Podcast

Listen as Beth Menninga, our CICC Coaching Manager, joins Inclusion Matters and shares key practices to support our youngest learners through common daily separations and reunions. 

Join in our second part of a discussion on the importance of play with Dr. Sue Starks, Professor of Education and Chair of Early Childhood at Concordia University St. Paul.  We discuss the fact that play is a developmental need and that all children show us what they need through play.  Quality play is encouraged through the supports, prompts, activities, and experiences that we provide in the early childhood setting. Listen as Dr. Starks encourages us all to play!

Listen as our guest, Dr. Sue Starks, Professor of Education and Chair of Early Childhood at Concordia University St. Paul, talks about one of her passions, supporting play in young children.  Dr. Starks shares that play is relationship based and your environment matters.  How can you align your space to foster early social emotional connection through play? Join us as we explore this important topic. 

Tracy Schreifels,  Executive Director of Ellison Center in St. Cloud, MN joins us for an important conversation centered around the pandemic and what it was like for young children and their families.  We discuss some key questions that can help us to begin to process the impact. What are our bodies holding related to this trauma?  How do we process and name our experiences so we can start to heal?  How do we help young children organize their experiences and move forward? 

Inclusion Matters welcomes Olivia Christensen and Jon Vaupel from the Minnesota Department of Education, Division of Early Learning to discuss supporting children and their learning pathway-starting with kindergarten.  This podcast highlights the Successful Learner Equation, which recognizes that children are always ready to learn and that it is the responsibility of adults and systems to be ready to support all children as they grow and develop, and as they transition to kindergarten.  Listen and learn more about this exciting way to look at a child’s foundation for learning.  

Pediatric Occupational Therapist Alyssa Mason joins us for another discussion about the sensory needs of young children in our care. For those who have experienced trauma or may be experiencing trauma, what can we provide related to support, how do we understand possible triggers, and how can we be informed and in-tune to a child and the messages they are sending through their behavior?  This podcast recording was funded by Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) 80x3 - Resilient from the Start.