​ 2024 ​

Meet and Greet Networking Event

THE SHAY HOTEL​

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Cutting Edge ADHD Medication from Around the World

Lance Steinberg, MD

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Little Kids, Big Worries: Discussion

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Little Kids, Big Worries: Building resilience to face anxiety in young children

Lisa Brauer, MFT

In the last few years all of us have experienced extenuating circumstances that have challenged our sense of safety in the world. From COVID isolation to wars that impact our families and communities, we are surrounded by anxiety-producing news.​

 

How does this anxiety trickle down to our children? How do we recognize if children are experiencing anxiety? What can we as educators do to understand the effects of anxiety and provide safety and understanding to the children we interact with?

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Meet and Greet Networking Event

THE TUCK ROOM

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Installation of the 2024 ACDS Executive Committee

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WARM PLAY: Responsive caregiving to support children in early childhood programs

Joshua Feder, M.D.

This talk is for anyone who works with young children and wants to help them to be happier, more resilient, and better at learning, communicating, and solving the problems of their lives. Dr. Feder will use an interactive method with participants that comes from DIR/Floortime™ and related approaches to show how we can interact with children so that they are calm and connected in a flow of meaningful, developmentally supportive interactions.

https://www.acdsla.org/event-details-registration/warm-play-responsive-caregiving-to-support-children-in-early-childhood-programs-presented-by-joshua-feder-m-d

 

2023​

 

Meet and Greet Networking Event

THE CULVER HOTEL

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Building Identity on the Autistic Spectrum

Susan L. Donner, MD

Recent studies have demonstrated that children and adolescents on the autistic spectrum are overrepresented in clinics addressing gender dysphoria/incongruence. As we know, they have “atypical” neurobiology and sensory processing that can impact their perceptions of their objects, the environment and themselves and thus may formulate their “identifications” quite differently than “neurotypical” children. As a result, many may struggle to establish a sense of a stable self, including gender identity, in an apparently seamless developmental unfolding. As a result, children on the spectrum with their developmental differences may offer us opportunities to learn how gender and other identities may evolve over time.  

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Focus Group: Networking and Vision for the Future of ACDS

ACDS has a rich history as a unique community of members from a wide variety of disciplines - counselors, psychiatrists, educators, physicians, and therapists. Since 1983, ACDS has given these professionals the opportunity to network and exchange knowledge and ideas with others. Bringing together those with a broad range of interests and expertise enhances each member’s ability to serve the whole child in the context of family and community. 

 The past few years our organization has been able to continue to fulfill its mission by using an online platform. Now that we are returning to a “new normal,” we feel it is a good opportunity to reevaluate our organization to better understand how best to continue to meet the needs of our members. 

 We would love to hear from all our members so that we can best plan and provide meaningful opportunities to connect, learn, and support one another. ACDS needs you to join us in this process.

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Small Bodies, Big Feelings

Dr. Jaclyn Zeccola

Through case study and reflection on our day-to-day classroom work, we will explore the delicate and unique opportunity that therapeutic work within a preschool environment brings.

This is a follow up to our meeting with Dr. Susan Donner who highly recommended Dr. Jaclyn Zeccola for additional discussion and exploration on the meaning of young children’s behavior and the ways in which early childhood professionals use ourselves and our bodies, faces, language, and tone to facilitate and support young children’s growth and development.

01.22.23-invitation-revDownload

 

2022

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Teasing Apart Symptoms and Behaviors in the Young Child

Alessia de Paola Gottlieb, MD

Assessing the preschool child for developmental and mental health disorders can be one of the most challenging tasks a clinician can face. Children are too young to describe their internal experience and parents and caregivers are often interpreting behaviors with an adult lens, often informed by their own experience in their own childhood or with other children.

This lecture is designed to discuss a comprehensive approach to the assessment of the young child, how to look at the many behaviors and symptoms seen in early childhood, and to gain knowledge and expertise in interpreting these behaviors and symptoms to create a more comprehensive and directed treatment plan for the child and family.

