Making Inclusion Really Work Practices that Strengthening Services and Supporting Quality

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Making Inclusion Really Work Practices that
Strengthening Services and Supporting Quality
Beth Rous
Sarah A. Mulligan
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What is DEC?

The Division for Early Childhood of the Council
for Exceptional Children
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What is DEC?

• Membership Organization
• Birth through 8 years
• Young children with disabilities and other
  special needs
• Promotes policies and advances evidence-based
  practices

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Today we will focus on.

• What are Recommended Practices?
• Why they are important?
• How can the practices be used to support
  inclusion?

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Setting the Context

• Scientifically-based Practices
• validated by research
• Evidence-based Practices
• best available research
• professional wisdom experience
• consumer values
• Recommended Practices
• set of practices designed to inform decisions
  about services

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History of Recommended Practices

• 2000
• Focus Groups
• Analyses Coding of
• Research Literature
• Synthesis
• Field Validation
• Multiple Products and
• Dissemination Efforts

• 1991
• Focus groups
• Field validated
• Book of
• Recommended
• Practices

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Investigators

• Barbara Smith
• Division for Early Childhood
• University of Colorado Denver
• David Sexton and Marcia Lobman
• LSU Health Sciences Center
• Mary McLean
• University Of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Susan Sandall
• University of Washington

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Identifying Recommended Practices

• Experience Professional Wisdom

• Research-
• Based Practices

Field Validation
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Overarching Goal

• Build on and extend the foundation of quality
  programs for all children to meet the specific
  needs of children with disabilities.

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Identifying Experiences and Values

• Focus Groups by Topical Area (e.g., assessment)
• Focus Groups by Role (e.g., family, practitioner,
  administrator)

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Identifying Research-Based Practices

• Identify Published Research
• 48 Journals Across Disciplines
• 1,019 Articles For Coding
• Coded to
• determine technical adequacy
• identify practices

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Identifying Research-Based Practices

• 1,019 Articles Reviewed
• 843 (82) Had at Least One Recommended Practice
• Articles by Methodology
• Quantitative 454 (54)
• Single Subject 179 (21)
• Qualitative 74 (9)
• Mixed Method 13 (2)
• Descriptive/Survey 123 (15)

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Synthesize And Syncretize Practices

• Integrate Literature Based Practices and
  Stakeholder Focus Group
• Which Practices Have Research Evidence to
  Support?
• Which Practices are Supported Only by Experience
  or Values?

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Field Validation of Practices

• Verification Among Experts
• Field Validation
• 200 Family Members
• 400 Practitioners
• 200 Administration/Higher Education
• Respond to
• This is a recommended practice (importance)
• Extent to which see the practice (usage)

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Resulting in

• 240 Recommended Practices
• Across 5 Direct Service Strands and 2 Indirect
  Support Strands

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Strand 1 - Assessment (Neisworth and Bagnato)

• 46 Practices
• Professional and family collaboration
• Individualized and appropriate to child and
  family
• Provides useful information
• Information is shared in respectful and useful
  ways
• Meets legal and procedural requirements

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Strand 2 Child-Focused (Wolery)

• 27 Practices
• Adults design environments to promote childrens
  safety, active engagement, learning,
  participation, and membership.
• Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
  adapt practices to meet each childs changing
  nature.
• Adults use systematic procedures within and
  across environments, activities, and routines to
  promote childrens learning and participation.

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Strand 3 Family-Based (Trivette Dunst)

• 17 Practices
• Families and professionals share responsibility
  and work collaboratively.
• Practices strengthen family functioning.
• Practices are individualized and flexible.
• Practices are strengths- and assets-based.

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Strand 4 Interdisciplinary Models (McWilliam)

• 19 Practices
• Teams including family members make decisions and
  work together.
• Professionals cross disciplinary boundaries.
• Intervention is focused on function, not
  services.
• Regular caregivers and regular routines provide
  the most appropriate opportunities for childrens
  learning and receiving most other interventions.

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Strand 5 Technology Applications (Stremel)

• 22 Practices
• Professionals utilize assistive technology in
  intervention programs with children.
• Families and professionals collaborate in
  planning and implementing the use of assistive
  technology.
• Families and professionals use technology to
  access information and support.
• Training and technical support programs are
  available to support technology applications.

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Strand 6 Policies, Procedures Systems Change
(Harbin and Salisbury)

• 43 Practices
• Families and professionals shape policy at the
  national, state, and local levels.
• Public policies promote the use of Recommended
  Practices.
• Program policies and administration promote
• family participation in decision making,
• the use of Recommended Practices,
• interagency and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Program policies, administration and leadership
  promote program evaluation and systems change
  efforts.

