Module 2 Blog: Observing Professionals and Colleagues working with children using EI services

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. 

Interview with Early Child Care Professionals

My research topic is early intervention (EI) and inclusion in the classrooms.  I interviewed a childcare center owner/director that has been in business for over 12 years.  She is also a mother of seven children and her youngest are twins that were born premature and had the services of early intervention the first three years of their life.  The second person that I interviewed is a pre-kindergarten teacher in the school district; her classroom is an inclusion classroom that currently has 3 students with IEP’s.  After talking with these professionals, I am even more determined to advocate for the children that need early intervention and for them to have inclusion when possible. 

Some of the insight that they both gave me from their personal experiences were great.  The Pre-k teacher told me that some of the things that she talks to her colleagues about is that they sometimes have a hard time meeting the academic needs of all of the children and trying to fit in all required academic standards and benchmarks into the daily allotted time.  the child care center owner, and the teachers in the center believe that have EI services in the classroom is the best for children and will have the best rest for all involved.  This will teach the other children empathy for their classmates.  It shows that just because someone is different does not mean that they cannot be our friends.

Early intervention advocates are doing so much now for young children and more children are in an inclusion program.  They are catching learning needs early to provide all students a good foundation in the lower elementary levels.  They are also allowing the children to all learn together and they are having more specialists and therapists come into the classrooms.

When it comes to things that concern them the most is that the criteria of who needs the EI needs to be adjusted some.  Because the criteria is so stringent, some of the children that may need the service do not get it because they are just missing the requirements that are currently in place.  Another concern is that while the children are having inclusion in the schools they need to have inclusions in all aspects of the children’s lives.  These children are forming bonds in class and they have common interests out of school, they should be able to play sports or other activities today.

The questions that I have for my classmates would be:

1.       Have you ever worked with children with a disability before? What were your experiences?

2.       Did the child receive early intervention services?

3.       How were they treated in the classroom?

4.       Do you agree with inclusion?

EDU 450 Internship

I am currently working on my internship for my Bachelor's Degree at Kendall College.  I will be using this blog to talk about early intervention and how important it is for young children to recieve the care that they need and deserve.