I was able
to observe and interview this week the teachers in the 3 and 4-year-old
classroom. Both of the teachers have a
child that is using the Early Intervention program and had nothing but good
things to say about the program. In the 3-year-old
classroom, I talked with Ms. Jessica; she has been working in the field for
about 10 years and is a mother of four. In
her class, she has a child that I will call “Mark” that has cerebral palsy (CP);
he was born with and has a physical and occupational therapist that comes to
the center to work with him. I was able
to observe the physical therapist working with Mark on the day that I was
there. While some therapist work with
the children in different rooms she did not, she wanted to stay in the room
because that is where Mark felt the most comfortable. This was great for him because not only did
he practice holding toys but the other children in the classroom were also
encouraging him. As you can probably
tell the center, where he is at could be called an inclusion center. The do not discriminate and the other
children do not even see that Mark cannot not do some of the same things that
they can to them he is just a friend.
Ms. Jessica
is great with Mark and the other children.
As I interviewed her, I was able to ask her if the other children or
parents ever treated Mark differently. Her
response was NO, they all love Mark and he is a happy go lucky child, which I witnesses
first hand. She told me that he was born
with CP and has come to the center since he was 5 months old. The teachers, parents, and children just
think of him as another child and treat him like everyone else. I asked if they ever had a problem with the
EI services while Mark has been there. She
informed me that EI was very helpful to Mark’s parents and are the ones that
suggested coming to the center so that the parents can continue to work and
that he can get the care that he needs. He
will be going to a public school program soon and the parents are more worried
about what will happen when he goes to that school. I asked about the public school he will go to
and I found out that while it is a public school it is a school for children
that have special needs that have their own therapist on site and that he will
continue to get the care that he needs. I
was so excited to be able to observe in Ms. Jessica’s class because it was
wonderful to see all of the children work together and help out when not only
Mark could not reach something but they also helped each other. This showed me that Ms. Jessica was a great
teacher that has taught all of the children to not only share but to care about
each other and to treat everyone the same.
The only
challenge that I saw in this classroom was that it did not have the proper
handicap accessible bathrooms for Mark to use.
He is at the beginning stages of potty training, he was arm braces to
help him walk, and there really was not anything in the bathroom for him to
hold on to. Yes, Ms. Jessica did go in
there and help him but I think that it needs help so that when he gets further
in the training he can go to the bathroom by himself. She told me that the director is working on
updated the bathrooms so that they all have handrails so that he can go in there
by himself. I thought that was great
because they were trying to make the situation for him better.
The other
classroom that I observed in was with Ms. Kate, she is the teacher in the 4-year-old
classroom. She has been a teacher for 20
years and enjoys working with the preschool children. The child in her class that is using EI
services is seeing a speech therapist because he has a stuttering problem and
the parents are not sure why. The therapist
comes in once week and they practice pronouncing words and letters. I did not get to witness the therapy session
but I did get to observe how Ms. Kate worked with “James.” She was great with him when he started to
talk to fast is when he would stutter and she would tell him to slow down start
over and it worked for him when he talked slower the stuttering was not even
there. She informed him that by working
with him he has come a long away and the speech therapist that has been working
with him has helped him and the family so much.
I really
enjoyed my observations this week and I am looking forward to all the
information that the directors and EI personal can tell me about their program in
the coming weeks. I think that in the
coming weeks I will be asking the professionals how they came to work with the
EI program and if they had any suggestions for other centers on how to get EI
services for children in their programs.
As a special ed. teacher I would love to see the research to determine academic success of a child with special need in an inclusion setting vs. a self-contained classroom, especially in the early childhood setting, where there are special ed. teachers, speech/language clinicians, social workers, OT/PT services daily for these kids. Just wondering.
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ReplyDeleteI have a child in my classroom that is Hyper-tonic. She is rigid and her muscles are spasmodic.She has developmental delays (cognitive development, communication (she is just starting to communicate verbally), and physical development, she lacks core strength and has low muscle tone. She gets pulled out of the classroom for therapy. I think it is so great that "Mark's" therapists come to the classroom. She is doing great but the other children in the classroom treat her differently in a good way. They are always trying to help her with everything. So, sometime it is too much for her to take. So I had to explain that she can do some things for herself.
ReplyDeleteFirst Response Posting to Deborah Knicker
ReplyDeleteDeborah early intervention applies to children of school age or younger who are discovered to have or be at risk of developing a handicapping condition or other special need that may affect their development. Early intervention consists in the provision of services such children and their families for the purpose of lessening the effects of the condition. Early intervention can be remedial or preventive in nature remediating existing developmental problems or preventing their occurrence.
Early intervention may focus on the child alone or on the child and the family together. Early intervention programs may be center based, home based, hospital based, or a combination. Services range from identification that is, hospital or school screening and referral services to diagnostic and direct intervention programs. Early intervention may begin at any time between birth and school age; however, there are many reasons for it to begin as early as possible.
There are three primary reasons for intervening early with an exceptional child: to enhance the child's development, to provide support and assistance to the family, and to maximize the child's and family's benefit to society.
Child development research has established that the rate of human learning and development is most rapid in the preschool years. Timing of intervention becomes particularly important when a child runs the risk of missing an opportunity to learn during a state of maximum readiness. If the most teachable moments or stages of greatest readiness are not taken advantage of, a child may have difficulty learning a particular skill at a later time. Only through early identification and appropriate programming can children develop their potential.
One area that concerns me is the accommodation for this child in the bathroom. As teachers, we know the best ways students with special needs learn is by having adaptations and accommodations that can be used for that specific child, to meet their needs, so they can be successful in the classroom. We also know, as teachers, that we do not have an endless budget that allows us to buy every adaptation and accommodation that we know would benefit our students. This is an area I would push for. There are programs out there where you can get funding to help with those types of accommodations.
Various studies have shown that early intervention increases future academic success and encourages students to take an active interest in their education. It also reduces delinquency and negative behavior toward teaching staff, and improves attendance during the school years. Early intervention provides students and their families with the means to support themselves without the use of additional services, such as therapy for a child with ADHD, and helps disadvantaged and exceptional students integrate with their peers