escWorks

This workshop focuses on evidence-based principles to guide Early Childhood Educators and Speech-Language Pathologists in selecting vocabulary for instruction and intervention with young children.  Profiles of various young students will be explored relative to vocabulary selection and teaching.  These profiles will include a nonverbal child with autism, a child from a low-SES home, a child with a small vocabulary and an intellectual disability, and a child with a primary disability of speech due to delayed language development.  Participants will be encouraged to apply the principles demonstrated to children they serve through activities and reflections. School teams of Early Childhood General Education and Special Education Teachers and Speech-Language Pathologists are encouraged to attend together.

Session Learning Objectives:  The participants will

1. Discuss selecting communicatively powerful and generalizable words for a variety of hypothetical students
   
2. Describe techniques for incorporating comprehension of vocabulary targets
   
3. List considerations for incorporating word learning in a variety of meaningful experiences
   

Early Childhood Communication Pathway:  Part 2

The Early Childhood Communication Pathway is a series of three workshops designed to help teachers and speech-language pathologists identify and respond to the communication needs of young children.  This pathway relies on the developmental model of language and evidence-based practices.  Part 1 (Session # 81084) focuses on students who are nonverbal or in the emerging language phase of development.  Part 2 (Session #81456)  emphasizes vocabulary selection and development in the context of a variety of early childhood experiences.  Part 3 (Session #81457) describes moving beyond simple, low-abstraction sentences to the powerful language used in the general education classroom. Participants may benefit from taking the sessions in order, but they are not required to do so.