Facilitator Certification Course
The SMART Fun Program, Early Childhood (SMART Fun) teaches children the vital developmental social, emotional and cognitive skills. The comprehensive online SMART Fun Facilitator Certification Course enables professionals to implement SMART Fun in preschools, day care, early childhood and allied health settings.
The SMART Fun Program, Early Childhood (SMART Fun) is an intervention program developed by psychologist, Catherine Omni. The program enables facilitators to teach vital developmental social, emotional and cognitive skills to children within small groups in an early childhood or allied health setting. It is aimed at children aged three to five years of age with basic language and attention skills. It is particularly useful for developing skills in children who have neurodevelopmental conditions such as ASD, ADHD, and Mild ID.
The comprehensive online SMART Fun Facilitator Certification Course is designed to provide professionals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively implement SMART Fun intervention in their setting to a professional standard.
This course is suitable for early educators, teachers, special educators, psychologists and allied health practitioners who intend to provide SMART Fun in their centre, and wish to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to successfully implement the program.
AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers
The course addresses Professional Knowledge standards 1.5 and 1.6.
Standard 1.5: Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Standard 1.6: Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.
Intended learning outcomes
Participants will be able to:
- demonstrate the capacity to use SMART Fun, including all key resources, to teach children social, emotional and cognitive skills as outlined in the program activities and games
- demonstrate the capacity to use SMART Fun to teach parents and others of children how to reinforce and cement learning in the home
- analyse and critically evaluate a range of skills development for individuals as well as for the classroom and effectively communicate this to parents and others
- apply knowledge to implement differentiated teaching strategies.
Course in Detail
The course consists of four units and two learning assurance tasks. It covers proficiency in 12 separate areas of SMART Fun, through interactive tasks, activities and videos.
Unit 1: Introduction and overview
- History, research and development of SMART Fun.
- Introduction to the importance of teaching social, emotional and cognitive skills within the early childhood stage.
Unit 2: Social, Emotional & Cognitive Skills
- Social and Emotional Learning in focus
- SEL Skills and Competencies
- Core Cognitive Skills in focus
- SMART Competencies
- Early Stage 1 Key Skills
- Linking SEL Skills to Academic Mission
Unit 3: Teaching SMART Fun Module 2
- Goals and Outcomes
- How to introduce a SMART Fun activity or game
- How to implement a SMART Fun activity or game
- How to end a SMART Fun activity or game
- How to use the activities and games to develop children’s understandings of body, face, voice and place clues
- How to communicate with home about the SMART Fun Program
Unit 4: Teaching SMART Fun Module 3
- Consolidating and transferring skill development throughout the day
- How to track skill development using the SMART Fun Child Evaluation
- Program and EYLF Outcomes: Child Progress Overview
- How to use data to inform differentiated teaching practice
Delivery mode:
20 hours of online coursework and learning assurance tasks.
Learning assurance tasks
The learning assurance tasks are: a multiple-choice quiz and a 5−10 minute video demonstrating proficiency in one activity or game of SMART Fun delivery.
On successful completion of the course, participants will receive:
- an accredited certificate, enabling participants to facilitate SMART Fun at a professional standard with children, parents and educators in preschools, schools, allied health and other relevant clinical settings
- the opportunity to be listed on SMART Fun and the Neurodiversity Centre Australia’s online certified practitioners’ register.
SMART Training
