When you
welcome new children you often have children with a variety of experiences,
strengths, and challenges. A few children might have disabilities or developmental
delays that impact their learning, social skills, or behavior. Watch this
webinar to uncover how to best understand and implement inclusionary practices
into the classroom that will help children with developmental delays or
disabilities participate successfully alongside their peers.
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After viewing,
- How could you connect the information in the webinar to your personal experiences?
- What new idea(s) will you try?
- What are you still curious about and what to discuss further?
1. There were many points that resonated with me. I strongly believe that we can learn lessons from many different sources in addition to the experts in a particular field. Professor Brillante discussed how experts can learn from teachers and their lived classroom experiences. Over the years, I have talked with teachers about how all children can make progress including those with disabilities. I agree with Dr. Brillante's summary related to "mainstreaming." Within the mainstream model, I often felt that teachers and students with and without disabilities were not adequately prepared to authentically address full inclusion models.
ReplyDelete2. I will focus on what Professor Brillante stated in terms of always being in the "expand my view" mindset or the growth mindset. What made me think about the growth mindset was Professor Brillante's statement, "Not my narrow view." How will I assess students according to how they want to show me what they have learned?
3. One construct that I will explore further is "learned helplessness." Will our interactions with children who have disabilities leave them in a mind set that says they will always need someone to help them complete all tasks related to the classroom in particular and life in general.
I really enjoyed the webinar discussion. All children have special needs. Some more needy then others. Even with a IEP it can often be difficult to meet the needs of that student while teaching and caring for the other children in the classroom. We never know what concerns and learning issues children have that will in our classroom Sept and the few months are often learning social skills and settling in to the routine of school.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteGlad you watched the webinar, I found it helpful and look forward to meeting Dr. Brillante in March. I agree with Kevin in that were many gems of wisdom. Mary reminded me that inclusion is scary. I like the list Brillante provided to explain why educators might be fearful. I agree that one of the reasons, "do no harm" made me question my ability to provide effective education and care. I wonder how you and others would respond to her first poll question: How prepared do you feel to teach children with disabilities in your early childhood classroom? What type of professional development or courses would be most helpful? Were you or others trained to work with experts such as special educators? I look forward to learning more. Sue
after watching this great resource webinar, I really liked that she acknowledged that special educators do not have a magic wand. That each teacher just needs to focus on the child as an individual. We do need to always remember to think outside the box. Each teacher has great ideas and flexibility. helping a child achieve small hurtles becomes huge in their life. Knowing that someone does care and understand. Every child learns in a different way, and we know that as educators. I also agree many gems of wisdom. Teachers are fearful and that is why children are as well. We need to help teachers in order to give them tools to support them as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Stacey,
ReplyDeleteI thought the webinar with Dr. Brillante was informative. When we use developmentally appropriate practices, we need to consider age, the individual child, and the social & cultural context. Brillante reminds that children develop at their own rate; Early educators are there to help them develop at their own rate with the goal of providing skills for all children to be part of the community. You stated all teachers have great ideas, I agree. What great ideas or techniques do you and others have to design your curriculum so that all children can participate in the community inside and outside of the program? I look forward to learning more~ Sue
I agree that special educators donot have a magic wand and what often works for one child often does not work for another. And every child does develop at their own rate and a few never develop the skills which then presents red flag when these milestone are not met or accomplished with in a window of time.
ReplyDelete1.This webinar was very informative and encouraging to me . I like how the author emphasized on the need for formal learning for teachers. Teachers collaborating with specialists to work with children is key. I’ve personally experienced this in my classroom . Putting our heads together and preparing solutions to the child’s needs and seeing the results when these strategies are implemented is quite fulfilling. It helps us believe more in “our own knowledge and abilities “ to quote Brillante.
ReplyDelete2. I will definitely continue to do the therapy , with the child / children after the therapists have visited my classroom by providing extra activities in my classroom so the child can practice those therapeutic techniques.
3. I would like to know how to help parents to teach their children to be self dependent rather than over supported.
Hi Jeeva, I enjoyed reading your response. I wonder if you could give us specific details about how you integrate children in your classroom. How do you plan and prepare for success with specialists? How do they use your expertise? What are some of the activities you implement to support the therapy? Thanks for helping us learn more.
DeleteSue
Hi Sue, yes ofcourse I would love to do that.
DeleteSo about three years ago when Stacey ( center director/ owner) and I realized that we were facing some major behavioral issues in my classroom we contacted EEC who referred us to JRI for help. They sent in a specialist who observed my classroom for specific periods of time, both indoors and outdoors. The specialist looked into the positive reinforcements that were implemented already , discussed the likes and dislikes of the child , child’s family background, and most importantly the concerns at hand. She visited me twice a week for two weeks before we came up with our new plan.
These are some of the strategies we implemented:
The child spoken of here loved alone time with the teacher. She enjoyed coloring pictures,making fuse bead patterns, reading a story , playing card games, and working on difficult puzzles together. So I set aside a time during the morning hours when numbers were low to implement this with the child. This helped the child tremendously. The child felt needed, wanted, accepted, safe, and loved in a special way. I saw a huge difference even the first week. The child sometimes brought her favorite book from home for us to read together.
Another strategy was the “ REWARD SYSTEM “
Here, the entire schedule of the Day was broken into small portions setting baby steps for the child thereby giving the child instant gratification. For example:
Arrival - when the child arrived without tantrums then the child got a “ smiley card”
When the child got 4 smileys in a row then the child got to open an envelope with the child’s name on it with a reward in it.
This system was repeated throughout the day. Rewards were simple but they targeted the likes of the child .
For example: the child could be the special helper who helps turn the pages of the book while the teacher read the story at circle time.
This was followed faithfully for 2 weeks before we did a follow up with the specialist.
