2022 Early On Conference: The Music of Early Intervention: Rock, Rattle and Roll! - FULL

To develop, learn, and have meaningful relationships with other people, young children need a core set of foundation skills on which to build. The five foundation skills addressed in this course include 1) nonverbal imitation, 2) joint attention, 3) sensory processing and self-regulation, 4) purposeful play (but not necessarily neurotypical play), and 5) early language development.

This interactive workshop will offer infant and early childhood professionals with an overview of attachment styles and how attachment impacts social and emotional development. Participants will learn how yoga can facilitate secure attachment patterns and help with managing challenging behaviors.

People are experiencing high levels of stress in their jobs. Finding a balance between work and personal responsibilities can send us into anxiety overload. How do we manage our work responsibilities, while honoring our personal time? This session will give participants practical strategies to address the many competing “needs” of our time, while also honoring the many roles we have.

Language development doesn’t just happen. It is important that caregivers know what the world is like for a child learning their language. This workshop will provide an overview of typical language development, opportunities to “hear” what the child hears as language is being learned, strategies for language learning, and methods for turning daily activities into language learning moments.

This session focuses on how children’s behavior (birth - 5) is influenced by the brain. In this training, you will learn about basic brain anatomy; connections between areas of the brain and how these connections are expressed through behavior; key factors that influence behavior; the root causes of challenging behavior and effective strategies for helping children with these difficulties.

Research says parents can have a lasting impact on children’s early literacy skills. Our Emergent Literacy program provides families of children from birth to three with the knowledge and skills necessary to build a successful literacy foundation for their children. Learn how shared reading experiences and literacy activities embedded in daily routines can engage families and support literacy development.

This session will introduce the child welfare system and provide an understanding of CPS investigations and how trauma can impact family engagement with services. With a better understanding of the trauma of abuse and neglect, Early On service providers can utilize a trauma-focused approach in engaging and involving families in their child's growth and development.

When Megan was born with a craniofacial syndrome, mother Barb Schinderle learned how to navigate a new world of doctors and specialists. They were connected with Early On when Megan was six weeks old. In this presentation, Barb and Megan will share some of the lessons they learned from their time in Early On, focusing on advocacy, inclusion, and self-acceptance.

Join this session to learn about where to access and how to use the full collection of Michigan personas, which are short stories about children and families in Michigan. This resource can support engagement, learning, and applications connected to a wide variety of topics, including supporting dual language learners, individualizing for the needs of each and every child and using culturally responsive practices. Participants will leave with access to the Michigan personas as well as the companion materials (evidence sources, sample questions and prompts) that were developed for each persona.

Reflective practice is the cycle of ongoing learning that occurs when early childhood professionals take the time to stop, think, challenge and change their practices in order to incorporate new understandings and advance children’s learning and development. This presentation will provide an introduction to reflective practice and its usefulness in work with children and families.

This session will focus on using the child's and family's routines as the foundation of early intervention. There are 3 distinct times in which routines can be targeted:   1) gathering information around daily routines, 2) formulating meaningful outcomes which are centered around routines, and 3) using intervention strategies which can be tied to a certain routine. Participants will leave this session feeling confident in understanding why it is important to use a routines-based model of assessment and intervention.

Mealtimes are an essential part of a family’s life. As Early On providers, it is our responsibility to build team capacity, foster connections with the medical community, and collaborate with other providers to support a whole-child and family approach to feeding and swallowing. This session will discuss ideas for providing a team-based approach to support feeding in Early On.

Early On support for families of children with hearing loss is essential, but what does it look like? Service providers can use the 8 DEC recommended practices as a framework for how to provide effective services to families of children with hearing loss. This presentation will address how to include a hearing screening instrument as part of your Early On evaluation protocol, determine eligibility for children with hearing loss, and how to provide evidenced-based intervention services for families of children with hearing loss.

