Education

Increasing figures of young children with diagnosed disabilities and exceptional learning needs are enrolled in early childhood programs. If early childhood program is to be a fruitful educational approach, it is crucial that all early childhood teachers understand and are able to offer individualized teaching to young children with special needs. This article describes teaching strategies that preschool teachers can use to advocate the learning needs of all kids with whom they work, as well as young children with disabilities and special needs. The author, Mary Boat discusses the process of individualizing instruction, which consists of four primary steps. (1) Get to know each child's needs, interests and abilities. (2) Create opportunities for education that build on children's interests. (3) Scaffold children's learning through helpful interactions (4) monitor children's development toward achieving meaningful goals (Mary Boat et al. 2010)

Get to know each child

Most children are naturally curious about their environment and eagerly participate in learning activities. However, for some children it is difficult to identify what motivates them to be wholly engaged. Teachers who pay concentration to what kids do and say can usually discover what motives them. This is true for all kids, but even more so for children with physical and psychological disabilities because they may not exhibit the similar kinds of characters as their peers. Teachers who work successfully with children who have disabilities or special needs are attentive in identifying child’s interest by cooperating with families and other service providers of education (Mary Boat et al. 2010)

Scaffold to support learning

When teachers hold up knowledge, the objective is to determine what type and intensity of support will be most useful to individual children. A teacher’s understandable glance may draw one child’s attention to an appropriate behavior. Another child may require a verbal reminder yet another child may benefit from explicit instruction or examples of affirmative conduct. One child may follow when the teacher shows how to hold scissors correctly to cut paper while another one may require hand over hand support to do the similar activity. In all likelihood, children only need support for a short term (Mary Boat et al. 2010)

The components are interconnected and form the framework for decision making around individualization. To successfully create attractive learning opportunities for children teachers must know what children value and enjoy. Also what children are capable of doing and what parents can and should expect from each child. Teachers who know about the children create learning opportunities based on that information and support their learning through instructional tactics that promote growth. Experienced teachers determine whether children are making suitable progress toward achieving goals by monitoring progress and using that information to change instructional tactics and intensity as appropriate (Mary Boat et al. 2010)

The Council for Exceptional Children

The New IDEA Bill

On 19th November, 2004, Congress passed milestone legislation to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The passage of this historic law follows three years of growth. From the initial public forums held by the Department of Education’s of Special Education and Rehabilitative services in the month of October 2011 to the bargains between the House- Senate conference committee, So as to settle the differences between their bills in the fall of 2004. In between, the House of Representatives passed its bill in April of the year 2003 while the Senate passed its law in May of 2004 (Smith, 2008). On September 21, 2004, the Senate elected conferees to the IDEA conference committee, and almost three weeks later the House followed suit and elected its conferees to the conference committee on October 8. The conference committee began discussions and negotiations in October of 2004 and reported the cooperation bill H.R. 1350, which both chambers approved, on November 19. The President is expected to sign the new IDEA bill into law soon (Council for special Children, 2014)

CEC’S IDEA Reauthorization Activities

Before the introduction of the House and Senate reauthorization bills, CEC participated in a range of activities in preparation for the reauthorization process. In addition to giving the CEC IDEA Reauthorization Recommendations paper, CEC organized and continued to guide an IDEA reauthorization work group, involving representatives from disability, family, and general education associations. The goal was to create agreement among these groups wherever possible, or at least, to create awareness of the diverse opinions and positions that exist among these groups. CEC staff also worked directly with key members of the House and Senate Education Committees, providing information and serving to craft legislative language (Smith, 2008). Through IDEA reauthorization and other ways, CEC continues to advocate for improved working surroundings for all special educators and improved outcome for children and youth with disabilities and their families. CEC will offer continuous exploration of the IDEA to its members over the next several weeks (Council for special Children, 2014)

The implications of the requirements for CEC members and all practicing special educators in far too many cases will result in conditions that are technical and invasive (Smith, 2008). However, impractical or unsound the countless of consequences, they are becoming law at least at the present, and CEC members will need to assess their individual circumstances in light of the requirements. CEC members in leadership positions will require being watchful to the pressures to lower licensing requirements in order to meet requirements for what the law describes as “highly qualified” exceptional educators. In addition, members must advocate for exact alternative preparation programs. Finally, CEC members expected to be at the table when their State develops plans for implementation of this provision (Klingner et al. 2014)

Reference

Council for special Children: Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education. (2014). Exceptional Children, 80(4), 504-511.

Evidence-Based exceptional Education in the Context of Scarce Evidence-Based Practices: The Council for Exceptional Children’s Interdivisional Research Group. (2014). Teaching Exceptional Children, 47(2), 81-84.

Klingner, J. K., Boelé, A., Linan-Thompson, S., & Rodriguez, D. (2014) Essential Components of Special Education for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities: Position Statement of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children Learning Disabilities Research & Practice (Wiley-Blackwell), 29(3), 93-96

Mary B. Boat, Laurie A. Dinnebeil, and Youlmi Bae, (2010) Dimensions of Early Childhood, winter, vol. 38, no. 1

Smith, D. W. (2008). 2008 Council for Exceptional Children Convention; April 2-5, 2008; Boston, Massachusetts Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 102(5), 307-310.

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in write my nursing research paper services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from essay already written services.