Superintendents' Early Childhood Plan
2019-20 Professional Development for All Series
Executive Function and Self-Regulation
Join early childhood experts on Wednesday, November 6, to explore the important role of social-emotional development in students, with a particular emphasis on executive function. Social-emotional development involves a child's ability to experience, express, and manage emotions, and establish positive relationships with others. Self-regulation and executive function skills are the mental processes that allow us to plan, focus attention, recall instructions, and successfully attend to multiple tasks. A child’s brain relies on these skills to filter distractions, control impulses, prioritize tasks, and set and achieve goals. Children aren’t born with these skills. Rather, they are born with the potential to develop them over time. The full range of capabilities continues to grow through adolescence and into early adulthood. When caring adults give children the opportunity to develop executive function and self-regulation skills, the benefits can last a lifetime, as these skills are crucial for development and learning. The PD for All series is a groundbreaking series of free professional development experiences open to all early childhood professionals who serve young children, birth through Grade 3, in the Omaha metro area. The series is made possible by the Learning Communities of Douglas and Sarpy Counties and introduces leading-edge research and innovative practices that can make a difference in the lives of young children and families.
Keynote Presenter
Dr. Julia Torquati is an award-winning professor and interim department chair of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies (CYAF) in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska ̶ Lincoln and serves as the Community Chair in Infant and Child Mental Health. Her focus areas include temperament, self-regulation, caregiving, peer relationships, adult-child relationships, and executive functioning.
Breakout Sessions
Children's Executive Functioning in a Natural Outdoor Setting vs. Indoors (Ages 3-8)
Natural environments provide benefits for how children think, including benefits for children’s attention, working memory, inhibitory control, and important implications for self-regulation. Participants will learn how access to nature during the school day can help children to be successful. Access might include recess, windows, and outdoor classrooms. Executive Function and Challenging Behaviors in Preschool-Age Children (Ages 3-5)
This session will address the relationship between children’s challenging behaviors and difficulties with salient executive functions such as inhibitory self-control, flexibility, and attentional control. Suggestions will be provided for ways in which parent-professional teams can strengthen young children’s executive functioning through authentic, engaging learning opportunities. Mind in the Making: Developing Essential Life Skills for Children From Birth Through Age 3
Participants will explore ways in which parents and caregivers can support children from birth through age 3 in developing essential life skills such as focus and self-control, communication, making connections, critical thinking, and taking on challenges. Videos, anecdotes, and dialogue will engage participants in learning about research and thinking through ways to apply it in their professional practice. Supporting Children's Executive Functioning in Kindergarten Through Grade 3
In the school-age years, children are developing essential executive functions that support cognitive regulation. This includes the ability to exercise working memory and to follow directions, as well as the ability to regulate one’s own behavior and emotions. This session will introduce participants to current research on executive function and encourage them to develop plans for how to apply this research in their current professional practice.
Date & Location
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Salvation Army Kroc Center
2825 Y Street
Omaha, NE 68107
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