Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

1. Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

2. A project of the Virginia Department of Education and the Training and Technical Assistance Centers of Virginia

3. Using a routine-based instructional processin early childhood programs

4. Activity: What does routine-based instruction mean to you? • In groups of 3 or 4, complete the mind map with ideas about routine-based instruction

5. Mind map Routine-based instruction

6. Gallery walk New idea New idea Routine-based instruction New idea New idea

7. Routine-based instruction • Selecting objectives to teach and the routines in which to teach them • Teaching and recording progress on children’s objectives • Evaluating student progress

8. Advantages of routine-based instruction • Represents typical instructional format • Includes environmental cues to elicit desired behaviors • Provides opportunities for appropriate peer interactions • Enhances student motivation • Maximizes the efficiency of instructions • Allows for multiple opportunities to practice objectives

9. Advantages of routine-based instruction (cont’d) • Promotes likelihood that skills will be remembered • Increases likelihood that learning will be active • Provides a reality check as to whether an objective is really important to teach

10. Review routine-based interview • Look at information received from families • Determine and write functional goals

11. How to translate IFSP/IEP goals into functional goals • Functional goals • Reflect concerns of the family • Are “jargon free” • Address skills and behaviors immediately useful in children’s everyday routines • Are integrated into daily routines • Are evaluated with a logical criterion

12. Functionality test When reading a goal, the answer to “Why is the child working on this goal?” should be immediately apparent within the goal itself

13. How to write functional goals • Five guiding principles • Make outcome statements meaningful • Objectives and strategies should make use of existing attributes • Evaluate outcomes meaningfully • Encourage all to have an investment in outcomes • Functionality guides writing

14. Let’s practice • In pairs, review the assessment information • Write functional goals and objectives for the child • Refer to the guiding principles • Use Goal Functionality Scale II

15. Guiding principles in action • Meaningful • Kim will hang up her jacket on the hook with her name • Make use of existing attributes • Kim likes to see her name in writing • Evaluate outcomes meaningfully • Kim will hang up her jacket once a day • Everyone is invested • Kim’s family will use a hook at home for jackets • Functionality • Kim is currently dropping her jacket on the floor in a hurry, becoming upset when asked to return from free play to pick it up

16. Steps in routine-based instruction • Step: Select routines as instructional contexts for objectives • Review routine-based interview information, portfolio and other assessment information • Select functional objectives • Decide when and what routines to teach objectives within

17. Selecting routines in which to teach • Look at your daily schedule • Review the goals • Use a matrix to “plug” goals into specific routines

18. Selecting routines • Ask: • Does the objective naturally fit into the performance of the routine? • Will performing the skill lead to more independence within the routine? • Is the routine where the skill will be taught fairly easy for most to perform independently?

19. Selecting routines in which to teach • Remember that children with disabilities learn quicker and remember longer if objectives are taught in multiple, natural routines

20. Activity • Use blank Master Plan form to develop routines • Determine which routines will be used to teach functional goals and record on form

21. Steps in routine-based instruction • Step: Select teaching strategies to use when teaching objectives within routines

22. Teaching strategies fall into three broad categories • Classroom environment, schedule and activity modifications • Selection and use of materials • Selection and use of intervention or teaching strategies

23. Classroom environment modifications • Environmental arrangement • Do the children have access to materials? • Is there ample space to move freely about the room? • Are transitions planned using a structured approach? • Are there a variety of activities during the day that use a combination of both structured and nonstructured activities?

