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Doug Powell

Keynote Address: What Should We do About Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care?

The most prevalent form of non-parental care for infants and toddlers is invisible, highly uneven in quality, and disconnected from traditional sources of training and support for caregivers. These conditions place at risk the healthy development of growing numbers of very young children. This keynote address described policy options and training models for improving the quality of family, friend, and neighbor care.

• Downloadable Resources: Keynote Presentation
• Keynote Workshop: Improving Access to High-Quality Training for Infant/Toddler Caregivers: Lessons From Implementing The Program for Infant Toddler Care in Three Midwest States
  • A major pathway to significant improvements in the lives of infants and toddlers is to increase access to high-quality training for their caregivers. The presenter described lessons from efforts to make WestEd’s Program for Infant Toddler Care available to all caregivers in every region of Minnesota and the Dakotas. The initiative was spearheaded by the Archibald Bush Foundation in collaboration with a range of partners, including state agencies, child care resource and referral programs, higher education, and early childhood professional groups. Implications of the initiative’s successes and challenges for Indiana are emphasized.

    Downloadable Resources: Handout

    About the Presenter:
    Douglas Powell has developed and evaluated educational support programs for early childhood educators and families with young children in diverse communities for more than three decades. His recent book, Who’s Watching the Babies? Improving the Quality of Family, Friend and Neighbor Care, received the Harris Award from Zero to Three Press. He is a distinguished professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University.

Keith Pentz

Keynote Address: The Impact of Play on Infant & Toddler Mental Health

The role of play in learning and child development has been documented historically through a variety of studies. The importance of mental health—particularly in the lives of infants and toddlers—has received significant support in the last few years. Examining the interconnectedness of infant and toddler play and mental health allows us to look at brain function, the learning process of the very young child, the emotional foundation for all higher order thought processes, and appropriate and optimal interactions, methods and practices for parents, caregivers, and other persons in the lives of all young children.

• Keynote Workshop: Project Play

  Playing with infants and toddlers requires more than just sitting the little one down with a toy or placing the child in a confined space to interact with whatever is there. Playing with infants and toddlers offers opportunities to notice, build self-identity, establish emotional health, encourage social engagement, increase vocabulary, foster resiliency, and stimulate cognitive functions. This session will incorporate a variety of play techniques, ideas, activities, interactions, and information to utilize immediately with any young child.

  About the Presenter:
  Keith, who began his career working with infants and toddlers, is a founding member of Project Play. Project Play is a developmental, play-based, and therapeutic behavior intervention program that works with young children who may have difficulties developmentally, cognitively, or socially/emotionally.

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Babies + Toddlers—Together? - Jane Harvey
Participants received a glimpse into a high quality mixed age infant-toddler classroom at Purdue. The history of the evolution from separate ages and the advantages of mixed age grouping was discussed. Presenters shared strategies for environmental engineering, staffing, and activities that are adaptable to different ages and stages.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenter
Jane Harvey is a supervisor of field experiences at the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University, where she supports the professional development of students majoring in early childhood education and early intervention. For 10 years, she served as a head teacher in an infant-toddler classroom at Purdue University, and she has worked with young children and their families for 35 years.

Relationships and Play: Getting to the Heart of NAEYC Early Childhood Standards for Infants and Toddlers - Peggy Apple and Mary McMullen
Attendees joined these presenters and explored the world of infant and toddler play and learned how NAEYC Early Childhood Standards are met in a relationship and play-based curriculum. Teachers, specialists, and administrators learned strategies to support play, build respectful relationships, and justify curriculum decisions. The session also included a brief overview of the center-based NAEYC Accreditation process related to infant and toddler criteria.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenters:
Peggy Apple, Ph.D. is the Education Program chair and an associate professor at Ivy Tech Community College –Central Indiana and a clinical associate professor of education at IUPUI. Peggy focuses on continuous quality improvement, leadership, and professional development in the early childhood community.

Mary McMullen, Ph.D., is a professor of early childhood education and the associate dean for Graduate Studies at the School of Education at Indiana University. Mary focuses on relationship-based practices in birth to five classrooms, teachers’ beliefs as they relate to practices, and teacher professional development in her research and practice.

Attachment and the Importance of Play - German Posada
The quality of child-caregiver attachment relationships are associated with key socialization outcomes in children. These relationships are constructed and elaborated in the context of everyday interactions and activities. Play is an important arena for children’s development and one in which important child-caregiver exchanges occur. The workshop addressed key concepts in the development of secure attachment relationships in the context of everyday interactions and play.

