San Francisco Child Care Providers Association Conference

This past March, Tandem attended the 11th Annual SFCCPA Conference in San Francisco. Community Literacy Specialist Robia Lee and San Francisco Program Supervisor Kelsey Gottschalk attended to present Tandem’s educator training on children’s early brain development in both English and Chinese.

The Early Language and the Growing Brain workshop takes a look at how young children’s brain growth and neural activity is directly affected by classroom experiences, interactions with adults, and more specifically, how interactive book-sharing stimulates brain growth and language acquisition. Kelsey and Robia discussed and practiced book-sharing strategies that support brain development for children ages zero to five during their 80-minute workshop. Exploring a variety of related topics led to lively discussions on “serve and return” interactions between children and adults; strategies for engaging very young children during storytime, and how to get families involved in children’s early learning.

Sharing Information with the Community

Tandem provides trainings and workshops on early learning topics to early childhood educators because educators have asked for more training and information on how children’s brains develop during those crucial first five years. For many educators attending the workshop, knowing more about how children’s brains process and retain information helps them develop simple, effective strategies that they may use in the classroom. Knowing that the brain learns best through repetition, educators discussed ways to incorporate singing familiar songs or sharing a favorite book with the class multiple times throughout the week to build their students’ early literacy skills and their confidence. “We’re providing a service that not only breaks down an a technical concept,” said San Francisco Program Supervisor Kelsey Gottschalk, “We’re also providing ways for professionals to take that knowledge and put it in to use. These workshops are also a time for educators to come together and share their own knowledge, experiences, and techniques with other educators. This type of shared learning can be extremely valuable not only for educators attending our workshops, but for Tandem staff as well!”

Following the presentation, over 95% of participants said they were provided with new information and resources that will increase their effectiveness as early childhood educators. We are extremely proud to have been invited to present more workshops and professional development opportunities for educators at other SFCCPA events. Visit out Community Capacity Building page to learn more about our trainings and workshops for educators and family support professionals.

Interested in learning more about Tandem’s early learning workshops? Contact us at info@tandembayarea.org!