11.13.22-invitationDownload

 

Making Our Way Through a Swamp of Destruction and Hate: A Therapeutic Journey with a Difficult Child

Susan L. Donner, M.D.

Early childhood therapists and interventionists can encounter a “hateful child” who fights the formation of a therapeutic alliance and derails therapeutic progress with incessant demands, verbal attacks and tantrums as well as provocative, manipulative and destructive behaviors. In 1949, D.W. Winnicott published “Hate in the Countertransference,” a paper in which he describes his experience with a foster child in his own home. Working with one’s own “hate in the countertransference” can reveal much about the particular patient, interventionist and their dyadic relationship in the here-and-now. These experiences can guide technical shifts and adaptations with both the identified patient and their parents to new and different developmental and relational paths.

9.18.2022-invitationDownload

 

Virtual Book Exchange: Bring Your Favorite Books for Children, Parents and Professionals to Show and Share Over Zoom

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, MFT

One of the resources that many of us use in our work with children and families is books. There is a wide range of children’s picture books that introduce, expand and/or enrich children’s experience, give permission for feelings, help them feel safe and understood and not alone, have wonderful illustrations and art, share silly sounds and songs, making the profound and complex feel safe and knowable. As early childhood professionals we share treasures with the children, and often with the parents to help them support their children through challenging situations and to look into new worlds. Many of us have also found parenting books that we have found particularly helpful to parents in understanding their children’s behaviors, perspectives and reactions, and provide them with models for helpful words, responses and actions. In addition, many of us have found professional books that have enriched and deepened our understanding of the individuals, parents, children, families, communities and cultures that we interact and work with.

7.17.22-invitationDownload

 

Promoting Family Resilience: The Intentional Inclusion of Fathers in Perinatal and Early Childhood Services

Kevin Gruenberg, PsyD

The lack of father-inclusion in family-based policies and practices in perinatal and early childhood mental health and home visiting disadvantages mothers and children, and undermines the expansive role fathers can play in the promotion of family resilience. Research confirms the tremendous benefits of father involvement for families. Fathers can play a critical and unique role in promoting a child’s cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development, as well as support maternal wellbeing. Fathers are also susceptible to Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders at rates comparable to mothers. When left untreated, these challenges leave a family vulnerable. This presentation will explore ways to expand perinatal and early childhood services to improve the health of families through the intentional inclusion of fathers.

This presentation will highlight the benefits of father involvement on young children and families; outline how fathers can struggle with mental health challenges during early fatherhood and how this affects families; and identify ways to expand your work to support whole families. Participants will be asked to reflect on their own work and to challenge certain assumptions that make it more difficult to engage fathers.

5.22.2022-invitationDownload

 

“The House that RIE® Built”: An Introduction to the RIE® (Resources for Infant Educarers) Philosophy

Karla Lee Kuester and Jill Getto Lee

Many years ago, at a staff training meeting, Karla created the original “The House that RIE® Built” on a tattered piece of easel paper. This was a fun, visual way to demonstrate the foundational aspects of the philosophy that she had been trained in, and was hired to teach the other members of the staff in a small infant/toddler/preschool setting. She felt it was the best illustration to describe the simple, yet important parts of the Educaring® Approach, to relay the merits and benefits of this method for this group of caregivers, in order to offer the best service to the infants and families in their care.

3.20.2022-invitationDownload

 

“Stop. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.”

Taj Anders, Nada Ghaneian, and Rose Drmandjian

Sometimes it feels like we’re spinning sideways. Swirling thoughts in our heads as we scroll down social media feeds. Social distancing. Safer at home. Six Feet. Vaccines. Boosters.Zoom. Boom. In-person. From home. Remote. Emote. High and low. Forward and backward.
Please join us this Sunday for 

2.27.22-invitationDownload

 

Childhood Adversity: Vulnerability, Resiliency, and the Importance of Relationships

Michael Sherman, Psy.D.

