Workshops and Trainings Offered By the Hanen Ontario Provincial Preschool Speech and Language Initiative
Below is a complete list of workshops and training that are funded through the Hanen in Ontario Provincial Preschool Speech and Language Initiative. These workshops and trainings are open to professionals who work within the PSL with preschoolers who have communication difficulties.
Certification Workshops
It Takes Two to Talk® Certification Workshop
About this Workshop
Achieving the best possible language outcomes for the children on your caseload includes involving and empowering the people who can make the biggest difference – their parents and caregivers.
The It Takes Two to Talk workshop offers an evidence-based framework for engaging and coaching parents of children with language delays so they can support their child’s communication development during fun, everyday interactions. By addressing the needs of parents as adult learners and helping them learn research-based, responsive interaction strategies, you transform early language intervention into the natural, ongoing process that leads to the best possible outcomes.
Learning Language and Loving It™ Certification Workshop
About this Workshop
The Learning Language and Loving It™ Certification Workshop provides you with an effective framework for empowering educators to create the kinds of enriched language-learning environments that help children learn best.
You’ll discover how to help educators promote the social, language, and literacy development of young children (birth to five) using responsive interaction strategies that help all children learn, whether they’re typically developing, have or are at risk for language delays, or are second-language learners.
More Than Words® Certification Workshop
About this Workshop
Are you looking for an effective autism service model that includes parent involvement?
The More Than Words® workshop offers a clear and evidence-based framework for zeroing in on the specific communication needs of young children on the autism spectrum or who have social communication difficulties. You’ll learn a naturalistic, family-centered approach that empowers parents to support their child’s communication during everyday interactions. Whether you offer More Than Words® programs to parents or work one-to-one with children and their families, you’ll have the complete set of skills and resources to make early intervention the shared, ongoing effort that makes the biggest difference for children.
Advanced Workshops
Target Word™ Advanced Workshop
About this Workshop
If you’re like many SLPs, a portion of your caseload includes children with primary expressive language delay. These are children between 18 and 30 months of age whose cognitive, comprehension, social and play skills are developing as expected, but who aren’t using as many words or word combinations as other children their age.
The Target Word™ advanced workshop provides you with a specialized framework for meeting the specific learning needs of this subset of children, also called “late talkers”. With this addition to your clinical toolbox, you will be able to:
- identify which late talking children will benefit from early intervention.
- set specific goals for each child based on their current communication skills.
- coach parents to use specific strategies, including focused stimulation, to target vocabulary development and lay the foundation for sentence use.
- determine next steps for each child -- The Target Word Program for parents provides a First Step Diagnostic Intervention to help families determine the most appropriate next steps for their child.
TalkAbility™ Advanced Workshop
About this Workshop
Are you looking for strategies to promote extended conversations and social skills in children on the autism spectrum or who have social communication difficulties?
The TalkAbility™ Advanced Workshop offers a research-based framework for supporting parents to promote the social skills and language abilities their child needs for more successful conversations and relationships. You'll learn how to help parents and children find more joy and connection in their interactions and understand each other's perspectives, as well as how to support the child to have longer, more meaningful conversations with both adults and peers. As with all Hanen programs, these goals are accomplished while building upon and respecting the child's unique strengths and interests and making the most of their existing everyday routines and activities.
ABC and Beyond® Advanced Workshop
About this Workshop
Do you work in early childhood settings where emergent literacy is a key focus? The Hanen Centre's online ABC and Beyond™ Advanced Workshop can provide you with a comprehensive and flexible approach to helping educators build the higher level literacy skills that prepare 3-5 year olds for success in school.
ABC and Beyond is an Advanced Hanen Workshop for SLPs and early childhood education consultants/trainers who have already been introduced to the Hanen approach in a previous Hanen workshop and who have current Hanen membership. Combining the principles of adult education with cutting-edge research in emergent literacy development, the ABC and Beyond workshop shows you the most effective ways to empower educators to promote the following six building blocks of emergent literacy during book reading and everyday conversations and activities:
- Oral language
- Vocabulary
- Story comprehension
- Language of learning
- Print knowledge
- Phonological awareness
I'm Ready™ Advanced Workshop
About this Workshop
Parents play a powerful role in supporting children's emergent literacy skills – the building blocks for learning to read and write. At the I’m Ready!™ Advanced Workshop, you'll learn how to train parents to use shared book reading and conversation to build the key emergent literacy skills that prepare young children for school success. This includes children who are typically developing, at risk of a language delay, or who have a mild language delay.
Additional Workshops for Professionals Working in Ontario
SPARK Communication™: Coaching Parents to use Hanen Strategies workshops
About this Workshop
SPARK Communication™ is an online Hanen training designed specifically for professionals who work with young children with language delays and their families (non-SLPs).
Participants learn research-based responsive interaction strategies — drawn from Hanen’s It Takes Two to Talk® program and guidebook — that are known to accelerate children’s early language development.
They also learn how to coach parents to apply these strategies during everyday interactions with their child to make language learning a natural, ongoing process for the child.
Hanen’s 4“I”s to Socialize™: Coaching Parents of Children with Autism and Social Communication Difficulties
About this Workshop
If your role includes supporting the communication development of young children with autism or social communication difficulties, you know that involving parents effectively is key to your success.
Hanen 4 “I”s to Socialize™ is an intensive workshop designed to facilitate and enhance your efforts to involve families and to achieve the best possible outcomes for young children with social communication challenges.
The workshop provides:
- A research-based protocol for evaluating children’s social communication and determining next steps – A comprehensive checklist helps you zero in on a child’s stage of social communication and identify what his or her next target may be.
- A set of responsive interaction strategies drawn from Hanen’s evidence-based More Than Words® program – You’ll share these strategies with parents so they can facilitate their child’s ability to engage in extended, enjoyable interactions within everyday activities and routines.
- A structured parent coaching framework that’s based on principles of adult learning – this consists of a clear, 4-step coaching model that considers the needs of adult learners and effectively supports parents’ application and generalization of strategies.
How to Register
If interested in any of the workshops mentioned above, please reach out to your coordinator:
- The coordinator will provide staff member with the application link (see below) for workshop of interest OR reach out to us at [email protected] for application link, to then send to staff member.
- Staff member will complete application, which places them on the waitlist for that workshop type.
- When a workshop date and time becomes available, an email will be sent out to select staff members with a link to register for that workshop.