective in schools, community programs and home settings. PBS includes a variety of effective strategies that prevent challenging behaviors and involves teaching children new behaviors and/or skills to replace challenging behavior. 

For many early childhood professionals, this approach involves shifting how we look at and think about children’s challenging behavior.  Join us for this engaging and interactive extended training opportunity to learn about PBS and gain skills and tools that will help you, and the families you serve, support the behavioral needs of the young children in your programs.

Session Objectives:

• Participants will understand the theoretical foundation and research supporting the use of Positive Behavioral Support with young children.

• Using the Teaching Pyramid as a guiding framework, participants will learn positive and preventative strategies for supporting the social/emotional and behavioral needs of the children they serve.

Presenters: Kellie Krick, Ruth Paisley, Gina Paton, and Parent Presenter

Kellie Krick, M.Ed. is a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology/Special Education at the University of Minnesota. She is currently on leave from St. Paul Public Schools where she taught for nine years in both self-contained and inclusive early childhood special education settings. Her professional interests include positive behavioral support, behavioral family intervention, early childhood inclusion and special education teacher preparation. She is currently supervising student teachers for the University of Minnesota Early Childhood/Early Childhood Special Education licensure program. In addition, she works as a graduate research assistant for the St. Paul Schools School Readiness & Early Childhood Special Education Unconditional Care: Parents as Partners in Early Childhood Positive Behavior Support Project.

Ruth Paisley has worked with young children and their families for over 265 years. She has served children and families teaching in classroom, birth to three home-based, and community-based inclusive settings. Her particular interests are in developing supports for children and families in inclusive settings and program supports for promoting healthy social-emotional development.

Gina Paton has been an ECSE teacher in St. Paul for eight years. She has taught children in ECSE classroom and co-taught ECSE/School Readiness classroom settings. She has an interest in emergent literacy, is certified as a Non-violent Crisis Intervention trainer, and is a member of the SPPS ECSE B-team.

Breakout Session 5: Medically Fragile Children--The Premature Infant

Description: This course will include:

• Definition, Incidence, and causes of prematurity

• Admission of infant into NICU, common symptoms, treatment of high-risk infant

• Virtual tour of NICU

• Glossary of terms

• Top ten list of possible complications

• Outcome and prognosis

• Coping

Marcia Stevens, RN, DNSc, Professor, Accelerated Nursing Program Coordinator, School of Nursing, Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Marcia Stevens has a Doctorate of Nursing Science from the University of California, San Francisco. She has practiced in the field of pediatric nursing for 30 years and has a special interest in families coping with infants requiring technology support in the home. She has held nursing education positions at several universities over the past 23 years and is currently a professor of nursing at Minnesota State University Minnesota.

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