We talk with Dr. Natalie Danner, the LaVonne Kopecky Plambeck Endowed Chair of Montessori Education at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, who gives us an introduction to the Montessori approach in early childhood education.

On this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Christine Spence. Dr. Spence is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on high-quality supports for families and providers participating in early intervention and early childhood special education systems. She joins us to talk about listening to family's voices in early childhood programs.

On this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Deserai Miller. Dr. Miller is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Special Education and teaches in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on provisions of trauma-informed care through special education service delivery and the preparation of professionals across multiple disciplines related to trauma-informed care. She joins us to discuss strategies for supporting young children who have experienced trauma.

On this podcast we interviewed Dr. Catherine Corr from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Corr is an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education. She joins us to help us understand the impact of trauma on the lives of young children.

This podcast, based on a blog written by Dr. Rebecca Swartz, discusses what young children learn from block play.

https://illinoisearlylearning.org/blogs/growing/busy-blocks/

This podcast contains an interview with Dr. Michaelene (Micki) Ostrosky about supporting young children's friendships. Dr. Ostrosky is the head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

On this podcast, we are joined by Michelle Patt. Michelle Patt is an early childhood educator, consultant, and writer. Her work emphasizes learning through exploration and experimentation. She writes about the integration of art and science into preschool classroom activities to encourage children's problem solving and innovation. Michelle is preschool supervisor at Howard Area Community Center, a Preschool for All and Head Start braided program in Chicago, Illinois. She joins us to discuss strategies for encouraging young children to engage in purposeful play. She blogs about her work at Explore Inspire EC.

In this podcast, we interview Dr. Sarai Coba-Rodriguez from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In her research, she uses a family resilience perspective to learn about school readiness and family involvement among low-income Latino and African American families, including their beliefs and practices that promote young children’s successful transition to kindergarten. She joins us to share stories and insights from her research.

In this interview, we speak with Elise Proser, a speech language pathologist from the Urbana Early Childhood School in Urbana, IL. Ms. Proser received her bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing science and master’s degree in speech language pathology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has been working in the schools as a speech language pathologist for five years. She joins us to talk about supporting the language and literacy development of preschoolers and how IEPs (Individual Education Plans) are formed in early childhood programs. She also shares a bit about her journey to becoming a speech language pathologist and how students who are interested in speech pathology might explore this career.

In this podcast, we are joined by Ms. Crystal Vowels. Ms. Vowels is an experience leader in special education and principal of the Urbana Early Childhood School (UECS) in Urbana, IL. UECS recently received an award of excellence for their inclusion practices from Excelerate Illinois, the Quality Rating and Improvement Program for Early Care and Education for the state of Illinois. Ms. Vowels shares insights about how inclusive early childhood programs meet the needs of diverse young children with and without disabilities.