Get Ready for the Keynotes

Inclusive Foundations: Navigating Special Education Within the Preschool Setting
Under IDEA – Kim Caylor and Deana Smith

It is important for all educators, providers, administrators, and families to understand the important role they play in ensuring that children with unique challenges get equal access to and benefit from play and learning opportunities. Let’s explore how inclusive practices support the success of every child with or without disabilities.

Kim Caylor is the Unit Manager for the Early Intervention and Education Program at the Wyoming Department of Health. She has a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with an Early Childhood Special Education endorsement and concentration in Early Childhood education. She also is credentialed as a Certified Public Manager.

Deana Smith is an Education Consultant for the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE), Special Education Programs Division. She is the Part B/619 Coordinator for WDE and coordinates statewide professional development for special education. She holds a master’s degree in Education for Reading and a B.A. in Special Education. Education has always been a priority as she has been involved in some capacity for the last 20 years at the High School, Junior High, and Elementary level.

Growing Readers Through Play – Michelle Sullivan

From an infant’s curiosity about books to a young child’s growing understanding that spoken words can be written text, literacy begins at birth and continues throughout our lifetimes. Yet the strategies that support this development are different in early childhood. During this hands-on and engaging plenary, we’ll focus on ways early childhood educators can help foster young children’s literacy development through play and playfulness. Using the work of national experts, you will walk away with fun and concrete ways to grow the readers and writers in your care through games, experiences, and conversation.

Michelle Sullivan is the Director of the Wyoming Afterschool Alliance, a Priority Fund of the Wyoming Community Foundation. Most of Sullivan’s professional and voluntary life has focused on the development of dynamic and connected communities. Much of her work integrates cognitive science research to design effective approaches to human development and to strengthen the bridges between educational research and practice. She is also an advocate for the development of leaders on all levels in organizations and facilitates numerous leadership programs.