Lesson 6: Curriculum for Young Children with Special Needs

Attention

After watching the video, please think about what curriculum you observed. Also think about the teaching strategies you observed.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to

Recall and identify terms that relate to curriculum approaches and curriculum development.
Discuss the influence of various curriculum approaches on curriculum development for young children with disabilities.
List and describe the interrelated developmental domains and the content areas of curriculum.
Compare and contrast well-known curriculum models with advantages and disadvantages of each model and explain how they apply to young children with delays or disabilities.
Explain the similarities and differences between developmentally appropriately practice for general early childhood education and recommended practices for early childhood special education.

Teaching

Professionals must make decisions regarding curriculum based on the unique abilities, for children with special needs, backgrounds, and interests of the children and families they serve. A comprehensive early childhood when developing curriculum in both special and general education addresses all developmental domains. Curriculum is comprehensive and provides the theoretical and philosophical foundation on which programming is based.

Curriculum supplies a basis for the content to be taught and serves as the guide for all that occurs during instruction and interactions with young children.

The table below shows how a child’s mental and intellectual ability evolves over time.

Stage	Mental/Intellectual Abilities	Example
Infant	Object permanence, spatial relationships, imitation, causality, etc.	Object Permanent Experiment (Video)
Preschool	Pre-academic skills: math, literacy, science, counting, sorting	Clothespin Number Match (Video)
Early Primary Years	More sophisticated abilities; tell short stories in sequence and better quantitative abilities.	Sequence of Events (Video)

Other components of adiscusses many curriculum include:

Motor Skills (Gross motor and Fine motor)
Communication Skills (Communication, Language, Speech, Receptive language and Expressive language)
Social Skills (How children react in social situations, interact with others, initiate communication, and respond to interactions initiated by others)
Emotional skills (models.. For this week's discussion, explain to the class how to control one's impulses you would implement parts or temper and how to resolve conflict)
Adaptive Skills (or self-care skills like eating, Personal care -toileting, grooming, and dressing)

You have all of the various models you read about general early childhood education, special education and compensatory education. Think about the historical backgrounds and the people who advocated for change.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Watch this video for a history and summary of IDEA. Download Maine's Early Learning and Development Standards (MELDS)

Theoretical Influences on Curriculum Development

Developmental-Cognitive Perspective (Based on Piaget) Defined by content and instructional methods.
Behavioral Perspective (Based on Skinner) Emphasis on skills needed to participate in environment, and prompting, shaping, and reinforcing to change a child's behavior

Curriculum Models

Model	About	Curriculum Areas
The Creative Curriculum Model	Directed to infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and primary grades.	Blocks, dramatic play, toys and games, art, library, discovery, sand/water, music/movement
Bank Street Curriculum Model	Developmental Interaction Approach based on theories of Piaget, Erikson, and Dewey, among others. It uses a child-initiated approach.
High/Scope Curriculum Model	Based on Piagetian theory that children should be actively involved in learning while teachers play a support role.	Approaches to learning, Language, literacy, and communication, Social and emotional development, Physical development, health, and well-being, and Arts and science)
Montessori Curriculum Model	Child directed; teacher serves as a guide.	Practical life skills, Sensory awareness, Language arts, Mathematics and geometry, and Culture.
Reggio Emilia Model	Builds on children's interests and those children learn best by doing and being interested in topic often while attending to long-term projects.

Recommended Practices in Early Childhood Special Education

Remember to consider developmentally appropriately practice and the Division of Early Childhood Education. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) is a set of guidelines established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) published a set of guidelines titled Recommended Practices in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education

Similarities: DAP and the DEC guidelines

The importance placed on individualization
The de-emphasis of standardized assessment
The integration of assessment and curriculum
The importance of child-initiated activities
The importance of children's active engagement with the environment, and
The emphasis on social interaction, and the importance of responsiveness to cultural diversity
Programming that reflects both ECE and ECSE is likely to result in appropriate services for all children

Assessment

Lesson 6 Quiz

Match the term to the definition.

Terms	Definitions
Adaptive skills	A model based on learning principles of behavioral psychology that emphasizes direct instruction through a prescribed sequence of instructional activities.
Age appropriateness	Different components of any one or more of the various theoretical perspectives combined to match the needs of a given group of children.
Behavioral approach	The ability to communicate thoughts or feelings through vocalizations, words, and other behaviors used to relay information.
Cognitive skills	A basic skill that is required on a frequent basis (eating, toileting, turn taking making requests) in the natural environment.
Communication	The type of skills that involve the movement and control of large muscle groups used to function in the environment.
Curriculum	The use of symbols, syntax and grammar when communicating with one another.
Developmental approach	The order in which content is taught (ages, stages, or grade level).
Developmental domains	Refers to the child's ability to understand and comprehend both verbal and nonverbal information.
Developmentally appropriate practice	The self-care skills that promote independence and facilitate a child's ability to fit into his or her environment.
Eclectic approach	Oral-motor action used to communicate.
Emotional skills	A component of the developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) guidelines that refers to the uniqueness of children and calls for the learning environment and curriculum to be responsive to the individual differences and needs of a child.
Expressive language	Social – emotional skills that refer to a range of behaviors associated with the development of social relationships.
Fine motor skills	Refers to a child's evolving mental and intellectual ability.
Functional approach	The key skill areas addressed in early childhood special education
Functional skills	A teachers ability to understand each child and his or her unique social and cultural contexts; calls for curriculum and learning experience to be based on each child's unique social and cultural experiences.
Gross motor skills	A model in which the skills or behaviors are emphasized that have immediate relevance to a child.
Individual appropriateness	Refers to the universal nature of the course of human development during the early childhood years and the need for the learning environment and curriculum to be based on typically development of children.
Language	Children's ability to identify and communicate feelings, as well as their capacity to act on their emotions while respecting the rights of others. Skills in this area include how to control one's impulses or temper and how to resolve conflict.
Pre-academic or academic approach	A process used by two or more people to send and receive messages.
Receptive language	A traditional curriculum model based on theories of typical child development.
Sequence	All aspects of an accessible curriculum that invite active participation of all children regardless of ability.
Social and cultural appropriateness	Makes the assumption that the development of nondisabled children is based on the core group of skills that are taught to children during the preschool years; usually referred to as pre-academics while the early primary years are referred to as academics.
Social skills	A set of guidelines established by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to articulate appropriate practices for the early education of young children, birth through age eight.
Speech	The ability to use small muscle groups such as those in the hands, face and feet.
Universally designed curriculum	Viewed as everything that a child should learn in an early childhood setting: it flows from the theoretical or philosophical perspectives on which the program is based.

What are developmental domains and the content areas of curriculum? How they are interrelated?
List five well-known curriculum models. Choose one as a baseline to compare and contrast with the other four models in regards to how they apply to children with delays or disabilities.
Compare and contrast developmentally appropriately practice for general early childhood education to recommended practices for early childhood special education. How are they the same? How are they different?

Lesson 6 Discussion

Chapter 6 describes several curriculum models. For this week’s discussion, describe how you would implement parts or all of the various models you read about into your curriculum planning. Please consider developmentally appropriately practice and the Division of Early Childhood guidelines when developing curriculum for children with special needs.