Naturalistic Curriculum Model

1
Naturalistic Curriculum Model

• Goal to increase the infant/young childs
  control, participation, and interaction in
  natural social and physical environments. This
  is a process model with content and instructional
  techniques derived through environmental
  analysis.
• Content of instruction goals are developed on an
  individual basis, reflecting the sill demands of
  natural, age-appropriate environments. The
  content is responsive to the requirements of the
  increasing number of environments that children
  will participate in.
• - Noonan McCormick p. 134

2
Naturalistic Curriculum Models

• Reference curriculum to the unique needs and
  lifestyles of the child, family, peers, and
  community.
• Plan instruction that can be implemented
  naturally in daily family routines.
• Emphasize skills that are functional now and in
  the future.
• - McDonnel Hardman (1988)

3
Content of Instruction

• Age-appropriate skills
• Skills for participating in present and future
  environments
• Ecological inventory
• Survival skills

4
Instructional Focus

• Newborns parent-child interaction
• Procedures observation and specific descriptive
  feedback
• Infants parent-child and broader social
  experiences (including objects)
• Procedures (Dunst, et al. 1987),
• Sensitivity to child behavior
• Interpretation of intent
• Responsiveness
• Encouraging initiations
• Supporting and encouraging competence

5
Instructional Focus

• Focus appropriate social-communication
  interactions in natural environments, self-help
  skills, cognitive development
• Procedures
• Promoting socialization within and outside of
  family context
• Responsiveness to childs interests and
  communicative attempts
• Developing routines around everyday tasks
• Promoting problem solving abilities

6
Instructional Methods

• Environmental arrangement
• Guided learning
• Violating expectations
• Responsiveness to child initiations
• Encouraging ongoing activities
• Supporting and encouraging competence

7
Approaches to Naturalistic Teaching

• Milieu focuses on bridging the gap between the
  training environment and the natural environment
• Nurturant-naturalistic moves from direct
  instruction to education in which the child takes
  the interactive lead and to naturalistic
  contexts.
• Joint-action establishes structured interaction
  routines through which to teach skills
• Transactional intervention program focuses on
  the quality of the interactive behavioral match
  between children and their primary caregivers
• Natural language teaching developed for children
  with autism

8
Environmental Adaptations

• Design amount and arrangement of space
• Materials smaller manipulative items
• Equipment furniture and large items
• Grouping
• Scheduling

9
Environmental Systems

• 1. Physical setting
• 2. Temporal characteristics
• 3. Social context
• 4. Activity system
• 5. Relationships
• 6. Child
• 7. Adult/teacher

10
Time
Routine/Activities
Adult Goals, Communication Behavior
Child Goals, Communication, Behavior
11
Perspectives of Time
Time of Day
Individual Childs Schedule
Groups Schedule
Adults Schedules
Preceding Activities/ Scheduled Activity/
Subsequent Activities
12
Map the Childs Day

• Describe the flow of activities in which the
  child participates across the day.
• Identify the times when he/she is available for
  teaching in conversation alone or in small
  groups.
• Identify group times when language goal might be
  embedded in a larger group activity.
• Identify key conversation partners and assess
  their availability as language teachers or
  conversational partners.

13
Analyze the Childs Day

• Identify highly preferred activities and
  partners.
• Analyze identified teaching times in terms of the
  childs communication goals.
• Examine the childs day in terms of the childs
  communication goals.
• Examine the childs day in terms of supports for
  communication (models of language, access to
  listeners, support for total communication and
  emergent literacy).

14
Map the Adults Days

• Begin with your daily schedule. Note who you
  talked to, what you do, what your teaching and
  classroom management agenda looks like.
• Note group sizes, goals of activities, support
  provided by others in the classroom, transitions,
  etc.
• Think about goals and priorities for each
  activity. Use your intentions as well as what
  you accomplished in mapping the day.

15
Analyze the Adults Days

• Identify the times in which skills are currently
  being taught formally or informally.
• Identify additional times for teaching that
  emerge as you analyze the day from the teacher
  and child perspective.
• Note the strategies the teacher currently uses to
  teach language skills including specific target
  language, concepts, social interaction skills,
  emergent literacy skills, direction following,
  etc.
• Note the types of talk the teacher generally uses
  in the classroom.

16
Activities Skills
Children Setting Date
17
Steps in Naturalistic Curriculum

• Ecological assessment
• Set priorities
• Determine present levels of performance
• Establish instructional objectives
• Develop instructional plans
• Establish an instructional schedule
• Instruct
• Evaluate

18
References

• Brown, J., Collins, A., Duguid, P. (1989).
  Situate cognition and culture of learning.
  Educational Researcher, 17, 32-42.
• Duchan, J., Weitzner-Lin, B. (1987).
  Nurturan-naturalistic intervention for
  language-impaired children. ASHA, 29, 45-49.
• Hart, B., Risley, T. (1975). Incidental
  teachingof language in the preschool. Journal of
  Applied Behavior Analysis, 8, 411-420.
• Kaier, A. P., Hendrickson, J., Alpert, C.
  (1991). Milieu language teaching Asecond look.
  In R. Gable (Ed.), Advances in mental
  retardation and developmental disabilities,
  (Volume IV, pp. 63-92). London, Jessica Kingsley
  Publisher.
• Koegel, R. Johnson, J., (1989). Motivating
  language use in autistic children. In G. Dawson
  (Ed.) Autism (pp. 310-325). New York Guilford
  Press.
• Mahoney, G. Powell, A. (1984). The
  transactional intervention program. Woodhaven,
  MI Woodhaven School District.
• Mcdonald, J. (1989). Becoming partners with
  children. San Antonio, TX Special Press, Inc.
• McDonnell Hardman (1988). A synthesis of best
  practice guidelines for early childhood services.
  Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 12,
  328-341.
• Noonan, M. J., McCormick, L. (1993). Early
  intervention in natural environments Methods and
  procedures. Pacific Grove, CA Brooks/Cole
  Publishing Co.
• Odom, S. L. McLean, M. E. (1996). Early
  Intervention/Early Childhood Special
  EducationRecommended Practices. Austin, TX
  Pro-ed.
• Warren. S., Kaiser, A. (1986). Incidental
  language teaching A critical review. Journal
  of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 51, 291-299.