In this presentation, we will discuss the seminal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti, et al., 1998) and the impact of childhood adversity, often under identified, on the functioning of children, family systems, community systems (e.g., schools, therapeutic practices, child welfare systems), and society at large. Through our discussion, attendees will be exposed to a nuanced understanding of how the ACEs study helps us identify negative childhood experiences and links them to behaviors we may be seeing in the classroom and other settings. This understanding empowers champions for children’s health and development to engage in preventative practice and advocate for larger systems to support children’s social, emotional, psychological, academic, and relational development long before problematic behavior or relational challenges begin to appear or have a lasting impact Whether you are an early childhood educator, infant and early childhood mental health provider, caregiver, or other professional or natural support for young children and their families, this presentation will provide applicable knowledge and resources which can be used to have positive impact on children early in their development.

1.16.2022-invitationDownload

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2021

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Affect Regulation, Attunement and Educaring in Early Intervention

Ruth Anne Hammond, MA

Right brain neuroscience offers an important perspective on how to help children regulate their emotions so that they can learn more efficiently and develop to their full capacity. Combining the lessons from Allan Schore’s work on Regulation Theory (also known as modern attachment theory) and RIE’s Educaring Approach® taught by Magda Gerber and her successors, Ruth Anne Hammond, who is a student of both, will offer ways to enhance your relationships with your clients to make the most of the time you spend together. This workshop will give an overview of the theories as well as practical methods to use during sessions.

11.14.21-invitationDownload

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Universal Kindergarten: What will it mean for children and families? What will it mean for ECE and ECE workers?

Helen Davis, Ed.D., Janet Fish, Ed.D, and Denise Kennedy, Ph.D.

In this presentation, Drs. Davis, Fish, and Kennedy will offer an overview of the proposed CaliFORnia for All Kids: Master Plan for Early Learning and Care. They will describe developments in California related to the Master Plan around universal transitional kindergarten, Teacher Performance Expectations and Assessments, recommendations to date, and they will open dialog for discussion about the implications for children, family, and ECE programs and professions.

9.19.21-invitationDownload

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Roundtable Discussion: Meeting the Moment: Continuing Discussions on Supporting Ourselves, Our Children, Our Families, Our Staff

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, M.A., MFT

Please join us in this community discussion, an opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas, and expertise, enhancing each other’s preparedness to serve children, families, and staff members in the coming year.

• What insight has been gained during the 2020-2021 year?

• What hurdles still lay ahead?

• What strategies must we keep in the forefront of our minds?

Together we can develop plans for ourselves and for those who will once again count on us to create spaces that are physically and emotionally safe.

8.22.21-roundtable-invitationDownload

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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

Karen Page, Ph.D.

At least 5% of us in general (and many more children in foster care) have disabilities from prenatal alcohol exposure. With the exception of Canada and 3 states in the US, FASD is largely unrecognized. This condition masquerades as a variety of mental health issues or simply poor parenting, and is therefore usually treated incorrectly, leading to developmental failures across the board. This talk will help you remedy that.

7.18.21-invitationDownload

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Lessons from a Pandemic: Play Therapy,

Susan Donner, MD

The digital world has been moving into children’s playspaces, but early childhood teachers, interventionists and therapists could explore at their own pace the possible interfaces with the technology. With the abrupt transition in March 2020 to the pandemic “stay at home” orders and the developmental urgency of teleanalytic skills, this gradual encroachment transformed almost overnight into an incursion into and annexation of every playspace, therapeutic and educational. This presentation will focus on the adaptations that this 6-year-old child, the child analyst and even the parents were required to make to create an online treatment setting for a psychoanalytic play therapy in order to establish meaningful conscious and unconscious communication and effective interventions.

5.23.21-invitationDownload

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Supporting Grieving Children & Families… Amidst the COVID 19 Pandemic

Talya Schlesinger, LCSW

Death is a universal response to a life cycle event; not a condition needing to be pathologized. How do we undo our collective discomfort with death and grief to support children and families in the midst of their grief journey? How has the global pandemic shifted the conversation around grief and loss? This presentation will outline cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses of grieving children and families. The presenter will share a theoretical model for understanding grief across developmental ages and stages to better understand the needs of grieving clients. Throughout the presentation, the participants will acquire effective intervention strategies to utilize with individual clients, families and groups in both a virtual and in-person space.

