Sample Seminar Topics

 

If you're interested in learning more about or setting up a live or virtual seminar covering one or more of these topics contact us or fill out a Seminar Inquiry Form here.

 

Sample topics include the following. We welcome you to request a topic and we'll do our best to meet your needs: 

 

Understanding the Gesell Developmental Assessment System

This seminar will give parents an overview of the Gesell Developmental Assessment System and explain how the results can support a child’s development. Sample tasks from the GDO-R and/or GES will be demonstrated.

 


Beyond Admissions and Placement: Using the GDO-R/GES to Inform Instruction

In addition to the common use of the GDO-R and GES in the admissions process, there are a multitude of other applications to the results gathered from these assessment tools. Learn how the Gesell Assessment System can be your partner in screening for developmental delays, in creating appropriate curriculum expectations and in differentiating instruction to ensure developmentally appropriate experiences for all children. Specifically this seminar will address:
  • How to read and best understand the results of GDO-R assessments
  • How to use the results for instructional purposes
  • Answer questions on specific assessment results

Foundations of Child Development

Fundamental knowledge about the ages and stages of child growth and development give all those who work with young children the ability to see children where they are in all domains. By exploring how each child has a unique developmental profile, expectations can be customized for optimal learning outcomes. This seminar will give participants specific information about each developmental stage as children grow, comprehensive developmental theory, and how stages of growth impact certain behaviors and processes.


The Kindergarten Conversation

To accompany our Kindergarten Conversation booklet, this training will consider what it means to be “Ready for Kindergarten” in the context of Ready Kids, Ready Families, Ready Schools, and Ready Communities. This paradigm reveals different and important key points when making decisions regarding the transition from preschool to kindergarten. 


The Fundamentals of Play

Not all play is created equal. While unfettered exploration is essential to allowing children to grow important skills, so is adult-directed guidance and scaffolding. Research suggests four categories defining the intersect of adult directed or initiated play and child directed or initiated play:

1) Free Play
2) Guided Play
3) Co-opted Play
4) Direct Instruction

In this workshop we unpack the difference in play depending on the level and kind of adult involvement. Importantly, we will consider when adult initiated play is helpful to learning, and when it’s time for adults to step back.


Filling Our Playbox: Collaborating on Play Based Learning

As a result of participating in this seminar, participants will be able to:

  1. Define play along a spectrum, based on the level of initiative and direction of the child vs the adult, as supported by research by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and others

  2. Recognize activities that adhere to a true definition of play and which are just direct instruction disguised as play based learning

  3. Outline a plan for infusing more play based learning into their classroom



The Witness, Not the Judge: The Gesell Approach to Observation and Developmental Assessment in Early Childhood

Participants will learn the importance of objective developmental assessment in early childhood, and why even professionals should not “eye” it. This training will also teach the difference between developmental, environmental and academic assessments; give teachers the knowledge to identify reliable and valid developmental assessment tools; as well as which tools are best for which children. Participants will leave with the basic understanding needed to objectively monitor normal developmental growth in young children over time in all domains: physical/motor, language/comprehension, social/emotional, and beginning literacy and numeracy skills.