Working with the birth to three population is a rewarding, yet often challenging experience. Community-based services require providers to move from a dyadic model of service delivery to a triadic model, which includes parents and caregivers as integral members of the early intervention team. In this course we will examine the ABCs of early intervention to empower providers with evidence-based strategies when working with very young children and their families. The following topics will be explored: child-centered versus family-centered services, barriers to success in early intervention, parent coaching, writing functional IFSP outcomes, neurodiversity-affirming practices, routines-based intervention, effective services in the childcare setting, and so much more!

A young child arrives on the doorstep of the pediatric speech-language pathologist with a diagnosis of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). Now what? Establishing an appropriate treatment plan based on the principles of motor learning is essential when treating motor speech disorders. In this course, Cari provides clinically relevant information on apraxia related to goal writing, target selection, therapy strategies, and multi-sensory cueing. She also offers a variety of engaging activities to promote repetitive speech practice for speech-language pathologists working with toddlers, preschoolers, and early school-aged children who have speech motor planning struggles.

This course provides a step-by-step approach for supporting minimally verbal toddlers and preschoolers with suspected childhood apraxia of speech. Cari begins with an overview of apraxia and then systematically moves from assessment to differential diagnosis to therapy approaches, strategies, and activities. This full-day training is packed with clinically relevant information based on the principles of motor learning. SLPs will leave this course with a roadmap for supporting their youngest clients with suspected apraxia of speech.

This course provides an overview of how to provide strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming services to Autistic students. The goals and strategies addressed in this course are not focused on establishing compliance or fixing deficits identified on standardized tests, but rather on supporting Autistic students using neurodiversity-affirming accommodations and modifications to help them learn, grow, and thrive as their authentic selves.

Join Cari for a full-day training on making the shift to neurodiversity affirming practices. Topics on reframing autism include the following: moving from deficit-driven to
strengths-based language in documentation, autism signs in young children under age 5, talking to parents about autism, racial and gender disparities in diagnosing autism, models of disability, understanding neurodiversity, gestalt language development, presuming competence, and so much more! Participants will leave this training with a plan for supporting Autistic toddlers and preschoolers by focusing on goals and strategies to support regulation, connection, and communication. Whether your staff provides services in the home, clinic, or early childhood classroom setting, this course will jump-start their transition to becoming neurodiversity affirming providers.

Language and executive function skills are interdependent one cannot develop without the other. This course provides insight on how to facilitate development of language and executive function skills through play-based learning. Being able to plan, organize, inhibit responses, follow multi-step directions, stay focused, complete tasks amid distractions, be resilient, engage in non-preferred tasks, delay gratification, and be a flexible thinker are skills that set young children up for success in school and in life. Research shows that executive function skills develop most rapidly between ages 3 and 5, making high-quality early childhood services critical for optimal growth and development.