MOVE (Mobility Opportunities via Education/Experience) is an activity-based program for individuals of any cognitive ability that are not yet sitting, standing, walking, or transitioning. For children with significant motor impairments, MOVE provides hope. This session will provide an overview of the MOVE program and principles while applying them to the birth to 3-year-old population.

When a child is identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH), there is potential for the family to experience feelings of isolation. Parent-to-parent support provides an opportunity for families to connect with trained parents and build a supportive community. This presentation will outline the evidence-based positive benefits of parent-to-parent support to the child, the family, and their professional team.

Protective factors are characteristics that make families less likely to experience negative outcomes. Acquiring protective factors help families thrive despite the risk factors they face. Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework is not a program, but rather a different approach to working with families. Participants will leave this introductory session with everyday actions that will improve outcomes for children and families.

We know children learn best when they are participating in natural learning opportunities that occur in everyday routines and activities. We also know that good literacy practices do not always just “come naturally.” This session focuses on sharing anecdotes and materials that have been used with Wayne County families in meeting Child Outcomes while promoting essential literacy practices at home.

This session will provide an overview of the current Michigan Mandatory Special Education Birth to Three Eligibility Guidance documents developed by the Michigan Department of Education Offices of Special Education and Great Start/Early Childhood Development and Family Education with the assistance of stakeholder and field perspectives and input.

This Introductory course will cover hearing anatomy, Otoacoustic Emissions, hearing screening protocols and the importance of early childhood screening. This session is targeted for participants who want to know more about hearing, Otoacoustic Emissions or want a refresher course. Please note, this is not a hands-on training session for using the hearing screener but questions regarding the screener are welcome.

What do you know about the new Early Childhood General and Special Education (ZN) endorsement? This session will provide information about the requirements for the new ZN and how the state will phase out the ZS. Attendees will discuss what is important for early childhood teachers to know and be able to do. Ample time for questions will be provided.

Our area has made feeding a top priority in strengthening our services to families. At a 2022 Early On Coordinator Community of Practice, we talked about our universal experiences with feeding challenges and service area needs to pursue training and to develop a structure for helping families. Others may have experiences to share as well and are welcome to share. Open discussion and shared insights and resources will be the format with contacts and links to the trainers that have been helpful and applicable to our journey.   This discussion will be an opportunity to think about how local areas can grow in the feeding arena and offer participants tangible options for learning and setting goals for systems that are prepared to support feeding challenges.

Young children in Early On programs sometimes don't have the physical ability to attend to books and toys independently. Adaptive seating systems are available commercially. Tri-Wall cardboard represents a low-cost material that can be used to create custom, child specific seating options when they may not be available commercially. This session will cover design and construction methods to begin this process. The creation team from Muskegon County has successfully created seating to support early intervention and instruction across a wide variety of home and classroom situations for the past five years. Participants will leave the presentation with resources and understanding of how to begin and create positive seating and instructional options.                             

Practicing Infant Safe Sleep is hard. This session will cover ways to provide support to families, including how to 1) have supportive conversations, 2) address common parent questions and barriers, 3) manage cords and tubes for babies with special medical needs, 4) create a bedtime routine, and more.

This is an honest reflection of an Early On Teacher and her experience with her son’s cancer diagnosis and journey through chemotherapy. She will share the profound effect it had on her life and the services she provides to families. Through journal entries, pictures, and small group discussions, service providers will walk away with a deeper understanding of the families they are working with as she models for families that it’s OK to not be OK.

For children with disabilities, pushing the toy’s default button may not be possible, but they may be able to activate other switches. Switches and access to switch adapted toys can be often a barrier due to the expensive cost attached. The accessibility of Do It Yourself (DIY) Switches and Assistive Technology have been steadily growing since the cost of 3D printers and microcontrollers have reduced. Participants will learn about open resources for toy hacking, DIY switches and DIY battery interrupters.

Resilience involves behaviors, thoughts, and actions that anyone can learn and develop. This presentation will focus on four core areas to help individuals withstand and learn from their experiences. Becoming more resilient will not only help them get through challenging times, but also empower them to grow and improve their life along the way.

