Blended Practices for Supporting

ALL Children

in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Presented at the 17 National Early Childhood Inclusion Institute by Jennifer Grisham-Brown, Ed.D. | University of Kentucky

Need:

To meet the diverse needs of young children

Teachers are thinking

“How can I hold 30 (or 40)

hands when I only have 2 or

4?”

(one)

Answer…

Blended Practices

Blending is the act of combining beliefs, values, traditions, practices and even

funds from multiple disciplines, sources, and perspectives to maximize our

efforts in serving all young children.

—Pretti-Frontczak, Grisham-Brown, & Sullivan (2014) YEC Monograph 16: Blending Practices for All Children

Principles of Blended Practices

Ensure all children, regardless of label,

1

funding, or ability, have the opportunities and supports needed to thrive

Variability of instruction needs to match the

2

variability of early development

Authentic assessment is the heart of

3

designing and delivering early education

What can help me implement

Blended Practices?

CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK

Professional Development

A Curriculum Framework—

Linking assessment

and intervention

Collaborative Partnerships

Relationship between Curriculum Framework &

Response to Intervention (RTI)

Assessment

Guide Family

resources, priorities, Comprehensive concerns

Baseline

Interests and preferences Authentic

Developmental and content areas

Issues: Assessment

• Many purposes for assessment—emphasis should be on program planning assessment
• Recommended practices
• Authentic assessment practices
• Interview
• Observation
• Use of work samples
• Importance of using high quality CBA that is appropriate for use in blended classrooms

Administer the following
recommended practices

1 Acceptability—Social worth & detection

2 Authenticity—Natural methods & contexts

3 Collaboration—Parent-professional teamwork

4 Evidence—Disability design/evidence-based

6 Sensitivity—Fine content/measurement gradations

7 Universality—Equitable design/special accommodations

Characteristics of High Quality Curriculum Based Assessments

• Technical adequacy • Functional goals
• Multiple domains • Diversity of learners (age and ability)
• Yields quantitative AND qualitative information
• Multiple methods • Family involvement

Scope and Sequence

Bridge between
assessment and
instruction

Issues: Scope and Sequence

• Types of sequences • Developmental • Pedagogical • Logical • Understand “tiers of need” • Tier 1: Common (e.g., state and federal standards • Tier 2: Targeted (component missing, related skills missing) • Tier 3: Prioritized (preventing child from accessing general education curriculum)

Tier 1 Scope

• Common outcomes
• What is expected at a given age
• State standards
• Head Start Outcomes Framework
• OSEP Standards
• Common Core
• Big Ideas
• Characteristics of Tier 1 Scope
• Common—What everyone is expected to learn
• Universal—Developmentally and culturally relevant
• Comprehensive—Cover all aspects of development and learning

Tier 1 Examples

• OSEP Outcomes
• Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships)
• Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication [and early literacy])
• Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs

Tier 2 Scope

• Characteristics of Tier 2 Scope • Individual or small group • Struggling or stalled • Examples • Struggling • Component of an outcome • Quality of performance • Concurrent skill development • Generalized use • Adapting and adjusting

Identifying Tier 2 Outcomes

• Patterns
• Unexpected performance
• Interfering behavior
• Quality
• Assistance
• Look at
• Level of independence
• Consistency
• Adaptability

Tier 2 Examples

• Difficulty with demonstrating emotional and/or physical control
• IF a child has strong emotional reaction to having an event and has difficulty returning to a calm or neutral emotional state, THEN teach self-regulatory behaviors such as maintaining or regaining composure.
• IF a child has difficulty applying sufficient force to grasp and manipulate objects such as pencils, paintbrushes, hammers, and spoons, THEN teach how to apply sufficient force to objects.

Tier 2 Examples (cont.)

• Demonstrates a skill too quickly or not quickly enough
• IF a child engages in impulsive actions or rushes to demonstrate/initiate the required/desired task with no or little time between directive or request and the child’s action, THEN teach executive functioning skills.
• IF a child has a significant delay from the time a directive is given or initiation is determined until the child takes action, THEN teach how to respond more quickly.

Tier 3 Scope

Foundational Skills

• Milestones a child should have met by a given age • For example, at 4 a child should be using sentences to express wants and needs and the child may be using gestures and one sounds only.

Barrier Skills

• Behaviors that are in the way of a child progressing • For example, a child may speak a language that is different from what is used in the classroom.

Prerequisite Skills

Characteristics of Tier 3 Scope • Highly individualized (unique to a given child) • Critical to ensure access, participation, and progress • High priority for team

Tier 3 Examples

• Joint attention
• Engages in reciprocal interaction
• Shares attention
• Shares emotion
• Shares intentions to regulate the behavior of others
• Manipulates objects with both hands
• Follows social routines
• Uses single word utterances
• Gets basic wants and needs met

What Makes Something IEP Goal Worthy?

• Need
• stems from having a disability
• associated with the disability is having an adverse effect on the child’s access, participation, and progress in daily activities
• is developmentally/pedagogically possible to address in 1 year’s time
• requires specially designed instruction

Issues: Activities and Instruction

• Similarities across tiers
• Use of prompts
• Complete teaching sequence
• Intentionality
• Data-driven decision making
• Differences across tiers
• Teacher’s role changes as move up tiers
• Greater precision and consistency as move up tiers
• Greater intensity and frequency as move up tiers

Tier 1: Universal Instruction

• Principles of Universal Design for Learning • Multiple Means of Representation • Multiple Means of Expression • Organizing the learning environment • Learning centers and materials • Schedule

Tier 2: Focused Instruction

• Embedded Learning Opportunities (ELOs)
• Environmental adaptations
• Intentional small-group activities
• Peer models
• Scaffolding

Tier 3: Systematic Instruction

• Enhanced Milieu Teaching
• Responsive interaction techniques
• Environmental arrangement strategies
• Prompting strategies
• System of least prompts

Considerations for Selecting Tiers

• Relationship to outcome
• Evidence-based practices
• Cumulative nature of tiered instruction

Outcomes Should General Match Instructional Intensity

Identified Needs (Scope) Instruction

Prioritized Systematic Needs Instruction Targeted Focused Needs Instruction Common Universal Needs Instruction

Performance Monitoring

Tier 3: Performance Progress toward monitoring individualized outcomes practices vary in frequency, intensity, and intent

Issues: Performance Monitoring

• Match between instruction tier and performance tier
• Amount of data collected is different depending on tier
• Methods differ for each tier

Performance Monitoring

Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3

• Annually • Repeated • Minute- by-minute • Semi-• Weekly Annually • Hourly • Monthly • Quarterly • Daily
• Weekly

Within Tiers

• Tier 1: Re-administration of authentic and comprehensive assessment originally conducted to obtain baseline
• Tier 2: Repeated administration of targeted probes that emerge from the more comprehensive assessment
• Tier 3: Counts and tallies, written narratives, and/or permanent products related to individualized skills/concepts

Life’s Journey According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way

Anyone who has ever been able to sustain good work has had at least one person— and often many—who have believed in him or her. We just don’t get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.

—Fred Rogers

Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings,2e

Jennifer Grisham-Brown, Ed.D. Mary Louise Hemmeter, Ph.D.