Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

1. Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

2. A project of the Virginia Department of Education and the Training and Technical Assistance Centers of Virginia

3. Routines-based assessment

4. Agenda • Why conduct routines-based assessments? • Steps in routines-based assessments • Assessing within classroom routines • How to prepare • How to conduct • Routines-based interview with family • How to prepare • How to conduct • How to analyze assessment results and identify functional goals to teach • Amend children’s IEPs (if applicable)

5. What is Routine-Based Assessment? Activity

6. Why use a routines-based assessment?

7. Use routines-based assessment because … • Ongoing assessments in their natural routines is a recommended practice • It allows teachers to see a complete picture of a child if assessments are conducted related to home and school routines • RBA ensures that what is identified to teach is relevant and worth learning

8. Setting the stage • Assess the classroom • Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) • Quality Classroom Assessment

9. Gathering information for an individual child • Prepare for assessments • Develop and select tools to use to gather information about each child within the classroom • Observation • Potential objectives • Develop routines-based assessment plans • Make individual portfolios

10. RBA for each child • Who will do the observational assessment(s)? • What type(s) of assessment(s) will be done? • How and when will assessment results be shared?

11. Prepare for the school observation • Who will be observed? • Gertrude and Jaun • What will be observed? • Physical (fine and gross motor), social-emotional and cognitive skills • What routines and activities will the child's performance be observed in? • Arrival, circle, centers, snack, story, outdoor play, lunch and dismissal

12. Prepare for the school observation • Time period/routines and activities • 8:30-8:45 – Circle • Beginning: Sit on a rug in circle • Middle: Sing, discuss theme, review calendar and choose jobs • End: Choose and go to a center

13. Individual portfolios • When using portfolios consider: • 3-ring notebooks • Accordion folders • Pizza boxes • Poster boards and brads • Child-made portfolio

14. Five areas of a portfolio • Record of progress • Initial assessment results • Program goals and objectives • Areas of development • Correspondence with the family

15. Let's practice

16. Assessments in routines from teachers • Determine levels of engagement in classroom routines • Scale for the Assessment of Teachers’ Impressions of Routines and Engagement (STARE) • Provides a framework for interviewing teachers about how the focal child functions during daily classroom routines.

17. Scale for Teachers’ Assessment of Routines Engagement R.A. McWilliam Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ©2000 Directions: Observe the child for 10 minutes in each of the following routines. First, rate the amount of time the child is engaged with adults, peers and materials. Second, rate the complexity of the child's engagement. There is space to add additional or alternate routines at the end of the scale.

18. Involving families in the process

19. How do we involve families: functional intervention planning • Need a structure for families to have a meaningful role in planning • Need to emphasize that intervention is family-centered • Need a list of functional outcomes • Need a method for jumpstarting a positive relationship with families McWilliam 2004

20. Answer to needs: routine-based interview • Interview • Family on home routines • Teacher on classroom routines

21. Useful scale for the RBI • Scale for Assessment of Family Enjoyment within Routines (SAFER) • Provides a framework for gathering information from the family about home and community routines

22. Who conducts the RBI? • Classroom teacher • Director of center or program • Specialists Note: Any member of the child’s team who is involved with assessment and intervention planning can do the RBI.

23. Steps in routines-based assessment • Conduct routines-based assessments • Interview each child’s family • Conduct school observation and compare to checklist of potential objectives for each child • File school observation and family interview results in each child’s portfolio

24. RBI pointers Two people plus the family during the RBI is ideal Keep the interviews conversational

25. Interviewing skills • Relax – do not ask a checklist of questions • Show real interest – do not make it look perfunctory • Empathize – do not be poker-faced • Accept – do not judge • Use your strengths – do not assume everyone has or should have the same style

26. Preparation for the routine-based interview • Divorce eligibility evaluations from intervention planning; once eligible for services, use the routine-based interview process for planning interventions • Prepare families to report on routines • Prepare classroom staff to report on routines

27. Routines in the home Times of the day Families wake up, eat, hang out and go places Teachers have daily activities or events in their classrooms, usually reflected on the classroom schedule, such as centers, circle and snack

28. Preparing families for the RBI • Inform them that you are interested in learning about their priorities for their child • Inform them that a way to learn about their priorities is to hear about what daily life is like for them and what routines are in place • Provide forms to them if they desire a structured approach for preparing

29. Family-centered practices • When planning for the RBI, ask families their preferences for: • Who will be there • What will happen • Where it will take place • When it will take place

30. Six steps to the RBI • Prepare the family to report on routines • Family reports on their routines • Teacher reports on classroom routines • Interviewer reviews concern and strength areas • Family and teacher select outcomes • Family and teacher put outcomes into priority order

31. Step 1: Prepare for the family interview • Family routines • Relating with others • Family and community activities

32. Let’s observe an interview

33. Step 2: Family reports on their routines • Begin with the start of the family’s day • For each routine, six questions are answered: • What does everyone do at this time? • What does the child do? • How does the child participate (engagement)? • What does the child do by him or herself (independence)? • How does the child communicate and get along with others (social relationships)? • How satisfied is the family with the routine?

34. Looking at family routines

35. Step 3: Teacher reports on classroom routines • Teacher shares information • Family and teacher discuss information

36. Step 4: Interviewer reviews concern and strength areas • Refresh family’s memory • Recap concerns with the family • Show them the starred items

37. Interview wrap up

38. Step 5: Family and teacher select outcomes • Outcomes are the potential problem areas identified during the interview • Keep wording of outcomes the same as the family’s • Six to 10 outcomes are typically generated • Be prepared to remind the family of concern areas described during interview but not mentioned at this step

39. Step 6: Family and teacher put outcomes into priority order • Show list of outcomes to family • Ask them to put them in order of importance • From this point forward, the outcomes will always be listed in priority order

40. RBI review • Go through each routine with family • Get a sense of family and child functioning • Write down significant information • Star concerns • Recap concerns with family, showing them the starred items

41. RBI review (cont’d) • Ask the family what they would like to concentrate on • Write down these outcomes • Ask them for the priority order of outcomes • Begin to develop functional goals based on family and teacher priorities

42. Hallmark feature of the RBI • The RBI leads directly to objectives that are: • Functional • Meaningful • Consistent across environments

43. Functionality test When reading a goal … the answer to “Why is the child working on this goal?” should be immediately apparent within the goal itself

44. How to write functional goals Five guiding principles: • Make outcome statements meaningful • Objectives and strategies should make use of existing attributes • Evaluate outcomes meaningfully • Encourage all to have an investment in outcomes • Functionality guides writing

45. Guiding principles in action Meaningful Kim will hang up her jacket on the hook with her name Make use of existing attributes Kim likes to see her name in writing Evaluate outcomes meaningfully Kim will hang up her jacket once a day Everyone is invested Kim’s family will use a hook at home for jackets Functionality Kim is currently dropping her jacket on the floor in a hurry, becoming upset when asked to return from free play to hang it up

46. When writing goals … • Remember the three child behaviors of • Engagement • Independence • Social relationships • Remember that goals do not belong to domains

47. Engagement An engaged child • Shows attention in participation • Demonstrates goal-directed behavior

48. Independence Independence enables a child to • Access materials • Move about within the environment • Interact with others • Develop feelings of competence • Have a sense of accomplishment

49. Social relationships • Interaction with adults and peers • Children with developmental disabilities often have difficulty developing peer-related social competence

50. Let’s practice • 3-year-old with developmental delays • Student will stack blocks to form a tower 3 out of 4 trials over a week • Student will walk up and down three steps when in physical therapy • Student will use a spoon to eat applesauce during the daily lunch • Student will share toys with others during center time