4.18.21-invitationDownload

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Meeting the Moment, One Year Later: Unpacking the Fear & Establishing Strategies for In-Person Programs

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, MA, MFT

Please join us in this community discussion, an opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas, and expertise, enhancing each other’s preparedness to serve children, families, and staff members who will be navigating in person experiences.

As some preschools remained open, for many children, parents, educators, clinicians, and other early childhood specialists, it has been a year since substantial parts of our lives went virtual. One year of news reports urging us to stay home, wear a mask, wash our hands, and practice physical distancing. Zoom became both a blessing and a curse. We have all learned new ways of working.

Now faced with the reality of being physically present with others:

• How do we move past the fear and anxiety regarding increased risk of exposure?

• What should our programs look and feel like?

• How do we help ourselves and those around us cope with the anxiety and pressure that will be part of this next chapter?

• What tools and strategies should we draw from to ensure children don’t just survive but thrive?

Together we can develop plans for ourselves and for those who will once again count on us to create a space that is physically and emotionally safe.

3.21.21-rt-invitation-1Download

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Engaging with Young Learners, Both On-Line and in the Classroom

 LeeAnn Roca, M.Ed., CCC

This course will focus on how to enhance engagement and exposure for young children during this time of remote learning and social distancing/mask wearing during in-person schooling. Please join us to discuss how to engage with children remotely, expose young children to developmental language concepts during a quarantine, and model appropriate speech development in young children while wearing masks. LeeAnn will give a speech-language pathologist’s perspective after participating in remote therapeutic services since March 2020.

2.21.21-invitationDownload

 

2020

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Mitigating the Effects of Adversity on Students of Diverse Cultures

Zaid Gayle and Dr. Leslie Ponciano

As educators are tasked with the challenging responsibility of meeting the needs of a diverse group of learners combined with adverse childhood experiences, the classroom and the curriculum can feel unsafe and confusing for students. This immersive training is designed to address the needs of educators in the classroom and the administrators, staff and community members who support student outcomes. The introductory exploration is designed to help early educators understand how racial identity, learning differences and biases place a central role in educational outcomes. This training was created through a collaboration between Peace4Kids and Hope Education Research Solutions.

1-24-20-invitationDownload

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Constellation of Interventions: Part II

Catherine Crowley, OTD, OTR/L and Amers Goff, MA, OTR/L

In Constellation of Interventions Part II, Dr. Crowley will provide an introduction to sensory sensitivities, sensory systems, and neuroception as elucidated in Porges’ polyvagal theory. Ms. Goff will present a case of a challenging child with co-morbid diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability.

11-15-20-invitationDownload

 

Annual Networking Event: The Science of Early Child Development

Pat Levitt, PhD

In the Science of Early Child Development, Dr. Levitt will provide a research-based framework of the ingredients contributing to healthy brain and child development, and the factors that promote resilience.

10.18.20-acds-networking-event-invitationDownload

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Meeting the Moment: Continuing Discussions on Supporting Ourselves, Our Children, Our Families, Our Staff

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, MA, MFT

Our August 16 roundtable focused on examining how we center and find support for ourselves in this time of uncertainty and confusion brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we offer support to the children, families, and staff with whom we work. We spoke about different sources of anxiety and stress in this time, such as concerns for our personal safety and the safety of families, the changing warnings and guidelines from various sources, and the load of holding so many other anxieties and worries. We spoke about what we each do to create routines and experiences that bring us comfort and support. We also spoke about approaches and techniques that we can share with families and staff to help them feel supported and heard. At the end of that meeting many voices asked that we continue the discussions started and check in with each other about where we are in these processes. Our September 20 roundtable will be a continuing discussion on supporting ourselves and those we work with.

9-20-20-invitationDownload

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Meeting the Moment: Supporting Ourselves, Our Children, Our Families, Our Staff

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, M.A., MFT

Please join us in this community discussion, an opportunity to exchange experiences, ideas and expertise, enhancing each other’s preparedness to serve children and families in person, as well as virtually. 

