2007 Assessment Workshop

Innovative Assessment Practices: Supporting Families and Community

This year we celebrated the fifth year of this pre-conference workshop, held as a “track day” prior to the annual conference of the Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia (ECEBC). Once again our efforts in organizing this event acknowledge the unique collaboration of parents, academics and professionals who work on behalf of young children in the public school, early childhood and health-related systems. This year, the Supported Child Development Program of BC joined in as a new partners that co-sponsored the workshop, together with The Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC), The Infant Development Programs of BC (IDP), the Psychoeducational Resource and Training Centre (PRTC) at UBC, the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) and the CHILD Project, a five year interdisciplinary study of early child development.

We continue to work towards the sharing of the different lenses of the assessment of infants and young children. This year we aimed at the current, innovative assessment strategies and practices. We were thrilled to have Ms. Jacqueline Smit-Alex, Managing Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership, who presented the Opening Remarks by providing a succinct overview of HELP’s current research initiatives in early child development. Dr Thomas Boyce, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, Sunny Hill Health Centre and BC Leadership Chair in Child Development was this years’ first keynote speaker. Dr Boyce presented a thought-provoking session entitled “What do Monkeys and Kindergarteners” have in common that highlighted cutting-edge research findings on bio-behavioural research. Workshop presenters included parents, community project managers, professionals, therapists and clinicians working in early child assessment; paediatricians, scientists and university professors coming both from BC, and as guests from Alberta and California (US). Presenters shared their experiences and research on the different strategies, resources, and emerging practices used in the early identification and assessment of at-risk infants and children. Dr Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair & Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, in the Department of Psychiatry, UBC, and at BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, presented the afternoon keynote’s session on advances in neuro-cognitive science and the implications for children in their preschool years.

The event concluded with a short presentation from Dr Kimberly Schonert-Reichl (UBC) and 2007 Killam Teaching Award recipient. Dr Schonert-Reichl stressed on the importance of academic and community partnerships for research, and how research is made possible by the early childhood education programs staff support. Tony Hoyland (ECEBC) and Lynell Anderson (HELP) provided a current update on the child-care funding situation – both the impact on the different programs and the advances in recent negotiations with government officials.

Once again, participants’ strong ratings of the workshops and of the event, in general, have provided this Organizing Committee with invaluable feedback to already start planning for our 2008 Assessment Workshop event. Please see the description and links to the presentations below.

We would like to thank:

ECEBC and their Board of Directors, in particular Ann Silberman, Violet Jessen, together with Toni Hoyland, President, and Dianne Tannahill
Joyce Branscombe and Nicky Byres, and supporting staff of EventAbility
Dana Brynelsen and the Provincial Advisor Office of the Infant Development Program of BC
Lorraine Aitken and the Provincial Advisor Office of Supported Child Development Programs of BC
William McKee and The Psychoeducational Training Centre at UBC
Clyde Hertzman, Lori Irwin and staff from HELP and CHILD
…for their support and enthusiasm in presenting this exciting event
We gratefully acknowledge the administrative and logistical support provided by:
Dr William McKee The Psychoeducational Training Centre, Faculty of Education, UBC
Shaheen Jivraj, Director, Business Development, and Jo-Anne Chilton, Program Assistant, Distance Ed. & Direct Instruction The Office of External Programs, Faculty of Education, UBC
Jo-Anne Naslund and The Education Library, Faculty of Education, UBC
Barbara Goyer, CHILD Project Coordinator with HELP
Adrienne Ho, Sophia D’Amato, Ellen Larcombe, HELP
Amelia Mathison, Office of the Provincial Advisor, Infant Development Programs of BC
Sandi McDonald, Office of the Provincial Advisor, Supported Child Development Programs of BC

Warm thanks to our enthusiastic and committed Volunteers:
Neda Razaz-Rahmati (Mapping Unit Administrator, (HELP), Martin Guhn, Ph D Candidate (Faculty of Education, UBC), Carolina Rolando, Und. Student, Faculty of Arts, UBC
Presentations Speaker
Keynote Address (AM):
What Do Monkeys and Kindergarteners Have in Common?
Dr. Thomas Boyce
Keynote Address (PM): Innovative Practices: Supporting Teachers as well as Supporting Students; Addressing Student’s Physical, Artistic, and Emotional Needs as well as their Cognitive Ones And Some Targeted Ways to Assess Outcomes.No presentation available.
Interested delegates should contact presenter by email at
adele.diamond@ubc.ca
Adele Diamond, PhD
Identifying Barriers to Inclusion in Schools Dr. Jayne Pivik
The Social Emotional and Moral Lives of Young Children: Preliminary Findings from the CHILD Project Dr. Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, and
Angela Jaramillo MA
Exercise and the Brain Dr. Brian Christie
New Directions in Brain Imaging using Magnetoencephalograpgy (MEG)video clip 1 | video clip 2 Naznin Birji-Babul, P.T. PhD.
Surviving Neonatal Intensive Care: Impacts on Early Childhood Development Dr. Anne Synnes
The Development and Assessment Joint Attention in typical and Atypical Infants and Young Children Dr. Veronica Smith
The Alan Cashmore Team Approach for Children with Social/Emotional Fragility Mary Lee Best,Andrea DawsonandPam Gallowy
Listening to Parents’ Voices: What Can We Learn? Susan R. Harris, PhD, PTandLynn Bilardello
Community Systems Change Through Learning Collaboratives: Multidisciplinary Partnerships for Healthy Child DevelopmentNo presentation available.
Interested delegates should contact presenters by email at
jhoube@cw.bc.ca and minkelas@ucla.edu
Dr. Jill Houbé and
Dr. Moira Inkelas, MPh
First Nations Perspectives on Developmental Monitoring and Screening
Jessica Ball, M.P.H., PhDandPauline Janyst, MA
Family Centered Practice in Communicating and Understanding Assessment Results Laurie Ford, PhDandSuretha Swart MA
Early Identification and Assessment of Children with Learning DisabilitiesNo presentation available.
Interested delegates should contact presenter by email at
ckaplan@shaw.ca
Charles Kaplan, PhD
Promoting Family Centred Information Sharing Practices in Early Hearing Screening Context Dr. Brenda Poon

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