Preparing Child Care Providers to Include Children with Disabilities: The Easter Seals Training Modu

1
Preparing Child Care Providers to Include
Children with Disabilities The Easter Seals
Training Modules Project

• 2008 NACCRRA Professional Development Institute
• Pittsburgh, PA

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Introductions

• Leslie Jackson, TMIECE Project Director
• Bob Siegel, National Director Easter Seals Early
  Care and Education
• Participants

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Purpose of Todays Session

• Preview the TMIECE training curriculum
• Describe training activities
• Sample learning activities and materials from the
  curriculum
• Discuss benefits for Child Care Resource and
  Referral agencies.

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Activity

• Following Directions

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The Training Modules for Inclusive Early Care and
Education

• What it is
• How we got here
• Components
• Organization of the modules

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What are the Training Modules for Inclusive Early
Care and Education?

• Training materials and resources designed to
  improve the capacity of early care and education
  providers to meet the needs of children with
  varying abilities
• Training, consultation and technical assistance
• Based on Easter Seals ICC Operating Standards

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How Did We Get Here?

• History of the Easter Seals Child Development
  Center (CDC) Network
• Operating Standards
• Response to requests from CDC staff

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CDC Network

• Easter Seals created a Child Development Center
  (CDC) Network in the late 1990s, as response to
  the national child care need
• Approx. 90 accredited and licensed center-based
  full-day child care centers serving children 6
  weeks to 5 years of age 27 have disabilities
• Daily activities are educational, the curriculum
  is driven by developmentally-appropriate
  practices to meet each childs physical,
  educational, social, emotional and developmental
  needs.

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Implementation Guide Operating Standards for
HighQuality Inclusive Child Care

• In late 2002, Easter Seals received a 3-year
  grant from the Goizueta Foundation to develop
  program standards for high quality inclusive
  child care.
• Goal better define elements necessary to boost
  quality and quantity of inclusive childcare in
  the United States.
• The four major areas are

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Operating Standards

• Operations Requires that Centers
• Provide services to all children
• Use formal assessment tool to identify possible
  developmental problems
• Collaborate with state and local intervention
  programs
• Offer resource services to childcare providers
  interested in inclusive care.

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Operating Standards

• Parent Communications Requires
• Formal, on-going, consistent communication with
  families about their child's daily experience and
  behavior
• Communication with all parents concerning the
  benefits of inclusive child care
• Encouragement for parents of all children to
  interact with one another.

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Operating Standards

• Teacher/Therapist Integration Requires
• Therapies be delivered in the child's natural
  setting, during routine activities
• Interventions outside the natural setting are
  carefully planned so that they dont disrupt the
  childs participation in program activities
• Therapists and child care providers meet as
  equals on a regular basis to exchange information
  and plan individualized programs for each child,
  work to integrate classroom curricula with
  IFSP/IEP goals and therapy treatment plans.

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Operating Standards

• Teacher/Therapist Integration Requires
• Therapists and child care staff work with parents
  to identify appropriate goals and activities for
  children who have IFSPs/IEPs, and assist families
  whose children may be eligible for IDEA services
  but are not yet enrolled.

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Operating Standards

• Staff Training and Resources Requires programs
  to
• Create and provide orientation programs to all
  new staff, that highlight the unique aspects of
  inclusive childcare
• Provide annual training in inclusive childcare to
  all caregiving staff
• Use available CDC Network resources, as well as
  community, state and national resources to
  enhance the knowledge and skills of therapists
  and caregivers in providing inclusive care.

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Response to CDC Staff

• Despite our experience serving children
  w/disabilities
• Growing number of children with behavioral issues
  stemming from other disabling conditions or
  family difficulties.
• Centers are enrolling more children who have been
  expelled, sometimes multiple times, from other
  child care centers.

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Professional Development Improves Quality of
Child Care

• Staff need training tools to help adapt existing
  programs to meet the needs of children with a
  variety of disabilities.
• Teachers need materials to help them meet every
  child's individual developmental needs and
  provide appropriate educational activities.
• Need to better integrate therapists specialists
  into the classroom.

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Activity Hot Buttons

• Each of us have behavior hot buttons that get
  pushed when children act up
• What do children do that push your buttons?
• How do you feel when children behave this way?

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Hot Buttons

• Challenging behavior, then, is any behavior that
  pushes our button(s) and challenges our patience
  and understanding
• Warning signal that something is not right
• Problematic when they begin to affect how we
  think about a child and how we intervene/interact
  with that child.

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Strategy

• Thought-Stopping Behavior
• Stop (upsetting thoughts)
• Reframe (replace with a calming thought).
• Example
• He whines from the moment he gets here until the
  time he gets on the bus to go home Possible
  response He must really miss his family
• Shes clingy not only with her mother but with
  other adults as well Possible response she
  might be slow to warm up in new settings or in
  the presence of other children and adults.

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Components of the Curriculum

• 5 topical modules
• Introduction to Inclusive Early Care and
  Education
• Challenging Behavior
• Communication Delays
• Autism
• Physical Disabilities

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Components of the Curriculum

• Orientation video
• Trainers Guide
• Network of Trainers
• The result is a set of evidence-based and
  user-friendly materials to help early care and
  education providers to promote children's growth
  and development in all areas.

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Organization of Modules

• Overview of Module
• Background
• Classroom Strategies
• Resources

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Module 1 Introduction to Inclusive Early Care
and Education

• What is inclusion
• Benefits of inclusion for children, families,
  staff
• Partnering with parents and therapists
• Classroom practices
• Administrative tools, processes

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Module 1

• Developmentally appropriate practices
• Environmental, curricular considerations
• Strategies for supporting childrens
  participation in activities and routines
• Resources for more information about inclusion.

