Infant and Early Childhood Conference

May 6, 2009 - Preconference
May 7 & 8, 2009 - Conference and Exhibits
Greater Tacoma Convention Center, Tacoma, WA

Featured Presenters
   Donna Beegle
   Ann Turnbull
   Douglas Clements
   Gay Lloyd Pinder
   Ilene Schwartz
   Virginia Buysse and Pat Wesley
   Marvena Williams

Presenters Application

Donna Beegle
Oregon

Special Keynote Presentation: Friday, May 9
Donna M. Beegle, Ed.D. is a highly experienced National public speaker, discussion leader, trainer, and the author of “See Poverty, Be The Difference,” a resource book for professionals who work with people in poverty. Donna has worked and written articles providing insights and strategies for communicating more effectively across race, class, gender and generational barriers for 17 years. Donna’s inspiring story and work have been featured in newspapers around the nation, on local TV and on National programs such as PBS. Her work on poverty is being featured in an upcoming PBS documentary titled: Invisible Nation (air date will be posted on our website when confirmed). Donna has worked with educators, justice professionals, health care providers, social service agencies, and other organizations all over the nation who want to make a difference for those living in the crisis of poverty.

Ann Turnbull
Kansas

Special Keynote Presentation: Thursday, May 8
Ann Turnbull is the Co-Director of the Beach Center on Disability and a Professor in the Department of Special Education at The University of Kansas. She has authored 12 books, and two (now in 5th edition) are leading textbooks in the field of special education. Additionally, she has authored approximately 200 articles, chapters, and monographs. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The Arc of the U.S. Additionally, she is the Past President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Ann received the Century Leadership Award in Mental Retardation which was given by The National Historic Preservation Trust (a consortium of seven national organizations in the field of mental retardation) in 1999. This award was given to 36 individuals who had made the most significant contributions to changing the course of history in mental retardation during the 20th Century. Ann’s primary expertise on the topic of participant direction of Medicaid comes from having implemented this approach with her son, JT, who is “living his life to the fullest” in a highly inclusive and self-determined way.

Douglas Clements
New York

Preconference Presentation: Wednesday, May 7
Douglas H. Clements is Professor of early childhood, mathematics, and computer education at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, where he was granted the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. Previously a kindergarten teacher for five years and a preschool teacher for one year, he has conducted research and published widely in the areas of the learning and teaching of geometry, computer applications in mathematics education, the early development of mathematical ideas, and the effects of social interactions on learning. He has published over 100 refereed research studies, 8 books, 50 chapters, and 250 additional publications. He is a member of President Bush's National Math Advisory Panel and of the The National Academies/National Research Council's Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics.

Currently, Dr. Clements is Principal Investigator on a large scale research project, Scaling Up TRIAD: Teaching Early Mathematics for Understanding with Trajectories and Technologies funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), as part of the IERI program (Interagency Educational Research Initiative, a federal partnership of the IES, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development NICHD, and the National Science Foundation, NSF

A special thank you to Don Meyer for his Thursday keynote presentation. Click here to read more about the Sibling Support Project.

Gay Lloyd Pinder
Washington

Preconference Presentation: Wednesday, May 7
Gay Lloyd Pinder, Ph.D. is a Speech Langauge pathologist who has specialized for the past 30 years in working with infants and young children with neuromuscular disorders and the feeding and communication problems associated with those disorders. She is a co-founder and staff member at Children's Therapy Center in Kent, a neuromuscular center serving children of all ages and their families. Dr. Pinder is a certified instructor in the Neurodevelopmental Treatment Association (NDTA) and has tought workshops and courses nationally and internationally. Her therapy is child-centered and family-focused and is based on a holistic perspective of development.

Ilene Schwartz
University of Washington

Preconference: Wednesday, May 7
Ilene S. Schwartz, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Washington in the area of special education. Dr. Schwartz has an extensive background working with young children with special needs, especially with young children with autism and other disabilities.

Dr. Schwartz is the faculty advisor for the inclusive preschool and kindergarten programs at the Experimental Education Unit at the University of Washington, where she maintains an active line of research and personnel preparation activities. Dr. Schwartz is Principal Investigator of several projects, including a model demonstration project to develop school-based services for young children with autism, a research project to assess the differential effectiveness of school programs for young children with autism, and a personnel preparation program for early childhood education teachers who work with children with severe disabilities in inclusive settings.

Dr. Schwartz has published numerous chapters and articles about early childhood education and social validity. She serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Early Intervention and Topics in Early Childhood Special Education.

Virginia Buysse and Pat Wesley
North Carolina

Special Presentation: Friday, May 9
RTI Goes to Pre-K: An Early Intervening System Called Recognition & Response. This session will provide a conceptual framework for an early childhood model of RTI called Recognition & Response (R&R). We will present key issues related to implementing R&R in early education programs that enroll 3-5 year-olds, and share a literacy intervention linked to screening and progress monitoring methods that can be used as part of R&R. Workshop session participants will be assisted in applying these concepts through the use of resources, small group activities, and collaborative problem-solving.

About the presenter: Virginia Buysse, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She serves as PI on a grant funded by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation to develop Recognition and Response (R&R), an early intervening system for pre-kindergarten adapted from Response to Intervention (RTI). She also serves as PI on the Nuestros Ni–os Early Language and Literacy Project, funded by IES to examine the effects of professional development on teaching practices and language and literacy outcomes of Latino four-year-olds, and as Co-PI on two National Early Childhood Professional Development Centers funded by OSEP. Next year, she will serve as President-Elect of the Division of Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children. She is the co-author of Consultation in Early Childhood Settings (2005) and co-editor of Evidence-Based Practice in the Early Childhood Field (2006).

Marvena Williams
North Carolina

Preconference Presentation: Wednesday, May 7
Rainy Day Fun for Preschoolers, presented by Marvena Williams, BA Psychology & Infant Toddler Specialist
It’s raining It’s pouring but inside it’s soaring with the magic of Rainy Day Fun. Come be apart of an exciting interactive workshop that looks at fresh ways to keep young children entertained when it’s raining outside or when you’re just in the mood for some super fun. We explore rainy day activities for music and movement, arts and crafts and story time. Participants will discover how to spice up some favorite rainy day activities and even learn

Marvena is an experience early childhood trainer, speaker and teacher. She presented a shorter version of this session at the 2006 Infant and Early Childhood Conference. Participants overwhelmingly requested that she return in 2007 to present a full day preconference session. She has twelve years experience in the early childhood industry and has held various positions in the field from teacher to Infant Toddler Family Specialist. In 2005 she started Shiloh Training Center and is currently conducting workshops nation wide. Recently, Marvena was chosen by the local Smart Start to do a series of trainings on Social Emotional Development in young children.