Toddler Play Conference

Meet the expert speakers

Ashley Yeh, M.Ed

Unpacking the Montessori Essential Triad

Ashley Yeh, M.Ed. is certified infant/toddler Montessori guide, a Positive Discipline Parent Educator, a graduate of RIE Foundations: Theory and Observation, and author of the book “The Montessori Home: Create a Space for Your Child to Thrive”. She has a deep passion and respect for the Montessori approach, having raised both of her two daughters from infancy using Montessori principles.

Claire Heffron, OT and Lauren Drobnjak, PT

It All Starts With The Core

At The Inspired Treehouse, we believe that with a little help, kids can build strong, healthy bodies and minds through play. We are pediatric occupational and physical therapists who are passionate about sharing information, tips, and strategies to help readers conquer the common developmental roadblocks that come up for kids.

Laura Brown, M.A., CCC-SLP

The untapped power of supporting toddler language through play

Laura Brown is a pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom of two little boys. She specializes in early intervention and is passionate about early language, child development, and raising kind humans. She is the founder of Early & Bright, an online community for professionals and parents to support the development of early communication skills.

Mandisa Watts, MBA

Mess-Free Sensory Bags Workshop

Mandisa is a DIY kid’s activity and crafter extraordinaire and founder of Happy Toddler Playtime. She is also an author and co-producer and host of Curious Crafting, a short-form crafting TV series.

Kristina Buskirk, BSc

Low-Prep Play Ideas

Kristina Buskirk is a busy mom of four kids living outside of San Francisco with her husband. She’s the creator of Toddler Approved, an online resource to help parents connect, create, and celebrate in simple ways with their kids. Kristina has a degree in Elementary Education and Special Education, over twenty years of teaching experience, and a passion for early childhood learning. Kristina’s goal is to help parents not just survive but thrive during the early years of parenting with her simple tips and easy activity ideas.

Jayme Yannuzzi M.Ed

Spring Purposeful Play Workshop

Jayme Yannuzzi holds a master’s degree in elementary education. After teaching first and second grade for eight years, she now stays home to share her passion for early childhood online. She is passionate about play-based learning and helping other parents find simple ways to purposefully play together. Through her blog and social media, Teach Talk Inspire, she shares hands-on activity ideas, printables, and resources to entertain and educate all children at home.

Cari Ebert, SLP

Building Executive Function Skills Through Play-Based Learning

Cari Ebert is a pediatric speech-language pathologist who specializes in the birth to 5 population. She is a therapist, consultant, author, product developer, and proud defender of play.

Cara Koscinski, OTD, MOT, OTRL, CAS

Sensory Processing Red Flags

Dr. Cara Koscinski has been an OT for over 25 years, and is the mother of two autistic sons. She is the founder of The Pocket Occupational Therapist website. As the author of 5 books, she enjoys educating therapists and caregivers about how to help children boost independence in daily life.

Sarah Britton, BSc

7 Steps To Setting Up a Playroom

Sarah helps parents and educators create purposeful play opportunities. This includes designing simple play spaces and engaging children through hands-on activities.

Kailee Noland, DPT

Everything You Need To Know About Toddler Shoes

Kailee is a Doctor of Pediatric Physical Therapy and a Mama of 2. She is passionate about empowering parents to play with their children with a purpose through daily routines and rhythms that support development.

Nicole Gordon, MSW

Dropping Naps and Quiet Playtime

Nicole is a certified pediatric sleep consultant and owner of Delightful Dreamers, LLC where she supports families with young children to get better sleep while using a holistic approach and gentle, responsive strategies. She has a background in social work and is also a certified lactation counselor. Nicole has worked with children and families her entire working career and is passionate about supporting families.

Emily Lawson BA

Learning Numbers Through Play Workshop

Emily Lawson, a former teacher, now a stay-at-home mom and loving it, helps moms achieve quick wins by sharing easy ways to combine learning and play. If you want to keep your kids playing and learning with minimal effort, Emily is your girl (spoiler: she has a 2-minute-or-less rule on all activity prep).

Allie Ticktin MA, OTD, OTR/L

Reimagining learning through sensory play

Allie is an occupational therapist specializing in sensory integration. Allie is the founder of Play 2 Progress and the author of the book, Play to Progress: Lead Your Child to Success Using the Power of Sensory Play.

Allie believes that the best way to support children is by arming their parents, from inception, with the knowledge and skills necessary to encourage their child’s development for success through childhood and beyond.

Emily Kukla, SLP

Home Programs That Support Speech Development Through Play

Emily Kukla is a speech pathologist and developmental health coach. She helps parents who have kids with speech and language delays support development at home by integrating functional speech techniques and simple wellness strategies into everyday routines.

Chanda Jothen, PT

Indoor Purposeful Motor Play

Chanda is the voice behind the website, Pink Oatmeal. With a physical therapy background and mom of three kids she uses her knowledge and experience to share and create resources dedicated to making motor skills fun for kids.

Dr. Cindy Hovington, Ph.D.

