2025 International Inclusion Institute

This session will offer a unique opportunity to hear from individuals who can speak as both family members and professionals about what they experienced, what they learned, and what they want to share with families and professionals. Join us to hear their advice on the most effective practices for supporting family engagement, then dive into conversations about how to build reciprocal relationships in higher education, state professional development, and local program efforts.

This session will focus on options for designing effective coursework and professional development that supports participants to learn, try out, and apply practices for supporting each and every learner. Techniques for addressing adaptations and evidence-based teaching practices will be offered, including ways in which to use place-based personas to support outcomes that reflect attention to early childhood inclusion.

Making individualized Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) placement decisions by first considering a regular early childhood program is a requirement under IDEA. Join the conversation to explore key data, factors, and leveraging points of your state, district and local community to identify:where children are who are key partners;which policies influence your actions, how funding sources may be used, and a commitment to action to support and expand inclusive opportunities for young children with disabilities. Tools and resources will be shared.

This session explores the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education by focusing on the integration of AI into Learning Management Systems (LMS) and higher education settings to ensure that all learners can access and participate fully. Participants will learn how AI can create personalized, inclusive learning experiences that address the unique needs of each and every learner, including multilingual learners and students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Attendees will leave with practical strategies to implement these AI tools responsibly, ensuring they are both inclusive and effective.

This presentation centers on cultural and linguistic factors for assessing bilingual children. Fundamental components and strategies for framing an assessment that integrates these aspects will be discussed. Specific focus will be given to guiding principles for assessing language and communication skills. Key considerations relevant to working with families of children from bilingual backgrounds will be addressed as well.

For inclusion to work, early intervention/early childhood special education
specialists
need to work collaboratively with caregivers (parents, teachers, etc.) to find
strategies to help children function in their everyday routines. Collaborative
consultation, sometimes known as coaching, requires the specialist’s obtaining
context before suggesting a strategy. This process stands in contrast to an expert
approach, where the specialist makes recommendations with inadequate context.

This session will focus on addressing interfering behaviors as part of early intervention services. We will describe the development process of freely available online modules to support EI providers to use a caregiver coaching model as part of their service to empower caregivers to use evidence-based practices (EBPs) in daily routines and activities. The module focused on addressing toddler's interfering behaviors will be described with video examples and case studies so that participants can explore how to use the module and its resources as part of their practice. The module format (including planning, using, and monitoring progress) will be outlined and user data related to EBP knowledge and module usefulness will be presented. Finally, participants will develop an action plan to apply what they learned in their own work.

2024 revealed the long-awaited updates to the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines, with greater attention to issues early childhood inclusion. This session will start by sharing options for faculty and PD providers to discover, practice, and apply those guidelines in their learning opportunities and assignments. Then it will share examples of ways to help students and learners to learn about and apply UDL principles in their work with children and families.

This session focuses on a tiered coaching model designed to meet the specific needs of early childhood special education (ECSE) itinerant practioners who service young children with disabilities in general education classrooms including community programs. Attendees of this session will gain access to nuts and bolts of a state-wide itinerant training, the Special Education Itinerant Teacher (SEIT) Academy. The SEIT Academy is designed to promote and support the implementation of a special education itinerant model within early childhood programs as part of the continuum of services for preschool children with disabilities. Come learn about the benefits of tiered coaching that increases the effectiveness of professional development and supporting itinerant practioners establishing and/or enhancing the implementation of itinerant services within their school districts. 

Interested in how to incorporate emphasis on inclusive STEM learning in courses you already teach? Or workshops you already offer? This session will highlight specific strategies for weaving STEM learning and currently required content together. Discover what emphasis on STEM might look like in a course/presentation on language and literacy, family-centered practices, child development, early childhood curriculum, and more.