Early Childhood Special Education

• Dunst modelinterest

engagement

competence

mastery

Ecological Theory of Human Development.

• The microsystem is the setting where the child spends most of his or her time. This level includes the home, child-care setting, and in the case of a medically fragile child, may include the hospital.

• The mesosystem contains the relationships in the microsytem. In the case of a child with disabilities this could include the parent-professional relationships, (teachers, therapists, doctors) or the professional-to-professional relationships.

• The exosystem can be described as organizations in the larger community surrounding the child, local agencies, churches, schools, social groups, medical providers, etc.

• The macrosystem encompasses the cultural aspects of society, federal and state government, regulations and laws, values and norms of the society, and attitudes of society

Transactional Theory of Child Development

• The transactional theory of child development describes the process of maturation, growth, and differentiation as a dynamic process in which outcomes are neither a function of the child’s abilities alone nor their experiences in their environment.

• A regulation model

• Development of the child is a result of the transactions that occur between the environtype, phenotype and genotype

• The environtype is the external experiences of the child.

• The phenotype is the physical makeup of the child.

• The genotype is the biological organization of the child.

Models of EI

• Professionally centered

• Family allied

• Family focused

• Family centered

• Family directed

Developmentally appropriate practices

• result from the process of professionals making decisions about the well-being and education of children based on at least three important kinds of information or knowledge:

• what is known about child development and learning -- knowledge of age-related human characteristics that permits general predictions within an age range about what activities, materials, interactions, or experiences will be safe, healthy, interesting, achievable, and also challenging to children;

• what is known about the strengths, interests, and needs of each individual child in the group to be able to adapt for and be responsive to inevitable individual variation; and

• knowledge of the social and cultural contexts in which children live to ensure that learning experiences are meaningful, relevant, and respectful for the participating children and their families.

• 1. Domains of children's development -- physical, social, emotional, and cognitive -- are closely related. Development in one domain influences and is influenced by development in other domains.

• 2. Development occurs in a relatively orderly sequence, with later abilities, skills, and knowledge building on those already acquired.

• 3. Development proceeds at varying rates from child to child as well as unevenly within different areas of each child's functioning.

• 4. Early experiences have both cumulative and delayed effects on individual children's development; optimal periods exist for certain types of development and learning.

• 5. Development proceeds in predictable directions toward greater complexity, organization, and internalization.

• 6. Development and learning occur in and are influenced by multiple social and cultural contexts.

• 7. Children are active learners, drawing on direct physical and social experience as well as cul-turally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understandings of the world around them.

• 8. Development and learning result from interaction of biological maturation and the environment, which includes both the physical and social worlds that children live in.

• 9. Play is an important vehicle for children's social, emotional, and cognitive development, as well as a reflection of their development.

• 10. Development advances when children have opportunities to practice newly acquired skills as well as when they experience a challenge just beyond the level of their present mastery.

• 11. Children demonstrate different modes of knowing and learning and different ways of representing what they know.

• 12. Children develop and learn best in the context of a community where they are safe and valued, their physical needs are met, and they feel psychologically secure.

NAEYC position statement

• http://www.naeyc.org/resources/position_statements/daptoc.htm

What are we trying to do?

• Functional skills• Independent skills• Social skills• Appropriate skills• Adult directed • Adult facilitated• Child directed• Engagement • Lack of engagement

Cognition

• Intelligence • Information processing• Concept development • Functional cognitive skills

– Allow children to function in an environment• Cognitive skills are measured through their performance of

skills in other domains• They overlap with skills in other domains• Collection of many other skills• Cognitive skills are teachable• Should be viewed longitudinally• Best taught when there is a reason to learn them

Motor

• Fine motor skills requires engagement with objects

• Gross motor skills function to support independence in mobility and positioning

Communication

• The process of sharing and relating to others… it is central to human interactions.

• Must be a sender and a receiver

• 1. Must be comprised of a gesture, vocalization, and or verbalization

• 2. Must be directed toward a person

• 3. Must serve a communication function

Social emotional

• Ability to selectively and appropriately carry out their interpersonal goals

• Effectiveness of influencing a peer’s social behavior

• Appropriateness in a given setting, culture or

• Context– Context

• context

Adaptive

• Self care

• Feeding

• Dressing

• Eating out

• Strangers

Independence Independence

IndependenceIndependence

Independence

Behavior

• Intervention

• Observable

• Measurable

• Repeatable

Identified by research as

supporting positive behaviors: Respond to child’s specific needs.

• PBS requires that services and programs are responsive to preferences, strengths, and needs of child with challenging behavior.

• Example, programs may need to add self-determination skills to their curriculum.

Identified by research as supporting positive behaviors:

Alter environments. • If something in the child’s environment

influences the challenging behavior, it is important to organize the environment for success.

• Example, clearly defined play spaces and quiet sleep areas may assist a child who is noise-sensitive.

Identified by research as supporting positive behaviors:

• Explicitly teach new skills to the child with challenging behavior and his peers.

• Children frequently need to learn

alternative, appropriate responses that serve same purpose as the challenging behavior.

Identified by research as supporting positive behaviors:

• Genuinely appreciate positive behaviors.

• Important to reinforce and acknowledge ALL positive behaviors consistently.