From meltdowns to firm coping strategies

Dr. Cindy Hovington shares the science of emotional learning through her community, Curious Neuron (130k on Instagram @curious_neuron) and her app called Wondergrade (helps children ages 3-8 cope with emotions). She is also the host of the Curious Neuron Podcast, a top parenting podcast in Canada, the US and the UK (available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music). She has a doctorate degree in neuroscience and works as a consultant for children’s apps and media.

Heather Sossoman, PT, DPT

Dr. Heather Sossoman is a pediatric physical therapist with over 24 years of experience working with children and teens from birth to 23 years.

She is Board Certified Specialist in Pediatrics by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialities. In addition to working one on one with children, she creates YouTube videos with her sons to support parents, teachers, and therapists on her YouTube Channel Pediatric Therapy Essentials.

Heather Greutman, COTA

Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and owner of Growing Hands-On Kids. She uses her background in school-based services to share developmental tips, tools, and strategies for growing hands-on kids. Popular topics on her site include handwriting and pencil grasp, sensory processing, fine motor skills, visual-motor skills and hands-on activity ideas.

Adam Griffin, OT

Ball Play Like You Have Never Seen It Before

Adam is the Head of Occupational Therapy at Camali Clinic CAMHS Dubai. Since coming to Dubai over 9 years ago Adam has been instrumental in establishing several developmental, educational, and vocational support services here in the UAE as well as providing the highest standard of care for countless families. Adam frequently appears in the media in the UAE discussing disability and healthcare related topics as well as a being regular speaker at professional panels, international conferences and workshops. In 2020 he started the AdamtheOT YouTube channel to provide those affected by covid with fun and functional motor skills activities they can do in their own home.

Rebecca Gasiewicz Thiemann, Ph.D. & Sarah Liebenrood. MA from K Ready Through Play

Spring Story Time

Becca has PhD in Literacy and over 15 years of experience as a classroom teacher, university instructor, and tutor. She owns a tutoring business in Cincinnati that serves students and families in a variety of ways.

Sarah has Masters in Reading and over 15 years of experience as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. She is currently taking time away from the school setting to stay home with her two children and tutor local students.

Jennifer, M.Ed./LMFT & Kay, M.Ed.-ET/P from Tech wise littles

Taking the guesswork and guilt out of screen time

We’re Jennifer and Kay! As educational therapists and moms, we saw the tech conversation was starting too late as we watched our own babies scramble for our phones. We needed answers, and we needed them quickly. So we took our knowledge as educators and therapists and combined it with the latest screen research to bring you our self-paced parenting course: ABCs of Screen Time.

Michelle King, BSc

STEM Play Invitations WORKSHOP

Michelle is the creator of Taming Little Monsters. A website dedicated to play-based learning. She is passionate about helping parents and early years educators give their kids the best start in life.

Stacy Menz, PT, DPT, PCS

Play For Endurance

Stacy Menz, PT, DPT, PCS is a pediatric clinical specialist and the owner/founder of Starfish Therapies a pediatric therapy company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their mission is to make a difference in the lives of each child and family they interact with. Stacy also gives back by serving in various roles in her professional organizations as well as being a board member of WAWOS.

Alene Villaneda, BS, OFM, CNHP, iLS, BIT

3-Step Framework for Easy and Successful Retained Primitive Reflex Integration

In 1994, Alene started her business as Alene’s Tutoring, which evolved into Integrated Learning Strategies. More than 25 years later, Alene has helped hundreds of children excel and progress at higher academic levels, allowing them to make huge strides in both their academic and professional lives. She offers assistance and specialized programs to children and parents worldwide who need help with sensory issues, attention and focus, speech, learning disabilities and academic struggles.

Mandy Richardson, B.Ed, MA

The Secret To Independent Play

Mandy from Raise Toddlers is a toddler development specialist with her Masters in Child and Family Studies. She is completing her PhD in parent and child mental well-being. Mandy is passionate about toddler play and also incorporates her many years as an Early Childhood Educator in supporting parents to understand and support their toddlers’ play.

Holly Peretz

Process art for toddlers

Holly Peretz, OTR/L, is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist, toddler mom and the founder of otholly.com. Through her blog, online conference and membership she aims to make early child development accessible and easy to understand for toddler parents.

Holly is passionate about making the little years fun, lighter and more colorful for families.

the VIP Ticket

Want to snag the bonus content from every speaker + listen on the go, podcast style?

Conferences can go by in a flash so we want to make all of these game -changing resources available to you, for keeps.

By upgrading to the VIP ticket you get every part of the conference

+ bonus content from every speaker

+ all talks in a podcast form so you can listen on the go

+ A Certificate of Participation for over 15 hours of learning

+ instant access (no need to wait around- the VIP ticket is ready and waiting)

Toddler Play Conference

Meet the expert speakers

the VIP Ticket

Want to snag the bonus content from every speaker + listen on the go, podcast style?

THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY

PLAY AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITY

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