CARA's Kit for Toddlers

Creating Adaptations for Routines and Activities

Authors: Philippa H. Campbell, Ph.D., Alexis A. Kennedy, M.S.Ed., Suzanne A. Milbourne, Ph.D.

Early Childhood

Adapted from the extremely popular preschool version, this practical, step-by-step guide increases engagement and success for children 18–36 months by adapting environments, activities, and routines in homes and early childhood centers or programs.

To make sure all toddlers in your early childhood program are participating, learning, and thriving, you need to master the art of choosing and using effective adaptations. Practical solutions are in CARA's Kit: a guidebook brimming with step-by-step ideas for adapting environments, activities, and materials for children 18 to 36 months.

A follow-up to the bestselling CARA's Kit for Preschoolers, this real-world guide to successful adaptations is aligned with recommended practices in early childhood special education and early intervention. You'll use this complete kit to:

• implement adaptations in key areas: environment, daily schedule, activities/routines, materials, and requirements or instruction
• increase engagement and participation for all children, including those with disabilities, challenging behaviors, and other special needs
• create and use adaptations anywhere—in a home, a child care center, or any other type of early childhood setting
• improve every aspect of toddlers' development, including physical, social, emotional, communication, and cognitive growth
• help toddlers make progress toward program standards by creating an environment where all children learn
• make daily activities run smoothly by addressing children's everyday challenges
• select and use the least intrusive adaptations to help a child participate

With CARA's Kit, you'll have a reader-friendly, full-color quick guide with invaluable tips and suggestions, a clear six-step process for planning and implementing adaptations, and dozens of possible solutions for increasing child participation in activities and routines. You'll also get a suite of downloadable materials with everything you need to make adaptations work:

• a how-to audio presentation in English and Spanish
• suggested adaptations for play time, art and sensory experiences, story time, community outings, drop off/pick up, transition between activities, and more
• more than 25 PowerPoint slides for preparing a group to use CARA's Kit
• an instrument to assess activities/routines, and
• printable forms for generating ideas and recording notes on your chosen adaptations and their results.

Great for self-study or professional development group sessions, CARA's Kit is a must for early childhood teams across a wide range of settings. You'll use it year after year to ensure the best possible learning environment for young children with and without special needs.

Reviews

: Midwest Book Review, Education Shelf - October 31, 2012

"From music to visual supports to enhance learning, this is a creative winner."

: Young Children (NAEYC) - May 10, 2012

"Toddler teachers will welcome this process of facilitating the participation of children with special needs in the activities and life of the classroom. This is an approach to teaching that fits comfortably into good teaching practices for toddler caregivers and will benefit all the children in the group."

Mary McLean, Department of Exceptional Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - February 20, 2012

"Will be a frequently-used and much-appreciated tool... CARA's approach provides a way of thinking about, planning for, and evaluating adaptations that will be immediately useful for teachers and families."

Dathan Rush, Associate Director of the Family, Infant, and Preschool Program; J. Iverson Riddle Development Center, Morgantown, NC - February 15, 2012

"A comprehensive, must-have set of materials to assist in providing adaptations that will support participation and learning of all young children in inclusive settings."

R.A. McWilliam, Director, Center for Child and Family Research, Siskin Children's Institute, Chattanooga, TN - February 7, 2012

"Provides guidance for ensuring maximum participation in everyday routines—an approach consistent with research and the most current thinking about functioning."