1. Building A Relationship When Relating is Hard
Jennifer Paget, RDI® Program Certified Consultant
This workshop will examine some of the social, communication, play, and regulation behaviors that make it difficult to build relationships with some infants and toddlers. We will discuss different ways to interpret and think about these behaviors as well as some strategies for building more dynamic guiding relationships with the children that have them. We will use video clips to enhance the discussion.
2. Rational Person: Irrational Parent
Leslie Koplow, Director, Center for Emotionally
Responsive Practice, Bank Street College
Why do perfectly sane people act so irrationally as parents? This workshop will explore intergenerational issues that make parenthood complex for so many people!
3. The Pushes and Pulls of Working with Toddlers
Mary Ellis Schreiber, Early Childhood Consultant
Toddlers need to explore and develop independence. They also need adults to provide a safe and nurturing environment. Conflicting goals can occasionally perplex both toddlers and their caregivers. Participants will share their experiences. Supportive strategies will be discussed.
4. Mixed Age Groups √ A Natural Setting for Infants and Toddlers
Amy Flynn, Director, Bank Street Family Center
The Bank Street Family Center has always had mixed-age groups for infants and toddlers. This model provides a nurturing, caring and educational environment that supports all children≠s development. This workshop includes video and slide presentations that demonstrate concrete strategies for making mixed-age groups successful.
5. Parents and Home Visitors as Partners in Supporting Children≠s Growth and Development in the Context of the Home
Quincy Adams, Child Development Specialist,
Queens Child Guidance Center
Home visitors can engage parents in seeing their children through the process of Observation, Reflection, and Planning (ORP). A description and demonstration of a variety of tools to use throughout the ORP process will be provided. Effective techniques will be discussed, such as: video, anecdotal records, and photographs.
6. The Infant Brain: What We Do Early Can Make a Difference Forever
Karen Tarnow, Adjunct Professor, Westchester Community College
New brain imaging techniques and scientific study have uncovered information about brain development. Some of this new knowledge˘involving critical periods for vision, language, cognition, motor skills and other areas of development˘will be discussed, as well as the role the environment plays in synapse formation in the developing brain.
7. Creating Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books for Young Children
Robie H. Harris, Children≠s Book Author
Using her experience of creating fiction and nonfiction picture books for young children, Harris will discuss the art and craft of writing stories that mirror the ups and downs of young children≠s daily lives. She will make the case that that the powerful feelings and questions and concerns most children have are perfectly normal and that it matters, even for our youngest children, that the stories we create ring true to them.
8. Routines: The Bread and Butter of Daily Life
Mary Biggs, Owner/Director, Under Cottonwood
Child Care Center, Ithaca, NY
Martina Proctor, Teacher, Basic Trust Infant and
Toddler Center, New York City
In this workshop we will discuss how we can use routines as
opportunities for infant/toddler learning. We will also consider the role that teachers play in creating routines.
9. Finding the Intersect of Language and Affect: How Interdisciplinary Dialogue Informs DIR Intervention
Gilbert Foley, Ed.D., Professor of School-Clinical Child Psychology, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, NY
Sima Gerber, Ph.D.-CCC, Professor of Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY
The presenters will illustrate how young children≠s developmental needs can be addressed by considering the crossroads between language and emotions. The Œdialogue≠ between a DIR psychologist and speech-language pathologist will illustrate how the thinking in each discipline is enhanced by a collaborative process. Clinical vignettes and videos of typical young children and those with problems in relating and communicating will be presented. Interventions will be discussed.
3:30 - 5:00 PM/Presentation/Open to all
What Every Infant/Toddler Educator Needs to Know About Biting
Gretchen Kinnell, Director of Education, Child Care Solutions
In this session we will look at developing a powerful perspective on biting and how to use that perspective to understand and respond to toddler biting effectively. You will learn strategies to prevent biting, ways to help the child who bites, and suggestions to help the bitten child. This session will be full of practical ideas and is based on the presenter≠s book, No Biting! Policy and Practice for Toddler Programs.
Dr. Jon Snyder, Dean, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Keynote Address: Arietta Slade, Ph.D.
Reflective Parenting: What Is It and How Can We Help Families Develop It?
This keynote will define the notion of parental reflective functioning, discuss the contexts in which it develops or is disrupted, and consider strategies for enhancing it within clinical and educational settings.
Dr. Slade is a Professor of Clinical and Developmental Psychology at the City University of New York, and Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Study Center. A clinician, researcher, and teacher, she has published widely in a number of areas, including the development of parental reflective functioning, and the relational contexts of play and early symbolization.