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Strand 7 Personnel Preparation (Miller and
Stayton)

• 66 Practices
• Families are involved in learning activities.
• Learning activities
• are interdisciplinary and interagency.
• are systematically designed and sequenced.
• include the study of cultural and linguistic
  diversity.
• Learning activities and evaluation procedures are
  designed to meet the needs of students and staff.
• Field experiences are systematically designed and
  supervised.
• Faculty and other personnel trainers are
  qualified and well-prepared for their role in
  personnel preparation.
• Professional development activities are
  systematically designed and implemented.

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Why are Recommended Practices Important?

• Represents collective wisdom
• Identifies what practices work
• Provides a framework to define quality
• Supports positive outcomes
• Applies to all settings

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• Quality Practices
• Quality Service
• Better Outcomes

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Recommended Practices
Quality Practices for All Children
Program
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DECs Recommended Practices

• Each Chapter includes
• Guiding Principles
• Organization of the Practicesthe take home
  messages
• Relationship to Other Chapters
• Key Terms
• The Practices with Examples

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Child-Focused Practices Take Home Messages

1. Adults design environments to promote childrens
   safety, active engagement, learning,
   participation, and membership.
2. Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
   adapt practices to meet each childs changing
   needs.
3. Adults use systematic procedures within and
   across environments, activities, and routines to
   promote childrens learning and participation.

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Child-Focused Practices Take Home Messages

1. Adults design environments to promote childrens
   safety, active engagement, learning,
   participation, and membership.
2. Adults use ongoing data to individualize and
   adapt practices to meet each childs changing
   needs.
3. Adults use systematic procedures within and
   across environments, activities, and routines to
   promote childrens learning and participation.

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Child-Focused Practice Example

• Design Environment
• C4. Play routines are structured to promote
  interaction, communication, and learning by
  defining roles for dramatic play, prompting
  engagement, prompting group friendship
  activities, and using specialized prompts.

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What does C4 look like?

• Adults join children in their play to keep
  children playing

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What else does C4 look like?

• Use the childs preferences to increase
  engagement in a particular activity

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What else does C4 look like?

• a teacher uses a childs preference for trains
  by turning the dramatic play area into a train
  station. The child now interacts with peers to
  purchase train tickets, to take turns blowing
  the train whistle and turning on the train, and
  to help build a pretend train station

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Assessment Practices Take Home Messages

• Professionals and families collaborate in
  planning and implementing assessment
• Assessment is individualized and appropriate for
  the child and family
• Assessment provides meaningful information for
  intervention
• Professionals share information in respectful and
  useful ways
• Professionals meet legal and procedural
  requirements and Recommended Practices Guidelines
  

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Assessment Practices Take Home Messages

• Professionals and families collaborate in
  planning and implementing assessment
• Assessment is individualized and appropriate for
  the child and family
• Assessment provides useful information for
  intervention
• Professionals share information in respectful and
  useful ways
• Professionals meet legal and procedural
  requirements and Recommended Practices guidelines

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Assessment Practice Example

• Useful Information for Intervention
• A24. Professionals assess not only immediate
  mastery of a skill, but also whether the child
  can demonstrate the skill consistently across
  other settings and with other people.

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What does A24 look like?

• The team assesses the childs ability to walk in
  the classroom, on the playground, to and from the
  car
• and on the grass

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Family-Based Practice Example

• Families and Professionasl share responsibility
  work collaboratively
• F1. Family members and professionals jointly
  develop appropriate family-identified outcomes.

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What does F1 look like?

• Professionals and family members share
  information before the IFSP/IEP meeting so that
  everyone has time to reflect and clarify their
  ideas

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Next Steps for DEC

• Program Assessment
• Practice Workbook
• Implementation Toolkits
• Training Technical Assistance
• Interactive Website Resources
• Further Development and Input

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Next Steps Practitioners

• Know what the evidence says
• Base your work on the evidence we have
• Sometimes you have to build the evidence
• Its called innovation!

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Next Steps Parents

• Research does matter!
• Demand that the services provided to your child
  and your family have the power of the entire
  field.

Gently
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Next Steps Researchers

• Build the evidence
• Continue to ask the questions
• Stir up controversy

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Next Steps Administrators

• Know the practices
• and practice them!
• Focus the resources on practices that work
• Monitor, measure, and account for quality

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DEC www.dec-sped.org
The Division for Early Childhood of the Council
for Exceptional Children
www.dec-sped.org
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The End!
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Making Inclusion Really Work
www.dec-sped.org
Beth Rous brous_at_uky.edu
Sarah A. Mulligan sarah.mulligan_at_dec-sped.org