Contact Carol Kranowitz directly for details:
     Telephone: (301) 229-4228
     Fax: (301) 229-5005
     e-mail: CarolKranowitz@gmail.com

Interested in learning about other possible presenters? Please contact S.I. Focus Magazine's Speakers' Bureau at editor@SIFocus.com or (214) 341-9999. Experienced professionals are available to provide introductory, intermediate, or advanced presentations about a variety of sensory processing issues.

How Much Does an Event Cost?
Carol's Honorarium from the Sponsors:
     $6,000 – full day (approximately 6 hours)
     $4,000 – one to three hours
Attendee's Registration Fee:
    Usually between $15 and $250 (decided by Sponsor)

Who Attends These Events
     •  Teachers, teacher aides, ECE directors, and other educators
     •  Graduate school students
     •  Parents, caregivers, grandparents
     •  Occupational therapists
     •  Physical therapists
     •  Speech/language therapists
     •  Mental health professionals
     •  Other pediatric specialists 

Course Descriptions and Objectives

HOW SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDERS AFFECT YOUNG CHILDREN'S LEARNING AND BEHAVIOR:

Course Description:
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 causes out-of-sync behavior.

Objective 1) To learn about the basics of Sensory Processing – what it allows us to do and why we need it to function in everyday life.

Objective 2) To learn about the basics of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and its three major categories: sensory modulation disorder, sensory discrimination disorder, and sensory-based motor disorders including postural disorder and dyspraxia. 

Objective 3) To recognize characteristics of tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, and auditory dysfunction.

Objective 4) To learn how SPD interferes with a child's ability to function in typical childhood occupations of learning, socializing, communicating, self-regulating, working, and playing.

GETTING KIDS IN SYNC WITH FUN AND FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Course Description:
Parents, teachers, and other professionals can add variety to the sensory experiences of the children they care for with "SAFE" (Sensory-motor, Appropriate, Fun, and Easy) activities.  These activities help kids get in sync by emphasizing social interaction, heavy work, messy and not-so-messy play, body awareness, balance, rhythm and timing, visual-spatial relationships, auditory-language processing, ear-body perception, bilateral coordination, crossing the midline, oral-motor skills, and motor planning. 

Objective 1: To understand that movement and touch experiences are essential ingredients in every child's daily life.

Objective 2: To participate in some SAFE activities, specifically designed to engage various sensory systems and to improve children's sensory modulation, sensory discrimination, and sensory-based motor abilities.

Objective 3: To gather ideas to take back to the classroom, home or clinic to use with ALL children, with or without SPD.

IDENTIFYING SENSORY DEFICITS IN PRESCHOOL

Course Description:
When children with unrecognized SPD begin school, how can teachers catch them before they fall?   One means is through Preschool SENSE (SENsory Scan for Educators).   Published by Sensory Resources in 2005, this is a new, collaborative screening tool for occupational therapists (and other qualified pediatric therapists) and early childhood teachers.  The purpose of the tool is to help OTs introduce sensory processing to educators.  Preschool SENSE includes reproducible scan materials for the OT and the educator, including checklists, questionnaires, and side-by-side examples of children's responses to sensory stimuli.

Objective 1) To help occupational therapists and other professionals "get in sync" with early education teachers who may not know about sensory processing disorder.

Objective 2)  To provide teachers with a simple checklist to help them observe and appraise their students' responses to sensory-motor experiences in the typical preschool classroom.