The following were discussed:
* were the strategies implemented
* were the results good or bad?
* if good then continue. If not then we tried another avenue. (Thankfully in my case it worked !!!)
But in all this, I have to say , CONSISTENCY was key!
One of the things that I really liked about JRI was that the specialists brought the tools for the teachers to be implemented. So they could be readily used. The specialist who visited me brought in a poster with pictures representing the schedule, pre cut smiley cards , and the reward envelopes to give me a start. Later on I made my own. This was very helpful and handy.
Thanks for the opportunity to share Sue. I hope this helped.
Professor Brillante's webinar brought to light, for me, many points of interest in my own classroom. It impressed upon me the need to view my classroom's surroundings with "new eyes". We try to inform our parents about the importance of our philosophy of meeting their child where they are when they come to us. We do take into consideration the child's prior knowledge and incorporate that into their daily experiences within the classroom. I found many of Professor Brillant's points very eye opening. It's a good reminder, to me, that each child presents with their own unique set of experiences and gifts that we as educators are charged with unwrapping,if you will, to the benefit of the individual child as well as their peers.
ReplyDeleteWe are very fortunate, at my center, to host outside resources for behavioral as well as mental health evaluations for individual children. The Therapists help to guide the teachers as well as the parents on what is the best program going forward for the child. We continue to work with the Therapists as well as recommended resources to help the parents as well as the teachers plan for the best UDL for the child.
Hi Amy,
DeleteI enjoyed reading your comments. How do you take into consideration the child's prior knowledge and incorporate that into their daily experiences within the classroom? What are some specific examples? You expressed my views that each child has "special needs" and we need to plan to meet the individual needs of each child. What specific therapists do you work with? How do they specifically help you in the classroom?
Thanks for helping us learn more ~ Sue
Hi Sue,
DeleteWhen parents register their child in our program we assess the child through the ASQ. The parent-completed Ages & Stages Questionnaire is the most accurate, family-friendly way to screen children for developmental delays between one month and 5½ years, without any gaps between the questionnaire age intervals program. This allows us to use the assessment to take into consideration what the child's strengths are when planning our weekly curriculum. Since many of our children are from Brockton, we are fortunate to be able to take advantage of the Brockton Public Schools professionals such as Laurie Mason, Director of the special needs department and her behavioral therapists. If the child is from another town the Director will contact that town's SPED specialist for direction on how to proceed. When the teachers are concerned about a child's behavior, we observe and document as often as possible. We then bring this to the Director's attention who will set up a group meeting with the child's parent. We offer the parent the opportunity to meet with the behavior therapist who will outline a plan. We are fortunate that the behavior therapists will set up a weekly observation within the classroom. The Director, teachers and parent then receive a report from the behavioral therapist with suggestions and strategies, such as behavior modification or speech skills and concepts that can be implemented with the child in the classroom. A follow-up and final recommendations.
Dr. Brillante’s webinar was very informative and I particularly took note when she addressed the issue of what is fair. Some teachers feel that making accommodations for one child “isn’t fair”. She proceeded to point out that the definition of fair is giving every child what they need. I work with teachers who are wonderful with children and have a great deal of experience and knowledge, but sometimes struggle when asked to adjust curriculum plans or add new materials to address the needs of one child. I am excited that our staff will have the opportunity to listen to Dr. Brillante’s keynote address and hopefully, will begin to think differently, as I am trying to do, about what it means to provide a truly inclusive environment. It is my hope that our children can begin to use the materials that we provide independently, which may mean that we have to adjust how we plan curriculum and also take the time to provide direct instruction, when needed.
ReplyDeleteHi Joanne,
ReplyDeleteI also found Dr. Brillante's explanation of fairness to be insightful. "Fair means you get what you need. It's not fair when children don't get what THEY need." The struggles your teachers face made me think more about the difficulty in scaffolding learning. I recently read an article that talked about scaffolding. Scaffolding is a variety of instructional techniques used to move children progressively toward comprehension and greater independence in the learning process. Scaffolding shares many similarities with differentiation, which refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that teachers use to instruct a diverse group of children in the same classroom. When teachers scaffold instruction, they typically break up a learning experience, concept, or skill into discrete parts, and then give students the assistance they need to learn each part.
What were some scaffolding strategies Dr. Brillante provided in the book? I look forward to learning more~ Sue
For more information, see: Great Schools Partnership (2015). Glossary of Education Reform: Scaffolding. Available at https://www.edglossary.org/scaffolding/
Gast, G. (n.d.) Effective Questioning and Classroom Talk. Available at the National Society for Education in Art & Design website: http://www.nsead.org/downloads/Effective_Questioning&Talk.pdf
Hi Sue,
ReplyDeleteScaffolding in early childhood helps children to build self-confidence by supporting their learning in subtle ways. Dr. Brillante gives some specific examples by addressing how to modify lessons when she addresses specific disabilities. In the chapter about visual impairments, some simple modifications like encouraging peer to peer support, breaking down activities using visual cues, providing dress-up materials that are easy to manipulate, using textures to create numbers and letters that children can trace and feel, and verbalizing everything, especially when writing on chart paper or a child’s individual work, are all examples of subtle changes that benefit all children and are easy to implement naturally. As early educators, we should be looking at children’s individual needs whether they have a disability or not. Obviously, depending on the disability, we may need to consult with specialists, but creating an inclusive environment should also be part of every early educator’s philosophy. I am not naïve in thinking that it can be challenging to work with a diverse group of young children, but working as a team with parents, specialists, and other early childhood educators, we can help all children to thrive.
I just wanted to share that I did like this webinar and that I would like to share it with my staff at one staff meeting. It makes so many great points that just needed to have reminders for ourselves as teachers. It felt it was well worth sharing.
ReplyDelete