Providing Services to Young Children with Disabilities through Inclusive Child Care

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Providing Services to Young Children with
Disabilities through Inclusive Child Care

• Dubai International Rehabilitation Forum
• March 7, 2006
• 1240-1300
• Session 3 Marketing of Special Needs Projects

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Topics

• Desired Goals of Early Intervention
• Rationale for Child Care-based Services
• Outcomes in the U.S.
• Barriers Overall Quality of Child Care
• Necessary Resources
• An Example of Success

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Early Intervention Goals

• to support families in achieving their own goals
  for their children
• to promote child engagement, independence, and
  mastery
• to promote development in key domains
• to build and support childrens social competence
• to promote generalized use of skills
• to provide and prepare for normalized life
  experiences
• to prevent the emergence of future problems or
  disabilities

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Child Care-based Early Intervention Services

• Natural context of services for children and
  families
• Opportunities for physical, communication, and
  social skill building
• With qualified teachers and aids, opportunities
  for cognitive skill building as well
• Reduction in services families need to go to

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Roots of Early Intervention in the United States

• Special Education (Behavioral analysis)
• Compensatory Education (e.g., Head Start)
• Early Childhood Education (DAP)

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U.S. Principles of Early Intervention

• Family-centered services
• Normalization and services in natural
  environments
• Variety of service delivery models
• Diversity of children and families served
• Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary service
  models
• Functional and developmental programming
  strategies
• Individualized programming
• Blending of philosophical perspectives
  (developmental, behavioral, ecological/functional)

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Sherita
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Necessary Components

• Low staffchild ratios
• small group sizes
• associate or bachelor level trained teachers
• low turn-over
• well-educated directors and administrators
• Engaged, responsive interactions between teachers
  and children
• Planned, purposeful, goal-oriented activities
  that emerge from childrens interests,
  activities, and backgrounds

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Challenges to Child Care-based Early Intervention

• Skills and training of child care staff
• Turn-over of child care staff
• Resistance of staff and families of children
  without disabilities
• Resistance of physicians and other rehabilitation
  providers
• Wide variation in overall quality of child care
  programs
• Lack of monitoring of child care program quality

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Quality Profile of Center-Based Programs Serving
3 to 5-year-olds in Delaware
38.6 N64 48.2 N80 13.3 N22
26.5 N44 42.8 N71 30.7 N51
37.6 N62 42.4 N70 20.0 N33
9.7 N16 47.9 N79 42.4 N70
59.4 N98 20.0 N33 20.6 N34
43.9 N72 34.8 N57 21.3 N35
45.5 N60 42.4 N56 12.1 N16
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Quality Profile of Center-Based Programs Serving
Infants and Toddlers in Delaware
8.8 N10 20.4 N23 70.8 N80
23.9 N27 50.4 N57 25.7 N29
21.3 N24 53.1 N60 25.7 N29
33.6 N38 32.7 N37 33.6 N38
8.0 N9 46.0 N52 46.0 N52
47.8 N54 38.1 N43 14.2 N16
29.6 N29 50.0 N49 20.4 N20
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Quality Profile of Head Start and Early Childhood
Assistance Programs in Delaware Designed to Serve
Children in Poverty and with Disabilities
52.4 N43 34.1 N28 13.4 N11
62.2 N51 36.6 N30 1.2 N1
43.9 N36 50.0 N41 6.1 N5
18.3 N15 75.6 N62 6.1 N5
68.3 N56 17.1 N14 14.6 N12
65.9 N54 31.7 N26 2.4 N2
69.1 N38 29.1 N16 1.8 N1
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Ensuring High Quality Child Care and Early
Intervention

• Meaningful partnerships with childrens families
  and specialists
• Teachers with associate or bachelor degrees in
  early care and education and significant
  knowledge of child development and curriculum
  development and implementation
• Programs that embrace and incorporate the
  cultures and communities of the children they
  serve

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Ensuring High Quality Child Care and Early
Intervention (continued)

• Program directors with advanced expertise and
  experience in early care and education, including
  the ability to manage and lead
• Excellent capacity to address language, literacy,
  and numeracy components of childrens
  development
• Excellent capacity to address social-emotional
  components of childrens development
• On-going training and development for teachers
  and administrators that focus on special needs

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University of Delaware Early Learning Center

• Child care center for 225 children birth to 12
  years of age
• 20 children with disabilities
• 40 children living in poverty
• provides state of the art, evidence-based,
  education, prevention, and intervention services
• Currently conducts 18 research studies within the
  Center focusing on neurological development PT,
  OT, and speech treatments strategies, and a host
  of other topics
• Currently provides training to over 2,000
  undergraduate and graduate students through
  clinical and research experiences each semester
• Currently provides training and technical
  assistance early care and education providers
  throughout the state

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University of Delaware Early Learning Center
Examples

• 4 year old with Down syndrome
• 28 month old toddler with spastic diplegic
  cerebral palsy and blindness
• 10 month old infant with visual impairment, mild
  cerebral palsy and a 40 cognitive delay

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Next Steps

• To work with community child care setting to
• Increase staff knowledge and skills about
  physical, sensory, communication, and cognitive
  disabilities
• Reduce staff resistance to serving children with
  special needs
• Provide technical assistance support as
  community-based child care settings serve
  children with special needs

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Contact Information

• Karen Rucker, Director
• University of Delaware Early Learning Center
• 489 Wyoming Avenue
• Newark, DE 19716 USA
• krucker_at_udel.edu
• 1 302 831 6205

• Michael Gamel-McCormick, Director
• Center for Disabilities Studies
• 166 Graham Hall
• University of Delaware
• Newark, DE 19716 USA
• mgm_at_udel.edu
• 1 302 831 6974
• www.udel.edu/cds