Learn how a rural mid-Michigan county has created inclusive community playgroups for young children and their families. Topics of interest include Partnerships with Great Start Collaborative, Literacy focus with book giveaways, and home activities and our social media presence. 

Young children with feeding challenges may have behaviors that impact their oral intake, social-emotional connections made at mealtime with family and peers, and their confidence in trying new foods. This workshop will help early childhood providers understand developmental milestones in feeding, how to identify triggers and setting events that impact successful feeding and how to use positive support strategies, along with parent coaching to increase a child's acceptance of foods.

Do you ever get stuck with your families and feel like you’re not making any progress? Participants in this session will walk away with handouts, scripts, tools, surveys, and strategies to implement motivational interviewing techniques in their daily practice. By centering each family’s unique motivation for change, motivational interviewing provides a pathway for individualized service delivery that meets families where they are.

This session will focus on giving Early On providers the tools to empower families to be their child's best teacher and communication partner. We will review what core vocabulary is and how to easily implement it with our youngest learners throughout their day to increase communication.

Providers, consultants and administrators often struggle with the gap between what is required for a Medicaid plan of care and what is required for the child’s IFSP. This session will explore some of the reasons for the gap and possibilities for bridging it.

As the early intervention field sees an increase of families with elevated stressors and young children experiencing heightened challenges with social emotional well-being, home based programs provide an opportunity to promote maternal and child wellbeing with upstream promotion of healthy relationships to offset biopsychological adversity. This session will bring a specific discussion of the science of perinatal stress and trauma, and the impact healthy parent child interactions can have on the disruption of negative outcomes. This session will share new tips and tools participants can use to engage in quality parent child observation, evaluating the quality of observations, and strategies for sharing and using results with families to celebrate strengths and areas for growth.

Social-emotional learning and responsive and sensitive parenting go hand in hand in supporting young children’s development. As a home visitor, pairing this with other child-specific developmental strategies provides a strong social-emotional foundation. This session includes information to support social-emotional learning in the home, providing PBIS training to staff and families, receiving evidence-based resources, and gaining perspective from family outcomes.

This presentation will provide practical tips for trialing and using high tech AAC devices in the home environment. It will include coaching strategies as well as language targets and ideas for supporting adult caregivers who will be trialing the devices with children.

We all have a role to play in prevention, identification and management of childhood lead exposure. This session will cover common lead exposure sources, health effects of exposure, and interventions for lead exposed children, including early intervention services. Additionally, the session will prepare attendees to be more aware of potential lead exposure sources in children's environments and resources that can help remove or reduce risk of exposure.

How does our own "inner critic" interfere with our ability to build relationships with families and prevent us from feeling confident and competent? What can we do to manage and even "tame" our inner critic so that our work feels more fulfilling and joyful? This interactive workshop will support our awareness and understanding of our own inner critic and explore how grief or sadness can feed the critic. We will identify ways to acknowledge and "tame" our inner critic, using humor, brief journaling and optional small group sharing. Additionally, we will identify strategies to manage and tame the "inner critic" with compassion, care and even joy!

In Michigan, there is an increased prevalence of substance-exposed infants, highlighting the need for promotive strategies to optimize outcomes for prenatally-exposed infants and their families. This presentation will discuss how to implement Early Relational Health (ERH) supports in home-visiting work with substance-exposed infants and toddlers, as a strategy to mitigate the effects of toxic stress and foster resilience.

Registration Note: Please register for this post-conference session under 5A.

In the closing session, Dr. Stephanie Grant will talk about hope. As early childhood professionals, we are often the "holders of hope" for the families and children we work with, but it can be difficult at times to hold onto hope for ourselves and our work. Join Dr. Grant as she reflects on the short- and long-term impacts of the early childhood team and how to find hope for those we work with and for ourselves even in the most difficult times.