About Carol Kranowitz

A preschool teacher for 25 years, Carol Kranowitz observed many young children with SPD. Today she teaches parents, educators, and other professionals how sensory issues play out and suggests activities for addressing them at home and school. Carol’s books and DVDs, published by Perigee Books and Sensory Resources, include The Out-of-Sync Child and The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun; The Out-of-Sync Child video; a children’s book, The Goodenoughs Get in Sync; and Preschool SENsory Scan for Educators (Preschool SENSE), a tool for therapists working with teachers. She is a Board Member of SPD Foundation and Editor-in-Chief of S.I. Focus, the magazine devoted to sensory processing issues. Carol received her B.A. from Barnard College and M.A. in Education & Human Development from George Washington University.

Getting Children in Sync with Fun and Functional Activities

Some children are “out-of-sync,” responding atypically to touch, movement, sight and sound. They don't behave as we expect – not because they WON'T, but because they CAN'T. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) causes misinterpretation in the central nervous system of sensations coming from their bodies and surroundings.

Parents, teachers, and other professionals are invited to learn not only about how SPD affects children’s behavior and learning, but also about sensible strategies that help children with this common, but misunderstood, developmental problem. Attendees will be shown -- and will participate in -- invigorating and fun sensory-motor activities, which they can easily incorporate into their children’s home and school experiences. Like “over-the-counter therapy,” these activities help children get in sync by emphasizing social interaction, heavy work, messy and not-so-messy play, body awareness, balance, rhythm and timing, visual-spatial relationships, auditory-language processing, motor planning, crossing the midline, oral-motor skills, and calming down.

Learning Objectives

Participants who attend this presentation will be able to:

Explain how movement and touch experiences are essential ingredients in every child's daily sensory diet – “Movement is learning”
Identify fun and functional sensory-motor activities, specifically designed to engage various sensory systems and thereby improve learning and regulate behavior
Replicate the activities as demonstrated here when they return to the classroom, home, or clinic to work with all children, with or without SPD
Adapt and stretch the activities according to the needs of the children in their care

Time Ordered Agenda

8:30-10:00       What is Sensory Processing? What is Sensory Processing Disorder?
10:00-10:30     Break
10:30-12:00     Fun and Functional Activities
12:00-1:00       Lunch
1:00-2:30         More Fun and Functional Activities
2:30-3:00         Break
3:00-4:30         More Fun and Functional Activities