These unprecedented times create feelings of uncertainty and anxiety that are made worse by conflicting and changing advice. We have deeply regretted the lack of immediate, physical presence with others.  Now faced with the possibility that we may resume being physically present with others, we may feel conflicted and worried about the increased risk of exposure to infection that in-person interaction automatically brings. What should we do?  Together we can address our fears. Together we can build internal resources and create practical strategies that will help us meet challenges even if they are new and unforeseen. We can help each other work toward the assurance that will steady us in the presence of other’s pain, faith that will help those who look to us for strength to feel confident we have the courage and the ability to stay resourceful and strong.

Within our professional community we have a wealth of experience and expertise. This Roundtable discussion is an opportunity for us to come together sharing our experience and knowledge, our hopes and our fears, learning from them together so that we feel heartened, as those belonging to a professional community are better equipped to go forward in support of children and families.

Please join us for a heartfelt discussion of how we can support ourselves, our children, our families and our staffs.

8-16-20 Invitation

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How Healthy Relationships and Attuned Interactions Support Child Development

Dr. Mike Sherman
This course will focus on the importance of relationships with well regulated, attuned, caring adults for supporting social and emotional development, as well as life-long well-being. Join Dr. Sherman as he shares examples from his clinical practice and extensive experience working in therapeutic preschool settings and the child-welfare system. Techniques derived from cutting edge research on brain development will be discussed to enhance educators building supportive relationships with young children and how such meaningful relationships with well-regulated, reflective adults can contribute to healthy brain development. Objectives: (1) Discuss key aspects of healthy relationships that support development; (2) Describe how healthy relationships contribute to brain development; and (3) List strategies to enhance your relationships with children to support learning and social-emotional growth.
7-19-20 Invitation

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Everyday Freedom: Even in a Pandemic

Susan Kaiser Greenland
Anxiety is contagious and so is being steady and grounded. The global pandemic has put our nervous systems on high alert. Some
of us are directly dealing with the loss of loved ones or jobs. Others are ill or afraid that they or their loved ones will become sick.
And all of us are affected by uncertainty. In this presentation, Susan Kaiser Greenland, a pioneer in the field of mindful education,
talks about how anxiety, fear, and other strong emotions function and offers mindfulness perspectives and practices to help you
settle in a time of uncertainty, allowing you to care for yourself and others with greater wisdom and compassion.
5-17-20 Invitation

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Supporting Families and Children Through “Virtual Contact”

Faciliated by Karen Dudley, MA, MFT
Within the current coronavirus epidemic, many of us as early childhood professionals- whether teachers, OTs, PTs or clinicians- are struggling with how to emotionally connect and engage with children, and their parents, in a “social distancing/on-line” environment. Please join us for a Zoom Roundtable discussion to share your experiences, thoughts, and developed practices for helping children feel “kept in mind,” cared about and connected to us
4-26-20 Invitation

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Constellation of Interventions: Holistic perspectives of pediatric occupational therapy, infant mental health, and trauma informed care

Dr. Kate Crowley, OTD, OTR/L
Dr. Crowley will present an overview of the general philosophy of mental health and occupational holistic thinking in her work with children and families. Topics to be covered include the differences between trauma-informed and non- trauma informed care in infants and children, how OT can be tailored to address the needs of children through consideration of factors including but not limited to  sensory integration and processing disorders, sensory strategies (‘top down” and “bottom up”)  for healing  trauma, life style redesign, the impact of sleep, food sensitivities, the microbiome and how all affect  physical and mental  health and regulatory capacity
2-23-20 Invitation

 

Could There be Meaning in Repetitive and Restrictive Behaviors? Psychoanalytical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Preschool Child

Susan Donner, MD.
A Dyadic (parent and child) play therapy can be an effective early intervention with children on the autistic spectrum since it can support the development of language, symbolic and imaginative play and emotional self-regulation as well as address separations, losses, even multi-generational traumatic themes that emerge in the treatment.  Repetition in symbolic play as well as in enactments between the child, analyst and/or parent can help clarify and prioritize, not just the therapeutic interventions, but also the developmental aims among the family members and the larger treatment team.
1-26-20 Invitation