10. Keynote Breakout
Arietta Slade, PhD
This session will provide an opportunity to have a more intensive dialogue with Dr. Slade. Participants will be able to explore additional critical issues and research related to supporting parental reflection function.
11. What Caregivers and Teachers Need to Know About Brain Development
Elizabeth Tingley, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
This workshop will cover the basic principles of brain development in terms that make sense to infant-toddler professionals. It will also begin a dialogue about how to translate this knowledge into best practices with infants and toddlers.
12. Caring for Infants and Their Families
Jennifer McGregor, Assistant Director,
Rockefeller University Child and Family Center
Caring for infants also means caring for their families. What does infant care look like when you keep families in mind? In this workshop, we will discuss ways to support infants and their families from teachers≠ and administrators≠ perspectives.
13. How Do You Accept Differing Ideas About Raising Children?
Tanya N. Miller, Early Childhood Special Education Consultant
Adults often experience a powerful range of emotions when caring for young children. We will discuss some of the factors that inform our personal ideas about child rearing, the events or circumstances that elicit our ideas, and some strategies for accepting differing feelings, ideas, and practices.
14. Helping Parents to Read with Their Babies and Toddlers
Susan Straub, Director, The Read To Me Program
Attempts to share books with infants and toddlers are often frustrating for families not accustomed to reading or conversing with their babies. Conference participants will see and experience enjoyable ways of encouraging families to read with their babies and toddlers.
15. Look What You Can See!
Michelle Barnea, Early Childhood Consultant
Careful and focused observations of infants and toddlers can provide amazing information about how they develop and learn. Using video clips of these youngest children at play, this workshop will help caregivers to look for and enhance the learning moments that happen in their settings each day.
16. Reflective Supervision and Playdough Making: Fertile Ground for Creative Interventions
Carla Poole, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate
School of Education
In this workshop we will view videotape vignettes of a caregiver making playdough with one and two-year-olds and the subsequent discussions of the activity with her supervisor. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss their own reactions, thoughts and questions around reflective supervision.
17. Block Building for Two Year Olds
Judi Gentry, Head Teacher, Bank Street Family Center
In this workshop we will look at children≠s exploration of the material as well as the developmental stages that children progress through as they work towards representational structures. We will also discuss the connectedness of block building to social skills, early language, early math, and problem solving skills.
18. You Are The Songleader!
Betsy Blachley, Music Specialist, Bank Street Family
Center and School for Children, certified music therapist
Increase your song repertoire and group music time strategies. Gain confidence in making up songs and using music to strengthen connections with children, families, and colleagues. Video and music materials will be utilized. Bring a guitar or tape recorder, if possible.
The Bank Street Family Center - A Model of a Community and Inclusive Center Based Program
Amy Flynn, Director, Bank Street Famiy Center
Valentina Repola and Tarima Levine, Co-directors, Bank Street Home/Community Based Special Education Programs
This presentation will include a video and slide presentation and discussion of the inclusive childcare, home, and community settings offered at Bank Street College.
Reflective Practice: Exploring Across Disciplines What We Bring to Our Work with Children and Their Families
Betty Ablon, Kirsten DeBear, Carla Poole
This extended day seminar will explore the power of attuned relationships with children and other adults. Kirsten DeBear, an occupational therapist, and Carla Poole, a special educator, will offer case presentations of their work with children and parents. Betty Ablon, a social worker, will facilitate discussions and activities that explore the concept of reflective practice and how it impacts on relationships. She and Carla Poole will also demonstrate a ≥fish bowl≈ supervision session about Carla≠s long-term work with a single father and his son.
19. Staff Meetings that Build Commitment, Community, and Communication
Jean Mandelbaum, Director, All Souls School, NYC
Directors and Supervisors will discuss how staff meetings can be used to clarify a center≠s values and goals and enable staff to meet these expectations. Participants will be given guidelines and handouts to help them design a variety of workshops and other interactive meetings for a staff with teachers at varying stages of their professional development.
20. Understanding and Supporting Bilingual Language Development in Infants and Toddlers
Nilda Bayron-Resnick, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate
School of Education
This presentation will explore key concepts in first and second language acquisition of infants and toddlers. Strategies for supporting second language development will be discussed along with the role that service providers play in helping children and their families during the second language learning process.
21. Identifying and Supporting Early Language Development
Phyllis Fabricant, Speech Pathologist, Private Practice and Bank Street Family Center
Teachers are often the first professionals to identify feeding, speech, and language delays. This workshop will enhance your skills and offer practical suggestions.
