A Preliminary Evaluation of Learning Within Developmentally Appropriate Early Childhood Settings

A set of multiple case studies was conducted to assess the feasibility for teachers in inclusive early education programs supporting young children's learning objectives through embedded learning opportunities (ELOs). The examination of the ELO procedure included assessment of the teachers' planning and implementation, the impact on child performance of specific learning objectives, and the teachers' perceptions of the ELO strategy. These case studies were conducted in three separate inclusive early childhood education programs located in three different states and included four children with disabilities and their classroom teachers. All teachers demonstrated increases in use of instructional behaviors toward targeted objectives.Children demonstrated concomitant increases in performance of targeted objectives. In follow-up interviews, teachers reported generally favorable perceptions of the ELO procedure. There were, however, some clear differences between teachers (with resulting impacts on child performance) in the consistency and frequency of implementation of the instructional support strategies. Teacher interview data are used to aid in hypothesizing on why these differences occurred.The number of programs in which young children with disabilities are served alongside their typically developing peers continues to increase. Wolery and his colleagues Wolery, Holcombe-Ligon, et al., 1993) found that 70% of the early childhood programs responding to a national survey indicated that they included children with disabilities. This represented a doubling of children enrolled from just 5 years earlier. In a more recent survey of programs accredited by the National Association of Educators of Young Children (NAEYC), McDonnell, Brownell, and Wolery (1997) found that 58% of these high-quality programs included children with disabilities. However, of the teachers who reported that they currently served a child with disabilities in their classroom, only 25% reported working directly with an early childhood special educator. Wolery et al. (1994) also reported that only about one quarter of programs including children with disabilities in their sample worked with an early childhood special educator. Both studies reported that early childhood educators were not consistently a part of Individualized Education Program (IEP) development and implementation. This lack of involvement raises concerns about how consistently the targeted learning needs of children with disabilities are being addressed in inclusive settings.Even when early childhood and early childhood special educators work together, the IEP goals are sometimes viewed as separate and unrelated to the goals and objectives for all children in the class. This view is reinforced by the manner in which the IEP goals are developed and written (Goodman & Bond, 1993). Frequently, narrow though measurable objectives are developed that do not readily fit or adapt to the overall curriculum or context of the preschool program. However, an important function of the educational t...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting Young Children's IEP Goals in Inclusive Settings Through Embedded Learning Opportunities

Horn

Lieber

et al. 2000

“…This is common practice in the research literature but does not duplicate usual instruction in which children are likely to have many goals being addressed simultaneously. All of the other studies on embedding constant time delay have this limitation, as do studies on embedding other procedures (e.g., Fox & Hanline, 1993;Venn et al, 1993). This is a serious limitation in the instructional research; we do not know what effects would occur if multiple intervention strategies were embedded and distributed for multiple target skills at the same time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Embedding and Distributing Constant Time Delay in Circle Time and Transitions

Wolery

Anthony

Caldwell

et al. 2002

The purpose of this study was to evaluate embedding and distributing constant time delay instructional trials into circle time activities and transitions between activities. Three boys in a summer day camp participated, and their teachers implemented the instruction. A multiple probe design across behaviors and replicated across participants was used. The data indicated (a) the teachers embedded and distributed the instruction accurately; (b) the children acquired the behaviors they were taught; (c) the trials to criterion and percentage of errors were similar, in large part, with what occurs when constant time delay is used in structured instructional sessions; and (d) the children generalized the learned behaviors across adults and materials. The findings are discussed in terms of our existing knowledge about embedding instruction in inclusive activities.

“…A number of empirical studies have generally supported the efficacy of embedded instruction approaches for targeted skill acquisition, generalization, and maintenance (Delprato, 2001;Fox & Hanline, 1993;Losardo with disabilities and (b) the extent to which systematic instructional procedures are used as part of embedded instruction protocols. High-quality, developmentally appropriate programming and environmental modifications might not be sufficient to provide the number of opportunities that children-especially children who have special learning difficulties-need to practice important skills (Carta, Schwartz, Atwater, & McConnell, 1991;Sandall, Schwartz, & Joseph, 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Complete Learning Trials on Child Engagement

VanDerHeyden

Snyder

Smith

et al. 2005

T he effects on child engagement of adult use of systematic, naturalistic instructional strategies within an embedded instruction context were examined. Following baseline observations of two children with disabilities and same-age classmates without disabilities, three different instructional strategies were implemented with each child with a disability and one child without disabilities using an alternating treatments design. Results indicated that levels of engagement for the three target children during baseline (embedded instruction only) were low. Engagement was higher (and approximated levels of same-class peers without disabilities) for two of three systematic instructional conditions designed to increase the probability of responding by ensuring complete learning trials. Described are implications related to the need to use systematic, naturalistic instructional strategies in embedded instruction contexts and the potential use of engagement as an indicator of response opportunities.