CSC hosts Excellence in Early Childhood Learning Conference

Chadron State College hosted the 29th Excellence in Early Childhood Conference last Friday in the Ponderosa, Lakota, and Bordeaux Rooms, and Saturday in the Student Center Ballroom.

The Early Childhood Development Conference on Friday gave attendees choices of seminar topics to sit in on and learn about how to care and deal with babies and young children.

A main session Friday ran the full length of the day  while three smaller sessions in the afternoon gave three topics of childcare and facts.

‘Safe With You: Shaken Baby’ was the first session Friday afternoon, which focused on facts related to shaken baby syndrome.

Cindy Molina, an independent consultant for early childhood from Gering, presented the first two mini sessions. ‘Nothin’ But Baby-Preventing SIDS,’ and ‘Power to Protect –Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect’ were the other two sessions.

Molina discussed why babies and young children up to five years are susceptible to shaken baby syndrome because of the amount of room in their skull that allows their brain to move around and bump against their skull.

A fact she said many people don’t know is that tossing your child in the air and catching them—like many adults do with their children—or even bouncing them on your leg, can lead to shaken baby syndrome.

Any jarring of the baby or the head can lead to this syndrome.

Unfortunately it is difficult to determine how many times a baby must be shaken or jarred, and how severely, before that child develops shaken baby syndrome.

Consequences, symptoms, and how to handle yourself when you are stressed and around a child who continuously cries, were the last topics Molina discussed.

One symptom of this syndrome is the baby continuously cries; however, some babies have an inconsolable cry, where they simply cry because they are upset. Crying increases around the two to three week mark for a newborn, and peaks at the six to eight week mark.

Molina’s best advice was: if you know how a certain baby acts because you’ve been exposed to his or her behaviors enough, you will be able to notice drastic changes and crying that is not normal for that baby.

Once you begin to notice symptoms, as a care taker it is important to notify the appropriate officials and, most importantly, the baby’s parents.

The last topic was how to handle yourself if you become stressed because a baby is crying and need to calm down before handling that baby, to keep from shaking him or her.

Having another care taker with you, calling a neighbor to take over for a few minutes, or simply laying the child down in a crib and listening to soothing music, are ways to calm yourself and possibly the baby-and make the situation safer for both.

“It was once again an amazing professional conference,” CSC Professor of Family Consumer Sciences Kim Madsen said in an email Monday.

Madsen also said that the conference provided attendees with the opportunity to learn new skills for supporting positive behavior outcomes for all children.

Each of the pre-sessions on Friday were limited to 30 participants, and centered on social emotional development, preventing shaken baby syndrome, preventing sudden infant death syndrome, and preventing child abuse and neglect.

A networking reception in the Student Center Ballroom followed the pre-sessions, and the public was invited to meet the conference’s key-note speak, San Antonio-based educational consultant, Dan St. Romain.

According to Madsen, approximately 60 people attended the public session.

St. Romain presented all-day Saturday, and spoke about shifting perspectives to understand children’s behavior and learning to provide the best support for the challenges that face today’s learners.

St. Romain’s presentation was highly interactive and kept the attendees moving around the Ballroom and interacting with each other.

“As Dan reminded us – every learner must do two things – talk and move.” Madsen said. She said that approximately 225 people attend Saturday’s presentations.

The conference was sponsored in part by Chadron State College, the CSC Family and Consumer Sciences Program, the CSC Child Development Center, and seven other area partners.