Session 1:  8:30 to 10:00     How Sensory Disorders Affect Learning and Behavior

Some children withdraw from physical contact, refuse to participate in typical classroom and playground activities that their peers enjoy, or respond in an unusual way to ordinary sensations of touch, movement, sights and sounds.  These children don't behave as we expect – not because they won't, but because they can't.  Inefficient processing of sensory messages that come from one's body and surroundings often cause out-of-sync behavior.

Participants who complete this session will be able to:

§      Explain how sensory processing allows us to function as active participants in everyday life.

§      Describe the functions of the tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses.

§      Explain the three major categories of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD): sensory modulation disorder, sensory discrimination disorder, and sensory-based motor disorders including postural disorder and dyspraxia (poor motor planning).

§      Describe how SPD interferes with a child's ability to function in typical childhood occupations of learning, socializing, communicating, self-regulating, working, and playing.

10:00 to 10:15  BREAK

Session 2:  10:15 to 11:45     Associated Problems and Early Interventions That Help

Children with SPD often have associated difficulties, including visual and auditory dysfunction, picky eating and food intolerances, problems with digestion and elimination, sleep irregularities, and high anxiety.  When parents, teachers, and other non-OTs look at a child through a "sensory lens," they appreciate the brain-body connection and learn to provide informal but purposeful Early Intervention.  EI can occur every day in the natural settings of home and school, as children and their grown-ups discover the "just-right" experiences that are most helpful.

Participants who complete this session will be able to:

§      Recognize characteristics of tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, and auditory dysfunction and how these difficulties affect children's learning and behavior.

§      Observe children's self-therapy and redirect it, if necessary – “Behavior means something!"

§      Note which sensory experiences help the child function better, e.g., touch and movement activities, and which backfire, e.g., noise, lack of sleep, scratchy clothes, processed food, and other environmental stressors.

§      Identify ways to make accommodations in home and school environments, seek appropriate therapy, and increase opportunities for heavy work activities and open-ended play.

11:45 to 12:45  LUNCH

Session 3:  12:45 to 2:15  Identifying Sensory Processing Issues

Research, led by Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR, is revealing important differences in the physiological make-up of children with SPD.  Dr. Miller's "Sensory Challenge Protocol," as well as other researchers’ findings, will be discussed. 

Meanwhile, early childhood educators are increasingly aware that children with SPD have problems in the classroom and on the playground.  As teachers, rather that OTs, how can they catch these children before they fall?  One means is through "Preschool Sensory Scan for Educators (Preschool SENSE)," a collaborative screening tool to help OTs or other qualified professionals introduce sensory processing to ECE teachers.  “Preschool SENSE” is not only for teachers, as it also helps parents make sense of their children’s bewildering behavior at home.

Participates who complete this session will be able to:

§      Describe Dr. Miller’s Sensory Challenge Protocol research project.

§      Explain how children's involuntary, neurological reactions to sensory stimuli affect their learning and behavioral responses.

§      Understand how OTs and other professionals can "get in sync" with teachers to help them observe, appraise, and address school children's responses to sensory-motor experiences in the typical classroom.

2:15 to 2:30  BREAK

 Session 4:  2:30 to 4:00  Fun and Functional Activities

Parents, teachers, and other professionals can add variety to the experiences of the children they care for with “In-Sync” activities.  These sensory-motor and perceptual-motor activities help children to modulate and discriminate sensory stimuli and to improve their motor planning.  Heavy work activities, messy and not-so-messy play, and balancing experiences can develop and enhance body awareness, directionality and laterality, crossing the midline, visual-spatial relationships, auditory-language processing, rhythm and timing, oral-motor skills, social interaction, calming down and paying attention. These activities benefit ALL kids – and ALL kids get to play!

Participants who complete this session will be able to:

§      Explain how movement and touch experiences are essential ingredients in every child's daily sensory diet – “Movement is learning."

§      Identify In-Sync activities, specifically designed to engage various sensory systems and thereby improve learning and regulate behavior.

§      Describe activities to take back to the classroom, home, or clinic to use with all children, with or without SPD.

About the Presenter

Carol Stock Kranowitz, M.A. The highly regarded author of The Out–of–Sync Child and many other books of­fers insightful strategies and practical techniques for help­ing children learn, grow, and thrive in their increasingly demanding world. Carol gives you the tools to recognize, understand, and help children whose learning and behavior are challenged by their inability to interpret and react effectively to every­day sensations at home and school. She shares her exten­sive knowledge of childhood development gained through 25 years experience as a preschool teacher. Ms. Kranowitz earned her master’s degree in education and human development at The George Washington Uni­versity. She is the award-winning author of The Out-of-Sync Child, The Goodenoughs Get in Sync, and The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, as well as many book chapters and magazine articles.

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** The conference planning committee reserves the right to make substitutions or changes in the scheduled plan of events for circumstances beyond its control without prior notice to registrants.