24. Classroom schedule Child- versus adult-directed activities: Is there a balance between adult- and child-directed activities? • Use child-directed when: • Learning cause and effect is important • Encouraging exploration • Sustaining play

25. Classroom schedule • Use adult-directed when: • Focusing on specific child behaviors and skills • Child needs structure to engage at higher levels • Introducing certain topics of importance

26. Classroom activities modifications • Simplify a task by breaking it into smaller parts • Break the tasks into more manageable parts • Change or reduce the number of required steps • Break down a complicated task into its parts

27. Steps in routine-based instruction Step: Selection and use of classroom materials • Modify the materials so that children can participate as independently as possible • Put materials at the optimal level • Stabilize materials using tape, Velcro, etc. • Modify the response required • Make the materials larger or brighter

28. Activity: Let’s practice • What modifications would you make to the environment, materials, schedule or activities?

29. Selection of teaching strategies • Child-controlled • Teacher-guided • Teacher-directed

30. Selection of teaching strategies Child-controlled strategies

31. When should child-controlled strategies be used? • When teaching specific skills or concepts • When explicit instruction is needed to teach a learning objective

32. Deciding to use child-controlled strategies • Guidelines in determining include: • Child’s objective is unique • Child must learn a skill or concept to access the ECE curriculum • Child must learn a survival skill • Child is making slow progress

33. Child-controlled strategies:modeling • Teacher displays behavior she wants the children to use • Teacher demonstrates or shows children what to do to begin a project

34. Child-controlled strategies: peer-mediated strategies • Teach peer the skill • Teach peer how to help child • Use different peers • Acknowledge peer’s contributions • Teach peer to only help when needed

35. Child-focused strategies:reinforcement Positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of the behavior happening again • Pleasant consequence (verbal, material)

36. Child-focused strategies:differential reinforcement of other behavior • Reinforce for something good

37. Selection of teaching strategies: teacher-guided • Embedded Learning Opportunities (ELOs) • Short teaching episodes • Embedded in routines • Focus on child’s individual learning objectives • Instructional component planned ahead

38. Basic steps to embedded learning opportunities • Clarify the learning objective • Gather baseline information about current level of performance • Use an activity matrix to select routines • Design how you will teach and write it on a planning form • Implement the instruction • Periodically check for mastery

39. Teacher-guided strategies:incidental teaching • Teacher arranges the environment to increase the likelihood of child’s initiation • Teacher waits for child to initiate verbal or nonverbal interaction • Teacher decides on response to elicit from child and uses cues • If child responds, teacher follows the correct response with a continuation of the activity or with access to materials

40. Teacher-guided strategies: facilitate • Teacher provides temporary assistance to help children get to next steps of a task

41. Teacher-guided strategies:support • Teacher is involved more directly in supporting the child to accomplish the task • Child and teacher together decide when support is no longer needed

42. Teacher-guided strategies: scaffold • Teacher sets up challenges for a child and assists him or her to work at the upper limits of his or her skill development

43. Teacher-guided strategies:naturalistic strategy • Mand model • Teacher observes the child and notes child’s interest • Teacher “mands” a verbal response related to child’s interest (e.g. “Tell me what you want”) • If child responds, teacher gives verbal praise • If child does not respond, teacher models response and asks child to imitate it • If child imitates the response, teacher describes communication form used by the child (e.g., “You pointed to the ball.”) and gives child praise or access to the material

44. Teacher-guided strategies:time delay • Teacher notes child needs materials or assistance • Teacher provides time for child to make request • If child requests, teacher give praise, verbal expansion, and materials or assistance • If child does not request, teacher gives prompt or model

45. Teacher-controlled strategies • Prompting – typically include 3 parts • A prompt is used to get a child to perform a behavior • The child is praised when he performs the behavior • The number of prompts are systematically reduced as the child begins performing the behavior on his own

46. Teacher-controlled strategies:graduated guidance • Physically moving the child’s body parts to complete a desired response with total physical guidance initially given, then gradually faded • Often used in nonverbal systems, such as a sign or communication board

47. Teacher-controlled strategies:co-construct • Teacher and child do a project or activity together • Teacher and child are both learners and teachers

48. Teacher-controlled strategies: demonstrate • Teacher shows the child exactly what to do for each step of the activity

49. Steps in routine-based instruction • Step: Select ways to record progress on each objective • Decide who will teach and record progress on each objective

50. When deciding how to record progress on each objective decide whether to: • Observe performance • Spontaneous or when asked • Collect projects and evaluate • Compare to child's previous products or to a curriculum standard