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2019

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Adoption, Adaption, & Associated Trauma

Chantilly Wijayasinha, MSW, MPH
Recent studies have shown that nearly 100 million Americans have adoption in their immediate family and 6 out of 10 Americans are touched by adoption in some way. Despite these numbers, the past stigma around adoption has muted the representation of this community and thus adoption informed care is not readily available to the appropriate degree. In the 1980’s there was a shift in the adoption landscape when open adoptions started to be recognized as best practice. Now, 95% of all adoptions have some degree of openness and there is research supporting that ongoing contact helps all members of the adoption triad (birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents). This presentation will discuss the research findings and anecdotal evidence that ongoing contact is beneficial for the entire adoption triad. Furthermore, adoption is a lifelong process for all members of the triad; specifically, the unique type of grief a birthmother experiences when placing a child for adoption. This presentation will also cover the special considerations in counseling a birthmother prior to adoptive placement, particularly anticipatory grief counseling and facilitating relationships with adoptive families.
11-17-2019 Invitation

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Supporting Fathers to Grow with their Children and Family

Kevin Gruenberg, PsyD
Research confirms that fathers play a critical and unique role in a child’s development. Fathers active in childcare promote a child’s social-emotional and cognitive development and lower the risk of developing emotional disturbance. Paternal involvement can also mitigate the effects of maternal stress beginning even in pregnancy. Though important, fathers are also vulnerable; they suffer from rates of perinatal depression comparable to those of mothers.

The last two decades have seen dramatic growth in support at-risk families with young children.  These programs aspire to promote maternal health and optimal child development, while also reducing neglect and abuse. The vast majority of these approaches focus on mothers and even the programs that welcome dads are not grounded in the advantages of the benefits fathers can bring to the family.

In an effort to explore policies and practices oriented towards programs that are inclusive, the presenter will discuss a funded pilot Home Visiting with Dads. The presentation will include discussion or our findings and experiences and an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own programs and to plan for increasing father integration.
10-20-2019 Invitation

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Playful Speech with Young Children

LeeAnn Roca, M.Ed., CCC
“Speech Therapy:  A Playful Approach” will discuss how playful interactions with children help increase a child’s ability to access and process language. Through creating language opportunities and experiences a child’s brain has an increased ability to connect language concepts and solidify the concepts needed to understand, produce, and problem solve. Typical and atypical language patterns with also be discussed to help generate techniques and strategies to recognize atypical development, support speech and language growth, and determine a need for therapeutic service recommendations.
9-15-19 Invitation FINAL

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Roundtable Discussion: Foster Care: Creating Equity for Children Impacted by Trauma

Zaid Gayle and Mike Sherman Psy.D

Facilitated by Karen Dudley, MFT
Zaid Gayle, Executive Director of Peace4Kids, whose presentation in May, FOSTER CARE: Creating Equity for Children Impacted by Trauma, was received with so much enthusiastic participation that he was unable to complete his presentation returns to ACDS!  He will be joined by Executive Committee member Mike Sherman, a licensed clinical psychologist with Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health serving a similar population of children in foster care.  Executive Committee member Karen Dudley will moderate a lively discussion with these uniquely qualified and dedicated men interacting with ACDS membership.  You will receive reliable information about systems and promising practices as well as shared stories about experiences with foster care services.
7-21-19 Invitation

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Foster Care: Creating Equity for Children Impacted by Trauma
Zaid Gayle
In honor of National Foster Care Month, Zaid will be sharing excerpts from his equity in the classroom training. Educators are tasked with the challenging responsibility of meeting the needs of a diverse group of learners. When these individual differences are combined with adverse childhood experiences, the classroom and the curriculum can feel unsafe and confusing for students. Trauma in childhood is common; every child likely experiences family, societal, and community events that negatively impact the lens through which they see the world. For the percentage of youth who experience highly intense or numerous experiences of trauma in childhood, research demonstrates that the impact of these events inhibit social and emotional function and contribute to a cascading effect of educational difficulties.  Creating environments that are culturally responsive to childhood trauma experiences provides a safe space within which all students can achieve educational success. This is particularly essential for children who grow up in foster care and for whom few available services truly understand the trauma they have endured.

