SPE 3273 Assessing Children’s Environments

1. SPE 3273 Assessing Children’s Environments Behavior and development cannot be separated from the context in which they occur. Week 4

2. Settings can be adjusted to increase child’s development • What are the best approaches to parenting? • How can we arrange a preschool environment to maximize learning? • Can environments be adjusted to increase the level of independence for a four year old? • How do we stimulate the thinking skills of three year olds through environmental arrangements?

3. Key Ideas • Settings influenced by environmental forces outside of that setting. • Home and classroom environments are assessed to identify hazards and adult use of safe practices. • Quality of environments influence learning and development. • Environments can be assessed to identify goals for intervention and practice. • Assessing environment can promote higher quality.

4. Settings influenced by environmental forces outside of that setting

5. Why Assess Environments? • Meet national and state licensing requirements • Meet professional accreditation requirements • Meet local, state, and federal mandates and accountability requirements • Analyze curriculum content and teaching strategies and make needed adjustment to assure student success. • Assess health and safety considerations • Assess children’s actual experiences and interactions with adults and peers, their participation in activities and use of materials. • Assess group size, adult-child ratios and caregiver education and specialized training.

6. Support for assessing environments? • Enormous body of research has demonstrated that the quality of child-care and early childhood programs is significantly associated with positive or negative outcomes for children.

7. Licensing Accreditation • Required • Minimum standards • Regulated at state or local level • Consequences for noncompliance • Inspections, investigations and technical assistance. • Voluntary • Highest standards/ exemplary requirements • Promoted/ sponsored by professional groups • Recognition/reputation for high quality • Self-studies, validation and verification visits

8. High Quality Programs • Positive effects on children’s cognitive, language, and pre-academic skills development and is associated with later academic success in reading and math. • Higher levels of formal education and specialized training of child caregivers are associated with: • more positive adult-child interactions, • less authoritarian approaches, • higher levels of encouragement • higher scores on standardized measures of process quality

9. Programs • High quality child care is associated with positive emotional and social development outcomes, fewer behavior problems, and high levels of sociability, cooperation, social problem solving and engaged play behaviors • Lower quality child care has been associated with poor emotional and social development outcomes, including increased anger, defiance and aggressive behaviors and delayed language development and reading and math skills.

10. Characteristics of quality early care and education? • Well trained, knowledgeable adults • Safe, sanitary, healthy, appealing child and family friendly physical environments • Low teacher and adult to child ratios • Health-promoting, appropriately configured daily routines that include both active and quiet periods, rest times, and nutritious meals, snacks and beverages • Age, individually, and culturally appropriate expectations and interactions • Cognitively and linguistically enriching, socially simulating, emotionally supportive interactions, curricula and instructional practices • Sensitive, appropriate, anit-bias interactions, curricula, and teaching materials • Daily balance of teacher-directed and child-initiated activities • Parent involvement and participation opportunities • Licensed and accredited

11. Symptomatic Behavior Patterns • Low levels of child engagement: match between child preferences and available toys and activities • Nature and extent of behavior problems is broad: cause likely the environment rather than child-based • Behavior problems: poorly managed transition times that leave children waiting for extended periods of time • Environment caused behavior problems:specific to individual children

12. Environmental Rating Scaleswww.fpg.unc.edu • Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale - Revised (FCCRS-R) - Family day-care settings from infancy through kindergarten • Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale – Revised (ITERS-R) - quality of environment 2.5 yrs or younger • Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R) quality of classes age 2.5 through 5 yrs

13. FCCRS-R: 37 items organized into seven subscales • Space and Furnishings • Personal Care Routines • Listening and Talking • Activities • Interaction • Program Structure • Parents and Provider

14. ITERS-R: 39 items organized into 7 subscales • Space and Furnishings • Personal Care Routines • Listening and Talking • Activities • Interaction • Program Structure • Parents and Staff

15. ECERS-R: 43 items organized into seven subscales • Space and furnishings • Personal Care Routines • Language-Reasoning • Activities • Interaction • Program Structure • Parents and Staff

16. Types of Programs -Home-Based • Focus is usually on assisting families who need specific information on how to manage aspects of an infant's care in the home • Arrangement and planning of the physical and social environment fosters positive interactions between children and their environment • Caregivers may need knowledge and skills for making decisions about appropriate ways to help children develop pro-social behaviors Example: Kayla is two years old and loves to push buttons on the VCR. Her mother gets frustrated and unhappy when Kayla doesn't listen to her and touches the machine. The B-K Specialist suggests moving it to a higher shelf until Kayla is older and can understand that the VCR is not a toy.

17. Types of Programs - Center-Based • Physical and social and programmatic variables that influence how a child behaves. • Physical –social-programmatic Example: program with wide open spaces?

18. Types of Programs - Inclusive • Head Start • Preschool special education combined with early child hood programs • Itinerant support for children with IEPs

19. Communicating Results of Environmental Assessments • Set the tone • Comment on positive aspects of home or preschool environments that foster physical and social independence • Raise issues/concerns in sensitive manner • Use reflective/active listening: paraphrasing and perception checking

20. Questions?? • It has been a pleasure getting to know each of you!