TIPS - Table of Contents

"The goal of inclusion is to enhance children’s abilities to help them reach their true potential, and to offer a healthy and nurturing educational environment for all children. In such an environment, children are accepted for who they are, not what they are able to do, and those with special needs develop and excel along with their peers." 1

To help child care providers reach the goal of involving all children in their programs, requires special staff training, looking at daily routines, and creatively adapting child care activities to fit the interests and needs of each child. The following suggestions will help you consider elements to include in training child care staff to successfully include all children in their programs.

ATTITUDE

• The ways in which a teacher interacts with a child with disabilities, or any child, affect everything about the way that child will develop.
  • Confront negative feelings in staff
  • Use a non-judgmental, open format for discussing staff fears, discomfort/resentments at including children with disabilities in the child care program
  • Provide a venue for finding solutions to perceived or real problems
  • Model acceptance through conversations and actions with staff, parents and children in the child care program
• Introduce a cooperative system of staffing, involving parents. This provides a low teacher/child ratio, in a cost- effective manner and allows for freedom for an adult to comfort and give extra attention when a child needs this care. It also allows staff and family to become better acquainted with one another and to open channels of communication.

COMMUNICATION

• Assure all written policies and procedures reflect inclusive behavior
• Build and Maintain open communication among staff and between staff and parents.
  • Meet regularly to discuss methods for implementing the best program for both the disabled and non-disabled children within the program
  • Be open to share fears and concerns with parents of the child with a disability, and seek their suggestions and expertise
  • Anticipate and answer questions other families in your program might have about how integration will affect their own children
  • Answer the children’s questions about disabilities simply and honestly
  • Help children talk about, understand and accept the differences we all have, ex. hair and eye color, as well as disabilities; at the same time remind children about how much we are all alike.
  • Communicate regularly with other professionals and agencies
  • Early Intervention Specialists
  • Psychologists
  • Medical Personnel
  • Respite Care Providers
  • Social Programs
  • Maintain confidentiality by obtaining written permission from parents prior to asking other professionals for information about a child
  • Meet regularly with other providers to share skills and expertise
    

DEVELOPING THE PROGRAM

• Identify adaptations which will be necessary to serve the child with a disability
• Recognize the developmental needs or delays of all the children within the program
• Take advantage of children’s developmental strengths to include them in daily activities and routines
• Consider ways to incorporate an IEP into daily activities. Therapy may be able to be integrated into classroom activities
• Understand the importance of social interactions, and develop ways to encourage these interactions between children 
• Prepare a structured plan for promoting appropriate play interactions
  • Encourage children to work together in small groups
  • Model positive play
• If necessary, find nonverbal ways for children to communicate
  • Teach basic gestures in American Sign Language (ASL)
  • Use augmented technology for children to help children communicate; these might include pictures, electronic devices or computers
• Introduce a buddy system.  This enables children with special needs to be integrated into the group without requiring a great deal of teacher time.

MAKING SURE ALL CHILDREN HAVE ACCESS TO PROGRAM ACTIVITIES

• Make the environment accessible
• Design play activities that recognize the developmental stages and needs of children with differing abilities
• Plan group activities that address each child's developmental needs
• State instructions more specifically than usual to help enable children to better understand activities, and make them more eager to participate
• Position, or provide support for a child's body to help enable better participation in activities

MEETING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS OF CHILDREN

• Visibly post classroom rules and review daily
• Help children with disabilities learn to manage their own behavior
• Develop and use a plan to manage inappropriate behavior
• Reinforce appropriate behavior
• Apply expectations for appropriate behavior to all children

MANAGING HEALTH AND SAFETY

• Develop an emergency exit plan which accommodates special needs of children with physical, visual or hearing impairments
• Have emergency medial cards on file for each child
• Familiarize all staff with adaptive equipment
• Train staff to recognize and manage seizures
• Develop and maintain a plan for disinfecting toys and play materials
• Keep staff up to date on CPR certification
• Keep staff up to date on First Aid training

MANAGING AN INTEGRATED PROGRAM

• Use curriculum which is appropriate to developmental needs and interests of all children
• Adjust staffing patterns to accommodate the needs of children with disabilities
• Plan activities that will help a child reach his or her developmental goals and objectives as outlined by early intervention specialists and therapists
• Know how to use household items to make adaptive play materials or equipment
• Take advantage of training opportunities

PARENT COMMUNICATION AND INVOLVEMENT
Communicating with parents of a child who has special needs is the most important key to a successful experience.

• Help parents match their needs, expectations and priorities with the strengths of the child care program
• Acquire information and training from parents of children with disabilities
• Maintain confidentiality
• Use the parents as volunteers within the program
• Communicate regularly with parents about their child
  • Child's strengths
  • Child's weaknesses
  • Child's needs
  • Child's development
• Don't be afraid to share fears and concerns
• Let parents know the policies and day to day routines of the child care program and encourage their input as to how to make as many of these as possible accessible to their child
• Find out what the child is good at, and particularly likes or has difficulty with
• Find out how the child communicates his needs and desires:
  • Pleasure
  • Hunger
  • Toileting needs
  • Anger
  • Frustration
• Have staff document each day what is working well, and what areas within the daily routine have difficulties.  Ask parents for suggestions and brainstorm on how to improve difficult situations and come up with solutions.

STAFF TRAINING

• Develop readily accessible training and technical assistance opportunities for staff.  Many group will come in and provide free staff in-services.
• Parents are often the best resource as to how to work with their child. 
  Have them teach staff how to:
  • Communicate with the child
  • Position the child
  • Feed the child
  • Calm the child
  • Transfer the child from wheelchair to floor, chair, etc.
• Provide staff with telephone, electronic and on-site support
• Provide easy access for staff to training materials and resources

1. Child Care Bulletin - Pam Forbush September/October 1995

 

WCCIP • 2109 S. Stoughton Road, Madison WI 53716 • Ph 800.366.3556 • Fx 608.224.6178
These tip sheets developed by WCCIP, March 1998 with funding from the WI Dept. of WFD, Office of Child Care, and DHFS