May 19, 2019 Invitation

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ACDS ANNUAL NETWORKING BRUNCH
Our Guest Speaker Dr. Suzanne Roberts, MD, distinguished pediatrician and member of the Harvard Center for the Developing Child and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles research team, is participating in a cutting edge research project exploring the development of brain architecture and identification of successful interventions for scaffolding resilience in infants and young children. Learn about the latest strategies and interventions for supporting the developing mind during the important early years.

3-31-2019 Invitation

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The “Sense” of Learning: Understanding the Importance and Use of Sensory Integration with Children with Diverse Needs
Karen Thompson, MA, OTRL
This presentation will focus on the understanding of “What is sensory integration?” and “Why do our senses play an improvement role in learning and development in children?” The presentation will also examine each of our senses and the unique properties that are enhanced in the brain from engaging these senses. Lastly, the presentation will provide examples and suggestions that can improve the success and development of a child with or without special needs.
Invitation

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PLAY MATTERS! In the Lives of Children and Adults!
Nicki Backlar, M.A.
The Play Matters! committee of the Southern California Chapter of California Association for the Education of Young Children” (SCC-CAAEYC) has a long history in Los Angeles and continues to advocate strongly for children through initiatives that support early childhood teachers and through events that bring renowned speakers presenting the latest thoughts and research on this critical topic.  Come hear about ways you can join in advocating for the most natural and effective way that children learn – through play!
Invitation 1-20-2019

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2018

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The Young Dual Language Learner: Pedagogical Practices, Competencies, and Current Crossroads
Marlene Zepeda, Ph.D.
Dr. Zepeda will address pedagogical practices and competencies—embracing the benefits of a multicultural and multilingual community in which children thrive. Statistics show us that in California 60% of children ages 0-8 speak a language at home other than English, and in the County of Los Angeles, more than 80 languages are spoken. Current crossroads emerge as the public starts to embrace dual language learning, reflecting extensive research and the simple fact that more than half of the world’s population speaks two or more languages!
Invitation 10-21-18

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“Who Am I Now?” Identity and Meaning in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of a Preschool Child with Developmental Delays
Susan L. Donner, MD
Children with developmental delays, deficits and disabilities are relatively neglected in mental health literature (psychiatric, psychoanalytic, 0-5, etc.). This case presentation describes the intensive therapeutic treatment of a 3 ½ year old girl with attentional difficulties, language and motor delays, learning issues and emotional dysregulation. The use of play therapy within a psychoanalytic framework can serve to organize memories, emotions and fantasies as well as provide support to evolving capacities to return this preschool child to a more typical developmental path.

Clinical focus: This presentation will focus on the shifting identities and roles for both the analyst and the patient during the first 2 ½ years of the still ongoing psychoanalytic treatment of a 3 ½ year old girl with marked developmental delays. The author suggests that the establishment of a psychoanalytic process within the dyadic relationship whereby the analyst can be used flexibly as a transference and developmental object can effectively help return a child to a more typical developmental path. In addition, the use of play therapy within a psychoanalytic framework can serve to rework and reorganize memories, affects and relationships, thereby lessening anxieties that have further complicated the clinical presentation with attentional difficulties, language deficits and learning issues. Rather than focus solely on behaviors or symptoms per se, it is suggested that a therapeutic emphasis on the translation and co-creation of meanings helps to untangle the complexity of developing body and mind issues.
Invitation 20180916

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Relationship-Based Approaches to Working with Children & Families
Karen Dudley, MFT, Vice-President, ACDS
Please join us in a Roundtable discussion in which we will continue to explore and define “relationship-based approaches” to working with families and children.

