2019 Summit
The 2019 Early Childhood Summit took place on September 12-14 at West Shoe Community College. The 4th annual Summit included the first pre-Summit evening reception for local leaders. This reception honored local early childhood leaders, including Nicole Paul of West Shore ESD who received the 2019 Champion for Childhood Award. Friday and Saturday were filled with interactive keynote addresses, breakout sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Kristie Pretti-Frontczak is a {r}evolutionary speaker, researcher, and play advocate. Through podcasts, blogs, and trainings, she supports the mind, body, and heart of early childhood educators. With nearly three decades of educational experience and several years of social leadership practice, Kristie cultivates real change within educational organizations. She instills an impressive sense of joy, humor, and fun in creating best practices that start from within, empowering teachers and leaders to spread wellness both in and beyond the classroom walls. Kristie’s work also centers on raising the emotional intelligence of educational leaders, including those forging a P-3/P-5 bridge. By raising the emotional intelligence of educational leaders, kinder, more equitable, and more inclusive schools are built. Through her delivery of transformative professional development Kristie addresses and supports the wholeness of the adult professional and helps leaders create school cultures that ensure all children experience a sense of belonging. Kristie spent 16 years, as faculty, at Kent State University and now trains and coaches early childhood educators worldwide. Kristie is a Past President of the Division for Early Childhood and has published extensively in peer-referenced journals and is an author/co-author of over 10 books and monographs. You can access her latest solutions at http://kristiepf.com and download her manifesto at https://kristiepf.com/manifesto
Attendees
Participants included child care providers, preschool teachers, early interventionists, home visitors, and parents. There was an average number of 169 participants for the event representing 11 Michigan counties. Scholarships covered the cost of attendance for 113 participants.
Breakout Sessions
Dr. Kristie Pretti-Frontczak:
Brain Development & Relationships: Utilizing the latest research on brain development and capitalizing upon relationships to ensure all children thrive.
Teaching in the Messy Middle: Knowing how to pinpoint why children are struggling or development has stalled and what to do about it.
Becky Stoessner:
Mastering the Mixed Age Group: Research indicates clear benefits of continuity of care for children under 3, which naturally leads infant- toddler programs to offer multi-age classrooms or care groupings. This session emphasizes strategies for developing a high quality mixed-age model for infant-toddler care.
Children & Stress: Stress can come from many different sources and have different results. Sometimes stress can be positive, and sometimes it can have devastating effects. Learn to identify the signs of stress and use appropriate strategies to respond to stress in children’s lives.
Consequences Without Rewards or Punishments: Research shows that punishments and reward systems as tools for behavior management can actually undermine our goal of self-regulation and self-esteem for children. This workshop focuses on the theory behind behavior guidance and provides effective tools to respond to undesirable and unacceptable behavior while encouraging responsibility and self-control.
Jessica Wimmer:
Just for You: Participants will explore an easy to use 4-step process to ensure they are taking care of themselves so they can provide high-quality and meaningful care to others. There is no better time than now to start your self-care plan. You owe it to yourself and others.
Lisa Kimes
Sensory to Diffuse: We absorb what is happening in the world around us through our senses. Our brain takes the information and filters it according to importance. If one has a sensory disorder or autism spectrum disorder, this process is very difficult. We will discuss strategies that can help diffuse our children as well as experience some simulations to try and experience what our children may feel.
Jo Gordon-Anderson
Sensory Processing: Participants will learn many strategies in how to help these children learn to handle routines, schedules, and be able to participate in everyday activities. The activities learned in this presentation work well with all children as we all “March to the Beat of our Sensory System”.
Busy Hands, Busy Brains: This presentation will discuss the link between development of the hand and the brain. There are lots of fine motor activities shared along with the most important aspects of hand development for function and how they tell us what is happening in the brain.
Allison Nelson
Integrating Strategies for Emotional Regulation into Everyday Life: This session will highlight the importance of helping young children develop skills necessary for emotional regulation. It will equip participants with the knowledge and tools necessary to teach and integrate strategies for increasing self-awareness, self-management, and self-regulation into their unique settings. Special emphasis will be given to working with children who have been exposed to trauma.
Thank you to the following sponsors!