Building Skills During Play and Family Routines

Parents prefer activities that are easy to do and fit into their daily lives. Every day, when your child gets up, gets dressed, eats, rides in the car, plays or participates in any other numerous routines there is opportunity for your child to build skills. These routines open doors to development, often as ‘teachable moments’. This session will present some easy and fun ways to take advantage of those moments to enhance your child’s learning.

Betsy Traub is a research associate at the Early Childhood Center at the Indiana institute on Disability and Community. She believes that families are the most qualified professionals to help their child build skills and that one must start from birth to support learning. She has spent 14 years as a service provider for First Steps and has worked alongside families for even more years as an early educator. Betsy is the parent of four adult children, one who was born with disabilities.

Where do I Find the Village? Finding Family Supports around Disability Issues

The saying, “It takes a village to raise a child” may be especially true when raising a child with a disability. Parent-to-parent support helps families realize they are not alone on this journey. Reaching out to others who have experience navigating the complex system of services and supports can be a huge benefit to families working to expand their knowledge base. And when you need to talk to someone who understands how difficult the task can be, a fellow parent who has walked a similar path can relate to what you are going through. Participants in this session will learn about supports available to families on local, state, and national levels, how to find supports, how to create supports, and how to choose the supports that best suit your family needs.

Denise Arland is Executive Director of FUSE (Families United for Support and Encouragement). She is the parent of five children, three of whom have disabilities. Denise is a consultant for early childhood systems, a Regional Parent Resource for In*Source, and serves on her First Steps local planning and coordinating council. She has served on the Indiana ICC, worked as a Regional Facilitator for Family To Family, and worked on Indiana’s transition project for young children.

Envisioning a Positive Future for Your Child

This presentation offers parents of young children a new understanding of how articulating a vision for their child’s future can become one of their strongest advocacy tools in navigating the many service systems that support their child. We will review techniques of creating a vision for their child’s future, and how to use the vision in current service planning meetings and in guiding future service choices. The approach and values of Futures Planning will be reviewed and practical tips on how families can incorporate this approach in IFSP or IEP planning meetings.

Sally Reed-Crawford began her career over thirty years ago, and has worked as a Child Development Specialist in early intervention, community preschools, an acute care pediatric facility, higher education, parent education programs, and private practice. Sally was a Developmental Specialist in the First Steps system for 8 years. She is an Indiana state-approved trainer on Person-Centered Planning Facilitation and has worked with transitioning preschool and high school students and adults with disabilities.

March 19, 11a-1p,
Cluster H
SPOE in Muncie
225 N. High Street
Muncie, IN 47305

Advocacy is Not a Bad Word: Developing Effective Parent-Provider Relationships Using Positive Advocacy

Advocacy is a tool for families as they seek solutions and resources for their children with disabilities. While people often associate advocacy with negativity, advocacy can and should be approached positively. This training focuses on three components of advocacy: knowledge, skills, and confidence. Participants will learn where to go to find useful information, how to communicate information effectively to professionals, and how to feel more confident when working with the professionals in their children’s lives.

Katie Herron has a PhD in Clinical Psychology. She has worked with parents in the FS system as a service coordinator, a regional facilitator with the F2F initiative, a council specialist with First Steps and a data analyst for the Indiana Transition Initiative. Katie and her husband have a seven-year-old who graduated from First Steps and is currently included in his second grade classroom with an IEP.