SUPPORTING EARLY CHILDHOOD INCLUSION THROUGH PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION: TWO HEADS ARE BETTER THAN ONE!

Laurie A. Dinnebeil & William F. McInerney

A Guide to Itinerant Early Childhood Special Education Services

A much-needed book that provides the knowledge and guidance itinerant teachers need to integrate learning opportunities into daily routines and activities in order to support children's inclusion in community-based programs.

A Guide to Itinerant Early Childhood Special Education Services

Our Goals for Today!

• Understand the steps in the consultative or coaching process and how they can be used to support early childhood educators
• Learn about tools and resources that consultants or coaches can use to support implementation of evidence-based strategies between their visits
• Discover tools and resources that can help evaluate the effectiveness of coaching or consultative partnerships
• Review common administrative and logistical issues that can affect the success of coaching or consultation in general early childhood settings

The Early Childhood Community Values Inclusion

• Early childhood inclusion embodies the values, policies, and practices that support the right of every infant and young child and his or her family, regardless of ability, to participate in a broad range of activities and contexts as full members of families, communities, and society.

The Importance of Supports to Children and Adults

• The defining features of inclusion that can be used to identify high quality early childhood programs and services are access, participation, and supports.

Supporting Inclusion by Providing Access

• Young children with disabilities need and deserve access to the same high-quality learning opportunities that we afford to their typically-developing peers. But access alone isn’t enough.

What’s the Best Way for Early Childhood Professionals to Support Inclusion?

Supporting Inclusion through Collaboration

• The best way to support meaningful inclusion is to find effective ways for the adults in children’s lives to work together.
• Itinerant ECSE service delivery models CAN be effective ways to support inclusion.

Two Models of Itinerant Service Delivery

➢ Consultative
Assist educators and primary caregivers to provide specialized instruction and plan ways to address IEP goals within the course of the child’s typical day and routine activities.

➢ Direct
“Work with” the child focused on IEP goals within the context of ongoing activities or outside of the child’s typical day. IEP-based instruction is limited to the Itinerant ECSE professional’s visit.

Consultation & TRIADIC Intervention

Consultation is defined as an INDIRECT intervention model in which the itinerant teacher and the ECE teacher work together to address an area of concern or common goal for change.

The triadic service delivery model is an INDIRECT intervention model in which IECSE teachers and therapists support children’s development by working primarily with another teacher (or parent) rather than directly with the child.

Why use the triadic approach?

Other adults spend more time with children than the IECSE teacher does. Practice is consistent with the benefits of Distributed Instruction.

Through a triadic approach, the IECSE teacher can help the early childhood teacher do what she does best—better help the child learn and reach his or her IEP goals.

The 9 Steps in the Consultation Process

1. Determine functional IEP Objectives
2. Evaluate "goodness of fit" between child characteristics, need for support, and learning environment and modify the environment if needed.
3. Agree on mode and intensity of instruction for each IEP objective.
4. Identify learning opportunities in daily routines.
5. Identify appropriate teaching strategy.
6. Identify progress monitoring strategy(ies).
7. Engage in ongoing coaching.
8. Monitor use of teaching strategies in classroom routines.
9. Evaluate success of teaching strategy.

The importance of follow through…

• Wilkinson (2006) argued that the “consult and hope” strategy is ineffective in terms of ensuring intervention integrity. We agree…

Implication

If IECSE teachers can find ways to support PreK teachers’ use of child-focused intervention strategies during their absence, then everyone can make informed decisions concerning the efficacy of these strategies. These strategies help to ensure the fidelity of treatment/instruction/intervention that is critically needed in the field.

Tools of the Trade: Analyzing the Goodness of Fit

• MEPI: Identify Priority IEP Objectives and determine mode and intensity of Instruction/Intervention.
• Curriculum Planning Matrix: Identify specific routines and activities in which teachers can embed IEP-focused intervention.

Tools of the Trade: Implementation Checklists

Provides a print sequence of steps or procedural components of a specific child-focused intervention strategy. Can serve as a reminder to adults of the important steps in an intervention strategy that will help adults implement interventions with fidelity.

Tools of the Trade: Evaluating Fidelity of Implementation

• Identify ways to document the teacher’s use of the strategy, with fidelity. Make sure monitoring method is realistic and reasonable for the teacher.

Tools of the Trade: PIECES

• PIECES: Performance Indicators for Itinerant Early Childhood Education Specialists seeking to expand their knowledge and skills in relation to providing consultation services in ECSE settings.