When I founded Together We Grow, I wanted togive educators and caregivers the resources they need to create responsive andjoyful classrooms.
While there is no doubt that early childhoodeducators across the country work tirelessly to make their classrooms safe andengaging environments, overstimulation or stress can sometimes lead tooverlooking the individual emotional and sensory needs of children; and that issomething I want to change.
Recently, I was invited to speak at theCatherine Hershey Schools for Early Learning Early Childhood Education (ECE) Leaders Summit, where I led a Sensory Processing Integration and Strategies session designed tohelp ECE staff understand how children receive and respond to sensoryinformation and help build ways to support sensory processing development.
ECE is experiencing a number of challengesrelated to sensory processing for both children and professionals.
Research shows that, every year, as many as8,710 three- and four-year-old children may be expelled from or pushed out oftheir state-funded preschool or prekindergarten classroom. In childcarecenters, expulsion rates are 13 times what they are in K–12 classrooms, with asmany as 39 percent of childcare providers reporting at least one expulsion inthe past year.
[A 2015 study from UCLA’s Civil Rights Projectestimated that public school children lost an estimated 18 million days ofinstruction in just one school year because of exclusionary discipline.]
