IMPACT's 2024 Conference Season

The IMPACT team has been busy this year! In addition to the live trainings and on-demand courses we have been providing throughout the year, we have been honored to participate in local, state, and national conferences. Speaking at conferences related to early childhood allows us to share our work and our mission of inclusive early learning with a broader audience.

In the spring, IMPACT presented our Bye-Bye Biting training at both the Seattle Infant Conference at Seattle Pacific University and the virtual Infant and Early Childhood Conference. At both conferences, IMPACT trainers shared research about the prevalence of biting in early learning settings (it is surprisingly common!) and how to identify the reason behind why a child is biting so that educators can then identify a strategy that will be effective to promote positive behavior and keep kids safe in the classroom. This content was very well received at both conferences by audiences that included toddler teachers, nannies, preschool teachers, early intervention providers, parents, and more.

In May, IMPACT team members traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana to present at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Professional Learning Institute. IMPACT presented our Sensory Strategies & The Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation & Learning training to early childhood professionals from around the country. Participants were eager to learn about the three “hidden” senses, and how to use a sensory matrix to understand a child’s sensory system and needs. Participants left this session with concrete sensory tools and strategies to try with the children they serve to promote regulation and learning and to decrease challenging behaviors in the classroom.

IMPACT was thrilled to attend and present a poster presentation at the Zero to Three LEARN Conference in Long Beach, California in July. IMPACT’s poster, "Elevating Provider Voices in Early Childhood Consultation Models to Include Children with Challenging Behaviors & Disabilities” allowed IMPACT to share about the consultation and training work we’ve done, as well as feedback we have received from various stakeholders on how we can best meet the needs of childcare providers around the country. We believe that early childhood educators need specialized training to support children with disabilities and challenging behaviors in the classroom, and that the voices of these educators need to be elevated as we consider the coaching modalities that are available throughout the country. We look forward to future advocacy efforts to increase flexibility of coaching models used to support providers and educators in providing high-quality inclusive care.

Finally, IMPACT presented our Challenging Behaviors: Collecting Data & Creating Behavior Support Plans training at two different conferences. If you’re interested in this topic, we offer this training content in an online on-demand format through the courses in our Behavior Support Toolbox. We presented this training in August at the INSPIRE Conference at Seattle University, which is hosted by the Archdiocese of Seattle. Early childhood educators from across the state of Washington joined to learn how to use data collection methods like ABC charts and scatterplots to better understand behavior and how to then to use this data to write effective behavior support plans. Then in October, we hosted a session on the same topic for early childhood professionals attending the Washington Association for the Education of Young Children (WAEYC) Annual Conference in Seattle, WA.


Through all of our experiences this year, we here at IMPACT continue to work toward our mission to make inclusive early learning accessible to everyone. We believe that with training and support, all early childhood educators are capable of providing high-quality inclusive environments and  supporting the increasingly diverse needs of the children they care for. We thank you all for your partnership in this work this year and look forward to working together through trainings and courses in the future.

- The IMPACT Team

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