***New This Month*** If you plan to attend the meeting, please click HERE so that we can have a head count for each site.

Topic: "Integrating Children with Special Needs in the Early Childhood Classroom" (1.5 CE Hours)

Speaker: Michelle Atanu, MOT, OTR

Course Description:
Inclusion is related to better outcomes for young children. This workshop is designed to give evidence –based knowledge on how to integrate special needs children into the pre- school, daycare and early childhood settings. This workshop will provide information on ways to successfully transition young special needs children into the early childhood public school system or most suitable setting, teach useful intervention and behavior strategies for the early intervention classroom and give ways to effectively communicate with parents and caregivers. This workshop is perfect for practitioners who currently work in the 0-3 years old pediatric setting or practitioners who are interested in working within the pediatric population in the future.

Learning Objectives:
As a result of this workshop:
1. Successful learners will understand how to educate teachers and caregivers of observation and screening strategies for a child who may have special needs.
2. Successful learners will identify benefits and challenges to early childhood inclusion.
3. Successful learners will identify ways to communicate with parents/caregivers in various cultures.
4. Successful learners will learn intervention strategies to integrate special needs children in classroom with typically developing peers.
5. Successful learners will learn to implement behavior strategies for classroom management.

Speaker Bio:
Michelle Atanu, MOT, OTR is an occupational therapist who works with children (infancy-youth) in the home, school and community environment. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of children with sensory processing challenges, feeding disorders, behavior regulation concerns, learning disabilities, attention deficits and children with cognitive and neuromotor/ musculoskeletal impairments. She owns a private practice and is the Director of Therapy Services at Avilo Pediatric Therapy, which provides; occupational therapy evaluation and treatment services and conducts workshops and trainings on childhood topics. She is a graduate of The University of Texas’s Master of Occupational Therapy program, is a member of The Texas Occupational Therapy Association, sits on the advisory board for the PIMA Medical Institute’s Occupational Therapy Assistant Program and authors several evidence based newsletters and articles to several schools and early childhood facilities.

This Month’s Locations (Please visit the Gulf Coast East District webpage for addresses and contact information):
- Shriner's Hospital for Children
- University of Texas Medical Branch @ Galveston
- Lonestar-Tomball Health Sciences Building
- Memorial Hermann Southeast
- Pima Medical Institute