Does this look different in different settings? Are there different levels? Can different approaches lead to similar levels of trust? What are different elements of feeling seen and known?

And specifically, how do we build truly safe and trustworthy relationships with children and families? How do you know when it is working and when it isn’t?

Please bring your questions, feelings, thoughts and experiences (those that worked and those that didn’t).
Invitation 20180715

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LEARNING STORIES: Building Learner Identity
Leslie Voss
A ‘Learning Story’ is a formative assessment framework that moves far beyond the traditional assessment method, affirming and empowering individuals as they build their personal identities as powerful learners. Studied and adapted internationally, this narrative assessment format, first developed in New Zealand, moves the educational focus from the successful acquisition of skills and abilities to ‘learning about learning’ and how to become our best ‘learning selves’.

Learning Stories have been exciting educators world-wide as they create an avenue for families, practitioners and children to contribute -and expand- their expertise and knowledge in the process of building strong learners and learning communities. Please join us for this introduction.
Invitation 20180520

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ACDS ANNUAL NETWORKING BRUNCH
From Anxiety to Resilience in Young Children: Addressing Adverse Experiences & Trauma
Dr. Mona M. Delahooke, Ph.D
In this time of heightened tensions both nationally and locally, children as “canaries in the coal mine” are feeling more than usually vulnerable.  This presentation will focus on protective practices that give children a sense of safety, unleashing exploration, play, and social engagement. Dr. Mona Delahooke, Ph.D., IMH specialist and Reflective Practice Mentor, will explain how affective neuroscience and the DIR model informs providers as to how and why attuned relationships and a respect for each child and caregiver’s individual differences form the backbone of all childhood interventions.
Invitation 20180415

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Children and Mindfulness
Nada Ghaneian, Karla Kuester and Gay Macdonald
Does life continue to feel like you are running a marathon? While a group of committed others are running across town (that won’t interfere with our workshop at all-see modified directions below), we will be sharing tools of mindfulness to use with ourselves and the children in our care, in order to take our attention back to our breathing and find ‘peace with what is’ in our lives.
Invitation 20180318

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The Importance and Influence of Home Visiting
Catriona Macdonald, Founder and President of The Association of State and Tribal Home Visiting
Early in the morning on February 9th, the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) was reauthorized for five years.  What does that mean for you?  How does voluntary home visiting fit into a larger system of early care and education, and what can it contribute to the work you do to support children and their parents?  Catriona Macdonald, founding Executive Director of the Association of State and Tribal Home Visiting, brings a local and national perspective on home visiting and its impact on young children and families.  Directly from Washington, Ms. Macdonald will present up-to-date information on federal policy and funding, its importance for early childhood education and the ECE workforce. In the jockeying for federal dollars, MIECHV was a last-minute inclusion in the spending bill, signed by the President in the early morning hours of February 9th after a short federal government shut-down. This presentation will outline the part that Early Education advocates played in the larger drama of federal politics and the implications for California and across the nation.  They are all our children.  Whether or not you serve low income families directly, this public policy initiative will affect all of us.
Invitation 201080225

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A Relationship-Based Approach to Working with Children
Karen Dudley, MFT
“Relationship-based” is a phrase that we often use in the early childhood world but may knowingly or unknowingly have somewhat different ideas of specifically what it means. As a significant and fundamental aspect of our work in helping children feel competent, secure and valued, it is important to increase the depth and breadth of our understanding of this concept. This conversation will provide a shared perspective for future discussions. Please join us in exploring what is meant, why it matters and how we create this individual, unique and meaningful connection in our work with young children and families.

Karen Dudley will facilitate and executive committee members will participate in this exploration of the meaning of “relationship-based” as it may apply to various facets of our work.  We look forward to building relationships among our members during the networking time and the conversation. Happy New Year!
20180128 Invitation

Attendees Shared Notes – 1-28-2018

 

2017

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Infant and Toddler Development with a Relational Context

Mike Sherman, Psy.D.
Invitation 20171119

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The Trauma Resiliency Model

Lisa Cash, LMFT and Alicia Murray, LMFT
Invitation 20171015