22. Building a Different Nest Egg
Ritamarie Giosa, Child Care Health Consultant
Coordinator, Camden County, NJ, Department of Children≠s Services
Quality caregiving for infants and toddlers requires a tremendous amount of ongoing adult emotional availability. Since we cannot give what we do not have, nurturing the Self is critical to success. This workshop will examine how change and stress unsettles our focus. Strategies to use in building an emotional reserve will be featured.
23. What 'Cha Got Cooking'?
Debbie Silver, Director of Professional Development,
Child Care Resources of Rockland County, NY
We can, and should, cook with toddlers if we plan simply and in a developmentally appropriate way. Experience toddler cooking activities as you would set it up in your program.
24. Engaging and Working with Families with Complex Needs and their Young Children
Basia Kinglake, Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health, NY
Donna Morrison, Director of Early Childhood Services, The Guidance Center, New Rochelle, NY
Basia Kinglake, Donna Morrison, and a Family Ties representative will present on the core values and principles that drive the early childhood system of care in Westchester County. They will offer suggestions on how to engage families with complex needs, including mental health challenges, substance abuse, and developmental disabilities. The workshop will include small and whole group activities and discussions, a power point presentation, and the voices of family members.
25. No! Mine!
Elizabeth Tingley, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate
School of Education
Toddlers are developing an important sense of self, which is reflected in their saying ≥No!≈ and ≥Mine!≈ At the same time, this phase can be difficult to accept and hard to manage in group care. This workshop will explore why children need to assert themselves and how to help them do so in positive and appropriate ways.
26. Talking Without Words: Nonverbal Alternatives for Better Communication with Toddlers
Gina King, Movement Specialist, Christ Church Day School
A continuous flow of nonverbal communication forms the foundation of our relationship with each toddler we work with. In this workshop we will learn how to become more aware of what we give and receive through posture, gestures, tone of voice, and expressions. We will learn how to use music to refine our own nonverbal communication skills. Through this process we will explore how to bolster children≠s self-regulation skills and increase our repertoire of management skills.
27. "Stolen Childhoods": Supporting Infants, Toddlers and Their Parents Who Have Experienced Early Trauma
Khadijah Muhammad, Director, Early Head Start Health Federation of Philadelphia
Fairy tales and nursery rhymes give the illusion that the early years of life are carefree and full of bliss. For so many young children this is far from their experience. Our work with young children and families often includes dealing with the harsh realities of community and family violence. This workshop will explore how such early traumatic experiences impact children≠s development, shaping their view of themselves and their relationships with others. We will discuss strategies to support their parents and caregivers.
28. Little Ones and the Library
Leslie A. Fass, Early Childhood Literacy Specialist,
The New York Public Library
Public libraries across the country offer programs and services for little ones from birth to age three, as well as outreach initiatives to their parents and caregivers. Discover how libraries are working to support literacy and language growth in young children.
29. Understanding and Supporting Bilingual Language Development in Infants and Toddlers
Nilda Bayron-Resnick, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Repeat of A.M. session.
30. Exploring Sensory Activities for Toddlers
Debbie Silver, Director of Professional Development, Child Care Resources of Rockland County, NY
Explore sensory and art activities that you can use in your program. Have fun with paint, tearing, scrunching, glue, and bubbles, to name a few.
31. Identifying and Supporting Early Language Development
Phyllis Fabricant, Speech Pathologist, Private Practice and Bank Street Family Center
Repeat of A.M. session.
32. What's So Important About Play?
Nancy Balaban, Faculty, Bank Street Graduate School of Education
Explore what children are learning when they play and the nature of the teacher≠s support.
33. So, How is My Child Doing?
Discussing Child Development with Parents
Ellen Healy, Regional Manager, Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Discussing child development with parents can be stressful, especially if there are concerns about the child. Participants will consider the kinds of information to gather and ways to prepare for sensitive conferences with parents.
34. Infant Massage: Understanding the Role Touch Plays in the Lives of Children
Clare St Catherine, Certified Educator Infant Massage (CEIM); Group Teacher, Helen Owen Carey, Park Slope North Child Development Center, NY
Jeannine Hobbes, International Association of Infant Massage Trainer, Certified Educator Infant Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist
Infant Massage is a wonderful way to augment the important early relationship between parent and infant. Massage helps maintain the emotional and physical well being of babies and relieve colic and other symptoms of infant stress.