About the Presenter:
Dr. Posada's interests are in the area of social-emotional development, focusing on the study of child-parent attachment relationships and parenting. He is specifically interested in investigating the development of the secure base phenomenon, its relations to the quality of care giving and characteristics of the family (e.g., marital conflict and support), and children's behavioral outcomes. An important emphasis of his work is the study of those issues from a cross-cultural perspective. Similarly, a characteristic of his research is the use of observational methodologies in naturalistic settings (e.g., home, hospitals, and playgrounds). Dr. Posada also uses interview and questionnaire techniques, and occasionally brings participants to a laboratory context.

Tuning In: How to Help Infant-Toddler Caregivers and Parents Become More Sensitive & Responsive - Jim Elicker
Attendees learned about techniques you can use, or help parents or caregivers use, to become a more sensitive and responsive caregiver of infants and toddlers. They also discussed and practiced “tuning in” methods in an active, hands-on workshop.

About the Presenter:
Jim Elicker is an associate professor and director of Early Childhood Programs in Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University. He has been an early educator and child development researcher for 35 years. He completed his graduate studies at Harvard University and the University of Minnesota, receiving his Ph.D in 1991. He currently teaches classes at Purdue and directs the Child Development Laboratory Preschool and the Ben & Maxine Miller Child Learning Center. His research focuses on child care quality and young children’s interpersonal relationships in early childhood programs. Through Purdue University, he serves as an evaluator of Paths to QualityTM, a free and voluntary quality rating and improvement system for regulated child care providers in Indiana.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

The Power of Play and Family Relationships with Infants and Toddlers - Volker Thomas
The workshop focused on how parents (and caregivers) can use play to enhance the relationships with their infants and toddlers. Participants learned what kinds of play are developmentally appropriate for infants and toddlers and how they can be applied effectively. The workshop also demonstrated the relational context of playing with young children.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenter:
Dr. Volker Thomas is an associate professor of marriage and family therapy in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University. His research focuses on the effectiveness of interventions with at risk children and their families. Dr. Thomas has published and presented nationally and internationally on his work with children from infancy to adolescence.

I Want to Play, Too! Play Adaptations for Children With Special Needs - Ann Ruhmkorff, Betsy Traub, Lynné McGuire, and David Sterne
This workshop provided an overview of related legislation for children with special needs, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Parts B & C, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The workshop reviewed current research on inclusive settings and best practices for children with special needs. Participants explored ways to ensure that the child with special needs is included in daily routines and activities. The panel discussed ways to integrate First Steps services within the daily routines and activities of child care settings, with a focus on play adaptations for infants and toddlers. Through the use video or demonstration, participants observed specific play adaptations and modifications that they can use in their early childhood settings.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenters:
Ann Ruhmkorff has been involved in caring for and working with families and children with special needs for over 30 years as a nurse, faculty member and pediatric nurse practitioner. She has spent the last 10 years at ProKids, Inc. directing the First Steps programmatic training and quality review grants.

Betsy Traub has been a research associate with the Indiana Institute for Disability and Community (IIDC) at Indiana University since 1995. Her areas of expertise include: early intervention/first steps, home-visiting, infants and toddlers and infant/toddler competencies. Betsy is a co-author of many early intervention and school readiness publications, including Welcoming All Children: Creating Inclusive Child Care.

Lynné McGuire is director of curriculum and outreach for St. Mary’s Child Center in Indianapolis. Lynné has twenty years experience in community preschool inclusion for young children and working with children with special needs in the regular classroom. She previously worked as a preschool teacher in a public school system and as a developmental therapist for First Steps.

David Sterne has over 13 years experience with children from birth to 3 years of age as an infant/toddler teacher and a developmental therapist for First Steps for the past seven years. David provides services to children and families from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Continuity of Care-Panel Discussion - Amelia Galloway
Teachers shared valuable insights from their own practice. Director shared two working models and briefly share administrative implications.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenter:
Amelia Galloway is the director at IU’s Early Childhood Education Services at Campus View, where they began practicing continuity of care three years ago. The panel of teachers, including Jennifer Addleman, Samantha Sisk, Stacy Starr-Bex, Katayoun Hosseinzadeh, Amy Roche, Brandi Robertson, and Mona Tarighat, have all practiced relationship-based care with families and children ages zero to three.