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Video Activity What Does Inclusion Look Like

• What do you notice about the classrooms?
• What do you notice about the activities the
  children are doing?
• How are the children participating?
• Who is the child with the disability?
• Who is the teacher?
• Who is the specialist?

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Module 2 Behavior

• Definition of terms
• Why behavior is important
• What is challenging behavior
• Forms and functions of behavior
• Positive behavior supports (The Teaching Pyramid)
• Classroom strategies

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Sample Activity Forms and Functions of Behavior

• Behavior serves a particular purpose
• Trying to get something
• Trying to avoid something
• Respond to sensory input
• Any form of behavior can serve multiple purposes
  Ex. Crying
• To get attention
• Avoid an activity
• Indicate pain

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Activity Functional Behavioral Assessment

• Watch the video clip
• Jot down your observations on the card

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Module 3 - Communication Delays

• Definition of terms
• What is a speech-language delay/difference/disorde
  r
• What you might see in children with communication
  challenges and how to address
• Including parents, caregivers, peers.

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Sample Activity Case Vignette

• 2 y/o Sara says about 6-8 words that are
  understandable and refuses to repeat when you try
  to teach more words. Most of the time she plays
  by herself and doesnt seem interested in playing
  with other children unless theyre sitting next
  to her.
• What do you know about Saras communication
  skills?
• How could you help to increase Saras response to
  contact with others?
• What activities would you use to increase her
  attending skills?

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Module 4 Autism

• Definition of terms
• What is autism
• Partnering with parents
• Characteristics/red flags of autism
• Common interventions
• Classroom strategies using certain interventions
• Suggestions for families/parents.

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Sample Task Analysis

• Opening a door
• Approach door
• Grasp handle
• Turn handle
• Pull door
• Go through door
• Release handle

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Activity - Task Analysis

• Eating snack
• Going down slide
• Show-and-tell

• Washing hands
• Wiping table
• Starting your car

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Module 5 Physical Disabilities

• Definition of terms
• General principles of inclusion
• Working with/including families
• Strategies for children with specific types of
  disabilities.

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Adaptations and Accommodations

• The difference between a child merely being
  present in your program and a child who is
  actively involved.
• Different ways in which environments, activities,
  and routines can be adapted to make them more
  conducive for children's participation
• 1st step identify what activities or routines
  are not going well. Then decide what needs to be
  changed.
• Also identify times during the day that are
  difficult generally or hard for the child.

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Adaptations and Accommodations

• Changes can be made in one or more of the
  following areas
• Instructional groupings or arrangements
• Lesson format
• Teaching strategies
• Curricular goals and learning outcomes
• Method for responding
• Environmental conditions
• Instructional materials
• Level of personal assistance.

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Deciding Which Adaptation to Use

• Use the following list to determine which
  accommodation might be needed
• In most instances, adaptations will be successful
  before you get to the bottom of the list
• When a child can participate in an activity as it
  is, no changes need to be made.

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Adaptation Framework

• Start at the top of the list (least intrusive)
  and work your way down to the bottom (most
  instrusive)
• Environmental accommodations
• adapt room set-up
• adapt/select classroom equipment
• equipment/adaptations for positioning
• Adapt schedule
• Select or Adapt activity
• Adapt materials

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Adaptation Framework

• Adapt requirements or instructions
• Have an individual child do something different
• Have another child help
• peer assistance/tutoring
• cooperative learning
• Have an adult help a child do the activity
• Have an individual child do something outside the
  room with an adult.

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Sample Activity Making Adaptations

• Identify a situation where a routine or activity
  is not going well
• Suggest changes to the routine/activity, using
  the previous list of strategies.

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Using the Curriculum

• How it can be used
• Training weve already done
• Use in state-supported training efforts

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We Are Using the Curriculum to

• Provide professional development for early care
  and education organizations (child care, early
  intervention, Head Start/preschool)
• Help supervisors/managers effectively support
  their staff
• Enhance the capacity of therapists, specialists
  to provide inclusive services in natural
  environments.

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Using the Curriculum

• TMIECE materials are great complements
  to/supplements for other training efforts
• Designed to be a stand-alone resource, but can
  also be supplemented by other training materials.

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Training

• Customized to meet each programs specific needs,
  help staff improve quality of care for all
  children
• Variety of topics to choose from specific
  modules mini-topics from each module core
  module
• Hands-on learning activities
• Evaluative component to ensure we are meeting our
  objectives.

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We Have Already Trained

• Easter Seals affiliates
• Local Head Start programs, child care providers,
  YMCA programs
• Presentations at National Conferences Division
  for Early Childhood (DEC) NAEYC NATTAP
  American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)
  Autism Society of America

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State Training Efforts

• Several affiliates have contracted with state
  agencies to use TMICC to train other early
  childhood providers in the state
• Delaware Maryland Eastern Shore
• Baltimore/Greater Washington
• Topeka Kansas

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Why This, Why Now

• Benefits to your providers
• Increase staff knowledge and skills
• Reduce turnover
• Increase child success, outcomes
• Retain/build enrollment
• Improve reputation
• Other benefits?

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Why This, Why Now

• Benefits to training directors
• Increase staff knowledge and skills
• Be a hero
• Fill your training rooms
• Bring in cash/cachet/bodies
• Impress your boss
• Be seen as a problem solver

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Why This, Why Now

• Benefits to CCRRs
• Increase capacity of provider agencies to serve
  all children
• Increase options for families
• Community resource
• Be seen as a problem solver.

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Questions?

• Thank You!
• For More Information, contact
• Leslie Jackson, ljackson_at_easterseals.com
• Bob Siegel, bsiegel_at_easterseals.com
• 800-221-6827