Young children learn through the interactions they have within their environments. These interactions include all of the people who support them (parents, family members, interventionists, therapists, childcare providers, and other practitioners). This session will focus on how practitioners can help parents, families, and other adult caregivers develop the types of interactions needed to have a lasting positive impact on the learning of their young children with disabilities. Objectives: Explore strategies for helping families understand early communication attempts of children before language is developed or in the presence of a delay or disability Explore how adult-child interactions change to promote children’s learning Explore the role of the environment in the interaction between parent and child

One of the most challenging tasks for many early childhood providers is how to support families who are facing tough, difficult issues like death of a parent, PTSD, abuse, and neglect. Not only do these issues impact the family’s overall functioning and well being and the quality of parents’ interactions with their young children but they also affect the relationship between the family and the early childhood providers (e.g., missed appointments and adversarial interactions). Dr. Carol Trivette will cap her yearlong webinar series sharing resources and discussing evidence-based practices that providers can implement when they are working with military families in particular, who are facing difficult situations. Participants are encouraged to engage and share challenges, resources, and successes they have experienced working with families of young children with disabilities.

Come join the Military Families Learning Network Early Intervention team on Weds. March 30 from 12:30-1:30 ET for an interactive discussion related to the webinar held on Mar. 17. We want to hear your thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to the Key Points Carol Trivette, PhD shared during the webinar and how you've applied these points recently in your own practices. Were you not able to participate in the webinar on the 17th? No worries! We'd still love to hear from you! Come share your expertise and learn from others during this interactive forum.

Come join the Military Families Learning Network Early Intervention team on Wed., June 29, from 12:30-1:30 ET for an interactive discussion related to the webinar "Engaging Families to Focus on Intervention Strategies" held on June 23. We want to hear your thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to interactions you have had with families of young children with disabilities and how those interactions strengthen the family’s ability to support their child’s learning. Were you not able to participate in the webinar on the 23rd? No worries! We would still love to hear from you! And if you want, you can go to the archived webinar and listen to it before the Lunch & Learn. Come share your expertise and learn from others during this interactive forum.

Join the Military Families Learning Network Early Intervention team on Wednesday, December 14 from 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ET for an interactive discussion related to the webinar Strategies to Support Families Experiencing Difficult Circumstances held on December 8. We want to hear your thoughts, opinions, and experiences related to interactions you have had with families of young children with disabilities and how those interactions strengthen the family’s ability to support their child’s learning. You can share with us verbally** or via the chat pod! (***login using a mic-enabled headset ten minutes before the session begins) Not able to attend the related webinar on December 8? No worries! We would still love to hear from you! And if you want, you can go to the archived webinar (posted by December 10) and listen to it before the Lunch & Learn. Come share your expertise and learn from others during this interactive forum. The cover image by StockSnap for this webinar is licensed CC0 Public Domain.

The purpose of this study was to explore Turkish kindergarten early career stage teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs towards technology and their technology integration practices in their classrooms by answering: What are self-efficacy beliefs of Turkish kindergarten early career stage teachers towards technology? How do Turkish kindergarten early career teachers integrate technology into their classrooms’ instructions? The study was designed as a qualitative multiple case study and guided by Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory and Mishra and Koehler’s (2006) TPACK conceptual framework. I conducted this study in Istanbul, where is the most crowded and metropolitan city in Turkey. The schools were chosen by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) after the permissions were received from IRB and MoNE, and the participants were assigned by the directors of schools based on research criteria. Participants were chosen purposefully, and there were four female kindergarten teachers in their early career stages, which were identified based on Steffy, Wolfe, Pasch and Enz (2000)’ stages: novice teacher and apprentice teacher, teaching five-year-old students at technologically well-equipped classrooms, and who had a bachelor’s degree in preschool teaching. Data was collected from three sessions of semi-structured interviews and two sessions of observation based on TIM-O. Data was coded and analyzed based on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) to make sense teachers’ technology self-efficacy beliefs towards technology and Technology Integration Matrix (TIM)’s to understand their technology practice into classroom instructions.

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One of the biggest challenges in early childhood development (ECD) centres in rural districts is that teachers are not trained adequately and therefore they cannot create learning environments in which young children can develop to their optimal potential. In many cases a large group of children is placed in a classroom and no stimulation is given to them, because the ECD practitioner does not have the knowledge or skills to use what is available in the classroom to stimulate the children and facilitate learning. These teachers are desperately in need of guidance to plan age appropriate and suitable activities that will benefit the overall development of learners and prepare them to be ready for school. By promoting service learning at ECD centres, especially in rural districts, both the in-service and pre-service teachers will benefit from the teaching experience taking place. Since 1994 a great deal of attention has been drawn to the importance of early childhood development and the important role pre-primary education plays in the development of young learners. Early childhood development has the potential to play a crucial role in the socioeconomic transformation of South Africa. By improving the social and economic transformation of the country, more people will be educated, leading to fewer problems with aspects like school readiness and school dropout. Against this background the study will explore service learning as a way of promoting quality learning environments in Early Childhood Centres in rural districts. / MEd (Learner Support), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015