Inclusive Early Childhood Education

Online Training 

This fall MCIE is partnering with Brookes Publishing to present an online training series on inclusive early childhood education.  The 5-part series will feature Brookes' authors who work in the area of early childhood special education in interactive one hour sessions. The presenters will highlight strategies from their books and provide insights on how to help young children be successful in inclusive settings.

Each session includes:

 Access to the live presentation

Q&A session with the presenter

A copy of the presenter's book

A certificate of attendance

Access to the recorded presentation 

 $49/session or $196 for the series

October 27, 2014

3-4pm ET

First Steps to Preschool Inclusion: How to Jumpstart Your Programwide Plan

Are you interested in preschool inclusion but unsure where to start? Are you curious about what preschool inclusion looks like and whether it really works? Are you wondering how to make inclusion work in your program or for your child? In this session, take your first steps toward becoming an informed consumer of preschool inclusion policies and research and learn how to work with others to make inclusion happen.

with Sarika S. Gupta, Ph.D.

  

Dr. Gupta is an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator with the Center for Technology in Education in Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education.  Her work focuses on data-driven decision-making in early childhood special education, with a focus on improving preschool inclusion.  Prior to CTE, Dr. Gupta blended teaching, research, and policy experiences over 15 years to promote preschool inclusion: she taught young children (0-5) with and without disabilities in typical and inclusive settings, coached Head Start teachers, worked at the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), and most recently prepared preservice professionals in George Mason University's Graduate Early Childhood Education program as a tenure-track faculty member.   Dr. Gupta has led numerous presentations focused on individualizing instruction for preschoolers with special needs and promoting young children’s social and emotional outcomes.  Her recent publications and ongoing projects, including her recently published book First Steps to Preschool Inclusion: How to Jumpstart your Programwide Plan, highlight her primary research interests in both preschool inclusion and leadership preparation in early childhood.

November 3, 2014

3-4pm ET

Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs

This session will introduce participants to the Building Blocks framework for supporting the successful inclusion of young children.  Building Blocks is a framework for planning and providing individualized support and instruction to preschoolers with special needs within inclusive preschool classrooms and other early learning environments. The foundation of this approach is a quality early childhood program. Guidelines for assessing one's own program and making changes to create a quality program for all children will be shared.

with Ilene S. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Dr. Schwartz is a professor in the Area of Special Education at the University of Washington and the Director of the Haring Center for Research and Training in Education at UW.  She earned her Ph.D. in child and developmental psychology from the University of Kansas and is a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA). Dr. Schwartz joined the UW faculty in 1991 and began her association with the Haring Center at that time.  She is dedicated to building inclusive schools and societies and views inclusion as the celebration of diversity put into action.  She is proud of what she and her colleagues have accomplished at the Haring Center, where research, training and service are integrated to provide world class early learning experiences to children with and without disabilities.  Dr. Schwartz is the director of Project DATA, a model preschool program for children with autism that has been in operation since 1997; and is currently involved in research projects examining the efficacy of the Project DATA model with toddlers and preschoolers with autism.

 November 10, 2014

3-4pm ET

Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children: The Early Childhood Model of

Individualized Positive Behavior Support

 Are you interested in effectively resolving challenging behaviors with young children? This session will describe the research-based approach Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children. A model for developing and implementing behavior plans will be presented. Preventing challenging behaviors, teaching new skills, proactive communication, and social skills and reinforcing positive behavior will also be discussed.

with Kelly Wilson, B.S.  and Janice K. Lee, M.Ed.

Kelly Wilson provides training and focused support to staff, teachers, and families in the Pyramid Model and challenging behaviors using the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) process. Previously, Ms. Wilson worked for the University of Colorado Denver for 13 years as a research assistant. She spent 5 years working on PTR research by supporting staff, teachers, and families with children with severe and persistent challenging behavior. She also worked as a consultant for Learning Experiences: An Alternative Program for Preschoolers and Parents (LEAP) Outreach Project, providing consultation in early childhood to preschools and elementary schools serving children with autism and challenging behaviors. She has extensive experience as a trainer, coach, and mentor, and she specializes in challenging behavior and inclusive education. 

Janice K. Lee is a member of the research faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she is the research coordinator for the randomized control trial of PTR-YC in Northern Nevada. In her role with Positive Behavior Support-Nevada, she is the coordinator for the statewide initiative to bring programwide Pyramid Model implementation and information to nearly all early care and education settings throughtout the state. Her experiences and interests include early childhood, challenging behavior, positive behavior support, social and emotional development, autism, and working with families. Since 1995, she has worked with children, families, practitioners, and professionals at the local, state, and national level as a consultant, coach, trainer, and technical assistance provider.

November 17, 2014

3-4pm ET

Making Preschool Inclusion Work: Strategies for Supporting Children, Teachers, and Programs

Preschool inclusion is about more than the child’s placement in the preschool setting. This session will describe how to develop the network of creative, effective supports necessary for the child to be successful in that setting.

with Anne Marie Richardson-Gibbs, M.A.

Anne Marie Richardson-Gibbs is an early childhood special educator and  has provided inclusion services for the past twenty years in both community-based preschool and public school settings. Currently Ms. Richardson-Gibbs works for the El Monte City School District providing inclusion support to preschool and early elementary aged children with disabilities. Ms. Richardson-Gibbs has been the director of an early intervention program providing services to infants, toddlers and their families from the East Los Angeles community and worked as a statewide early intervention program specialist for the California Department of Education. She was the training coordinator for Project Support, a federally funded personnel training grant, creating inclusion support inservices, training videos and a manual for early childhood special educators. Ms. Richardson-Gibbs has taught ECSE classes at California State University, Los Angeles and served as chairperson for both the Infant Development Association of California and the Los Angeles Early Intervention Directors' Forum. She continues to provide trainings and inservices for Head Start and school district personnel on inclusion support, behavior management, and autism and developmental delays in young children.

November 24, 2014

3-4pm ET

CARA’s Kit for Toddlers: Creating Adaptations for Routines and Activities

Rather than intervening directly with children, environment-based instruction changes the environment so that children can participate and learn. Environment-based instruction may be classroom-wide (i.e., used to support all children) or individually-designed to help a particular child be successful in typical activities and routines. This session will feature a tiered model included in CARA's Kit as a basis for making systematic and intentional decisions about the types and complexities of environment-based practices to try. 

with Suzanne A. Milbourne, Ph.D.

Dr. Milbourne is the Director for the Delaware Early Childhood Assistive Technology Demonstration (DECATD), a five-year, federally funded project awarded in January 2013 to the University of Delaware, Center for Disabilities Studies.  She previously served as the project coordinator for the Tots N’ Tech Research Institute an inter-university collaboration with a mission to provide up-to-date information and resources about adaptations, including assistive technology, to use with infants and toddlers for states, early intervention providers of all disciplines, and families across the country. Dr. Milbourne is the co-author of the highly regarded CARA’s Kit for Preschoolers (2007), its companion 2012 Toddler version and the TAM Technology Fan for Young Children (2006).  Her favorite topics to teach include inclusion – a process not a place, supporting children’s’ participation through the use of adaptations, assistive technology, and universal design and human-environment-behavior interactions. Dr. Milbourne is most proud of having served as a trusted role model who inspires, encourages, influences, challenges, and facilitates the growth and development of others’ goals and aspirations.

REGISTER NOW!