Course Offerings

Playful Minds: The Power of Playing Games:

Engage children of all ages, from babies to school-aged children in meaningful play by introducing age-appropriate games as a way to embed opportunities for building language, social, and emotional skills as well as executive function skills. Early learning to learn skills such as joint attention, turn-taking, task initiation, task completion, and perseverance are just a few of the skills that are naturally strengthened as children play games with peers. Remember the classics – Tic Tac Toe, Red Light/Green Light, Red Rover, and Old Maid? Let’s dust them off and play with a purpose!

Tame Challenging Behavior PAINS: A 5 Step Process for co-Regulating and Nurturing Appropriate Behavior 2.5 hour class

Nurturing children and supporting them as they develop socially and emotionally as well as with their language is a key component of early care. In this course, teachers will learn an acronym for PAINS to help them remember the top 5 things they can do to facilitate appropriate behavior. Additionally, teachers will access the Pyramid Model library with many resources as they continue to set their learning communities up for success.

Cradle to 4k: Fine Motor Development Secrets OT’s Wish You Knew for Self-Help and Handwriting 2.5 hour class

From birth babies are acquiring motor skills necessary for future self-feeding, pulling up pants, buttoning, cutting, coloring, and writing! As Early Childhood professionals we know some children have amazing fine motor skills and others can’t tie their shoes until 3rd grade, but WHY? Come roll the dice and learn some fine motor development correlations and secrets Occupational therapists wish you understood. You’ll leave understanding the WHY and doing handwriting from cradle to 4k without doing handwriting!

First 1000 Days of Speech-Language Skills: Nurture, Detect, and Develop with 4 Proven Strategies 2.5 hour class

Early speech and language identification is imperative to helping children understand language, use language to communicate, and have meaningful conversations. So how do we increase our conversational turn taking, our play skills and reading books so children build language fluency?

Organic Sign Language for Social Emotional Understanding 1 hour class

Early childhood professionals will understand how using songs, books and play offer organic opportunities to use sign language. Sign language is a visual, tactile and kinesthetic way for children to hear and understand feelings and expectations. Sign language is a useful tool for babies through 5 year olds as we seek to nurture and guide children throughout their day.

The Power of Storytelling: Boosting Language, Literacy, and Social-Emotional Growth 2.5 hour class

Storytelling builds oral language, strengthens emergent literacy, promotes social-emotional learning, and is culturally sustaining. Come see how a speech-language therapist reads a book to promote speech, language and deep literacy skills for explicit instruction in the science of reading foundations.

Executive Function Skills: 2.5 hour class

Participants will learn the top 5 executive function skills that  give them success in their future school environment. Joint attention, turn taking, impulse control, task  initiation and task completion are all addressed. Highly engaging and very sought after. Many  children are labeled as behavioral problems when they need a loving adult who helps them develop  these social and emotional skills for a successful experience in the childcare, preschool, early  education years or after school setting.  

It’s Lonely at the Top: 2.5 hour class

Professional development for leaders and directors. Fun and engaging  course in which leadership will bond and learn to lean on one another as they process day to day  decisions and challenges. Professionals will have a better understanding of how to foster and model  healthy social skills such as greeting and bidding farewells, encouraging one another and sharing  high’s and challenges. Professionals will also have a growth mindset as they look to learn and grow as  a leader as well as listen to understand and see the positives in situations.  

Robinhood, the Electric Slide and Language Acquisition: 2 or 5 hour class

Throughout this lively course,  participants will use the line dance Electric Slide to learn and grow in their understanding of  language development in infancy through after school age students. Participants in each age group  will understand the milestones and functional strategies they can employ daily to assist children in  listening, understanding, and expressing language. Helping professionals understand and use visual  schedules, sign language as well as a picture system helps all children express their wants and needs  as well as commenting and answering questions for future academic success. This class strongly  emphasizes inclusion best practices at every level of childcare.  

Why Sign Language is Vital to Language Development: 2.0 hr. class

From babies to late talkers,  children with Down syndrome or on the Autism Spectrum, early childhood professionals should know  the power of nonverbal communication as well as sign language. Sign language is highly functional,  and imitation of motions leads to imitation of sounds. In this interactive course, professionals will learn  over 50 signs to use in the classroom to boost language as well as support visual learners with cues for  the next right behavior or choice! Using sign language helps all children but especially those who are  neurodiverse as they need the visual and tactile cues to know what is happening next or what  directions to follow. Your teachers will love this course and even after-school teachers enjoy this class  as a new fun thing to teach children and use when practicing spelling words!  

Speech and Language Basics: 2-hour class

During this class teachers will be given an overview of all  the domains of speech therapy. From Language, articulation, voice, pragmatics, and stuttering will  be discussed. As teachers learn the overview and red flags therapist’s look for, they will be able to  better identify children who need to be screened by a Speech-Language Pathologist. As  professionals are more familiar with the types of speech delays, they also become an advocate for the child to be included in the childcare setting and see the need to help build friendships between  children with special needs and typically developing peers.  

Understanding ASD: 2.0/5.0-hour class.

This class should be mandatory for every leader, teacher,  teaching assistant in your center! 1 in 49 children are being identified as a child on the Autism  Spectrum. Your staff will not only learn how a child is diagnosed by a professional but also be able to  see early the behaviors that are traditionally seen in a child on the spectrum. Through a case study  of a child with ASD, the facilitator takes the “scary” that many childcare professionals feel and gives  them strategies and ways to help the child succeed in the childcare setting. Early detection and  consistent routines and loving professionals aid in a child reaching his full potential. This course has  many video clips that help your teachers connect the content to real life in the classroom!  

Sensory Processing 101: 2.0-hour class

More and more children are presenting as children with  sensory needs. Many teachers think sensory bins are all there is to helping them. In this course we will  delve into sensory seeking behavior, sensory defensiveness and children who have a mix of needs.  While children on the spectrum may have sensory needs, so do typically developing children and  children who were premature. Knowing and understanding these behaviors and how to help  children get what they need reduces negative and challenging behavior. These strategies, when  implemented correctly help with inclusion but also help all children in the childcare setting. Literacy  and sensory bin connections and extensions for immediate classroom implementation will be shared  and developed. Teachers often leave this class with behavior management tools that are powerful  and truly change their classroom environments.  

The Golden Circle of Social Emotional Development: The Why, How and What 2.5 hour class

Is your staff  dealing with more challenging behaviors since Covid 19? Do you want them to understand Why we  need to help children develop social-emotional skills? How and what to focus on when providing  support and interactions that shape their future? This class is for you and every early childhood  professional as well as the parents of these young children!  

We will dive into the Pyramid Model of why social emotional development is a hallmark foundational  skill for every child while looking at how as early childhood professionals we can build nurturing and  responsive environments where children feel supported. Finally, we will get practical and discuss the  top three things every teacher from birth to 5 can do to help foster social and emotional skills to  create emotional intelligence and problem-solving skills. Shaping children’s behavior and responses is  critical for friendship and school success!  

Don’t miss part 2 of this course for a total of 5 hours of training on this topic.