# The Carolina Curriculum for Preschoolers with Special Needs ## Second Edition ### Nancy M. Johnson-Martin, Ph.D. ### Bonnie J. Hacker, M.H.S., OTR/L ### Susan M. Attermeier, Ph.D., PT --- ### About the Authors #### Nancy M. Johnson-Martin, Ph.D., is a consultant for assessment and early intervention following her retirement from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she held positions in the Division for Disorders of Development and Learning and in the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center (now called the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute). #### Bonnie J. Hacker, M.H.S., OTR/L, is an occupational therapist with more than 25 years’ experience working with children. She holds certifications in Neurodevelopmental Therapy, Southern California Sensory Integration Tests, and Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests. She is currently the director of Emerge—A Child’s Place, a pediatric clinic in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that provides children with occupational and speech therapy services. #### Susan M. Attermeier, Ph.D., PT, is a pediatric physical therapist in private practice in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She was previously Assistant Professor in the Division of Physical Therapy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. --- ## Acknowledgments This volume would not have been possible without the efforts of those who played a major role in the development of the first edition of this curriculum. Sally Robinson, Ph.D., and Raymond Sturner, M.D., helped create and house the CHILD (Children with Handicaps Integrated for Learning in Daycare) project at the Child Development Center of Duke University. Sara Carter, CCC-SP, provided major assistance in the development of the language sections. Teachers in many child care centers in Durham, North Carolina, partnered with us to better serve children with impairments in their classrooms and taught us about the joys and problems of serving children with widely varying skills. We acknowledge and thank those professionals who took time from their busy schedules to review the first edition of the curriculum and make suggestions for improving this revision. --- ## Introduction The first edition of The Carolina Curriculum for Preschoolers with Special Needs (CCPSN; Johnson-Martin, Attermeier, & Hacker, 1990) was an outgrowth of a federally funded “demonstration project” designed to facilitate the inclusion of preschoolers with special needs with typically developing children in community child care centers by providing consultation and developing screening and intervention materials. The CCPSN has been designed to provide a systematic approach for developing intervention plans for children with special needs who are functioning within the 24- to 60-month developmental range. ## What Is Included in the CCPSN? - A criterion-referenced assessment for determining the child’s mastery of important social, cognitive, language, motor, and adaptive skills. - Suggestions for selecting educational objectives from the assessment. - Guidelines for developing activities for the IEP (or for the individualized family service program [IFSP]) that incorporate the educational objectives. ## What Has Changed in This Revision? This edition of the CCPSN includes almost all of the items included in the first edition, although some have been moved to different age levels on the assessment chart. The primary change is one of organization. New sequences have been created and others renamed, combined, or divided in order to provide a consistent progression from infant and toddler skills to preschool skills. ## Table 1.1: Developmental Domains and the Sequences of the CCPSN | Personal-Social | Communication | | --- | --- | | 1. Self-Regulation & Responsibility | 13. Verbal Comprehension | | 2. Interpersonal Skills | 14. Conversation Skills | | 3. Self-Concept | 15. Grammatical Structure | | 4.I. Self-Help: Eating | 16. Imitation: Vocal | | 4.II. Self-Help: Dressing | | | 4.III. Self-Help: Grooming | | | 4.IV. Self-Help: Toileting | | | Cognition | Fine Motor | | 5. Attention & Memory: Visual/Spatial | 17. Imitation: Motor | | 6.I. Visual Perception: Blocks & Puzzles | 18. Grasp & Manipulation | | 6.II. Visual Perception: Matching & Sorting | 19. Bilateral Skills | | 7. Functional Use of Objects & Symbolic Play | 20. Tool Use | | 8. Problem Solving/Reasoning | 21. Visual-Motor Skills | | 9. Number Concepts | | | Cognition/Communication | Gross Motor | | 10. Concepts/Vocabulary: Receptive | 22.I. Upright: Posture & Locomotion | | 11. Concepts/Vocabulary: Expressive | 22.II. Upright: Balance | | 12. Attention & Memory: Auditory | 22.III. Upright: Ball Play | | | 22.IV. Upright: Outdoor Play | ## Checklist for Emergent Literacy Skills - **Print/book awareness** - Handles and plays with books - Looks at pages - Turns pages - Examines pages visually - Has favorite pictures or pages - **Metalinguistic awareness** - Uses environmental sounds in play - Participates in nursery rhymes - Recognizes beginning sounds of a word - **Oral language** - Uses words - Describes an event with a beginning, middle, and end - Predicts what might happen --- This curriculum is intended to promote developmental progress in young children with special needs by linking assessment with curricular activities and providing suggestions for modifying activities to meet diverse needs.