Speaking of, for, and about Babies: Reflections on a Typical Day in High Quality Infant and Toddler Child Care - Mary McMullen
What is it like to be a baby in child care 8 hours a day 5 days per week? The presenter shared the results of her recently completed descriptive study of what life is like for infants and toddlers (birth to 18 months) during a typical day in high quality, center-based care. The typical day is described in terms of what babies experience during five major activities of the day: arriving/departing, eating or being fed, playing, sleeping, and changing.

About the Presenter:
Mary McMullen, Ph.D., is a professor of early childhood education and the associate dean for Graduate Studies at the School of Education at Indiana University. Mary focuses on relationship-based practices in birth to five classrooms, teachers’ beliefs as they relate to practices, and teacher professional development in her research and practice.

Amazing Baby Language Skills - Holly Geeslin
Participants gained an understanding of the amazing language skills of infants and toddlers. Attendees learned how intentional play can enhance and build upon baby language skills increasing their communication with parents and caregivers.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenter:
Holly Geeslin earned a Master of Arts degree from Indiana University in Speech-Language Pathology and a Master of Science degree from Purdue University in Audiology and Speech Sciences. She currently works for the Indiana School for the Deaf as a speech-language pathologist. Her areas of expertise include infants and toddlers, exceptional children, and child development. She serves on the OpCom Eligibility Determination Team for Central Indiana First Steps.

Multicultural Classroom Environments for Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children - Jasmine Zachariah and Nicole Griffin
It is important to help young children understand and value the diversity around them and give opportunities for powerful affirmations about who they are and how they are similar to and different from one another. This workshop covered areas on NAEYC standards on multiculturalism and how multiculturalism can be incorporated into the classroom environment. It is also included topics about teacher characteristics essential for promoting multicultural environments and guidelines for selecting multicultural materials for the different interest areas of the classroom. The multicultural environment rating scale developed to assess classroom environments was discussed during the workshop.

Downloadable Resources: Handout

About the Presenters:
Jasmine Zachariah is a doctoral candidate in early childhood education and co-teacher in the infant room at Indiana University’s Campus Children’s Center, in Bloomington. Her research involves the social emotional development and self-regulation of young children.

Nicole Griffin is co-teacher in the two's classroom at Indiana University's Campus Children's Center in Bloomington.

Pudue Touchpoints: The Brazelton ApproachTM - Julie Novak and Jenny Coddington
The Purdue Touchpoints - Brazelton Approach^TM is a practical approach which enhances the competence of parents and builds strong family-child relationships from prenatal through age two. The approach lays a vital foundation for children's healthy development.

About the Presenters:
Julie Novak has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Arts/Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from the University of Iowa and Doctorate from the University of San Diego with a focus on Family Health Research. She has seventy publications in peer reviewed journals and textbooks. Julie has held two endowed professorships and leadership positions at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Virginia. She has directed the Purdue School of Nursing Clinics for nine years and served as head of the nursing program and director of the doctoral program. Currently, Julie is serving in the Office of the Provost as Director of Service Learning Innovation and Scholarship. She has completed the Touchpoints training with Dr. Brazelton at Harvard University.

Jenny Coddington graduated from St. Francis in Peoria, completed her Master of Science in Nursing/Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at Duke University, and her Doctorate if Nursing Practices at Purdue University. She coordinates the Purdue PNP program and the Trinity Nursing Center for Child Health. She has also practiced as a PNP at the Family Health Clinic of Monon and the Arnett Clinic. Jenny has also completed the Touchpoints training with Dr. Brazelton at Harvard University.

Movement and Learning from Brain Perspective - Louise Chickie-Wolfe
Participants learned how movement enhances learning from a neurological perspective. Specific classroom strategies that encourage neural connections and facilitate memory and comprehension through play and physical actions were also explored. Participants were very active during this workshop.

About the Presenter:
Dr. Louise Chickie-Wolfe has been an educator for 35 years. She has taught at the preschool, elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels in the areas of general, special, and gifted education. For over 30 years, Dr. Chickie-Wolfe has been an adjunct professor at Purdue University Calumet at the graduate level in the School of Education. She trains teachers to work with children from birth through adolescense in the areas of emotional disturbance/behavior disorders, and learning disabilities, and teaches Differential Instruction and other general education courses.

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