Highly Individualized Teaching with Infants and Toddlers

Gail Joseph: Hi everyone, and welcome to "Teacher Time.” I'm Gail Joseph.

Becky Sughrim: I'm Becky Sughrim.

Gail: We are from the National Center for Early Childhood Development Teaching and Learning. We are so excited to have you here with us today.

Becky: If you are wondering where our co-host Mike Brown is, he is on Facebook Live.

Gail: He is.

Becky: He is doing some Facebook Live Events for supporting the school readiness and success of young African American boys. We'll make sure to share that link with you in the chat and please check it out. The next event is going to be on April 18 about supporting multiracial children, and you can go back and watch the previous video.

Gail: It was so good.

Becky: It was so good. We hope that you can see Mike there.

Gail: Yes, shout out, Mike. Sorry that we're missing you today. Shout out to you. But we are very excited about the content, and we're so excited that you're here today because this episode of "Teacher Time" is going to focus on highly individualized teaching with infants and toddlers. We really have so much to cover. I feel like we should just really better dig in right now.

Gail: The first thing we want to call your attention to is the Viewers Guide, you will find that in the resource widget. This season, our Viewers Guide includes information from each of our segments, which is really fun, a note-taking space, and even some cutouts that you can use; you can cut them out and use them up in your own learning environment, which is great. 

There is a phenomenal Book List from our librarian and a Resource List that has so many great resources to support the material that we'll be talking about today. Now you can download the Guide and use it throughout our time together, which is really helpful, I think, taking some notes as we go, reflecting and planning on how to use all of the things you're learning in this segment in your own settings, as well as information that comes in in the chat. 

We've got quite a chat group, and they are sharing their own ideas throughout this episode, so you should make those notes as well. Please share that Viewers Guide with your colleagues, and if you've been joining us all season and you've used the Viewers Guide, we would love to hear your thoughts on that. We're always looking for ways to improve it. Go ahead and let us know in the chat how you've experienced the Viewers Guide, if you have any ideas. We're always looking for those.

Becky: Yes, please share. During our time together, we are going to review the framework for effective practice or also known as the house. We're going to concentrate on the roof of the house and introduce a set of practical strategies to support highly individualized teaching and learning for infants and toddlers. Specifically, we're going to explore curriculum modifications and embedded learning opportunities. 

Then, of course, we're going to discuss how to partner with families to support their child's development and learning. Then, we're going to dig into our Teacher Toolbox where our special guest is going to share some really wonderful tools with us. We'll also check in with our "Teacher Time" librarian, Emily Small, where we will connect the topic of today to some books that she has pulled for us that we can share with children and families. Then, finally, we will end with All About You because we know you do, and we do. Our best teaching and caregiving when we feel well.

Gail: Absolutely true.

Becky: Before we begin, we want to hear from a mother of a child with a disability who has a very special message to share. 

[Video begins] 

Mother: Well, we had a wonderful experience. Yeah, we had a wonderful experience, we're lucky, honestly. Genuinely. Like he's wandering around, he's making friends, he's talking, and before like, he was just in a corner. If he can get under my dress, he will get under. He was so uncomfortable. From when he was a little baby, he took a blanket around and I was like, oh, when is he going to ride slides and imagine? 

We're lucky that how these people every day get up, because I feel like what they do is so much work and a lot of work, and dealing with parents, different culture, and language barrier. All I say, just thank you for everything you do, because this is like, there's no amount of money that you can put it on a price on it. No. And just thank you and keep up the great work you do. 

[Video ends] 

Gail: So wonderful.

Becky: It's such a great video, and we just wanted to emphasize again, thank you so much for all that you do, it makes such a difference for everyone. Let's see, we want to hear from you, so think about a time or an infant and toddler in your care currently or in the past who you have provided more individualized and intensive support to. We want to hear what you did. What did you do? What did it look like? Go ahead and share in the chat. When I was thinking about this question, Gail and I was in a group care setting with infants and there was one infant that came to my mind right away, and he needed a lot of support with feeding.

Becky: When he came into the classroom; he was still learning how to swallow and breathe and suck on a bottle at the same time. We had a lot of collaboration with mom. She came in, she had a special feeding pillow, she showed me and the team that I was working with how to feed him, and then it was constant communication of changing his position, changing the bottle nipple, changing the angle. Just continuous conversation.

Gail: I am thinking about in a toddler classroom that I was in for a while, and I remember that we had kind of similar — a child that needed some more support with learning, just kind of even feeding himself with a spoon, an older toddler. We had some kind of specialized bowls that had — people probably have these like that would suction to the table so that he didn't have to also kind of stabilize the bowl while also scooping. It had kind of a built-up, kind of lip on the end. You could do some good scooping and was more kind of likely to get all, some good oatmeal on the spoon and things like that. I remember that being one of the ways that we supported, and so many other ways too. But people are putting out a lot of great ideas.

Becky: Lots of things. Making referrals, I see. We both talked about some adaptions to materials.

Gail: Yes, and partnering too, like finding some support with Part C or Child Find.

Becky: And, of course, more parent engagement.

Gail: So much of what we have seen coming in in the chat, in the Q&A, and what we shared are actually things that are included in the framework for effective practice. Hopefully, everybody has seen this visual before. We call it the house framework, and it represents the six integral elements of quality teaching and learning for children ages birth to five in all program options. The six elements of the framework for effective practice include — let's start with this kind of light blue foundation, which is around providing nurturing, responsive, and effective interactions, and engaging environments. We see on one of the pillars or side of the house, we see implementing a research-based curriculum and teaching practices.

On the opposite side, the other side we see using screening and ongoing assessment of children's skills. In the center, of course, is engaging parents and families. Then we think about this blue kind of outline, as we call it the strong siding. It touches every aspect of the house and reinforces it, and that is our equity-focused practices. Last, but certainly not least, and where we will be spending our time today, we have the roof. The roof is around providing individualized support, and that, again, is where we're focusing most of our time in our session today. 

Excited about that. Now, when we think about the roof, one of the things that you may or may not know is that it actually is a tiered framework. You might be familiar with other tiered frameworks, this is what we call them, things like the teaching pyramid. Anybody out there use the teaching pyramid or the pyramid model in their programs, that as you know, is actually a triangle or a pyramid shape, and it is a tiered model. 

The goal of implementing a tiered framework with young children and their families is to be aware of areas, like children's development or school readiness in, which each child has differing means and then to match the support provided to those individual needs, which in turn is supporting an inclusive and engaging environment for all children. Tiered frameworks are designed to do three things: the three P's are what we call them. To promote development of essential skills that promote school readiness and future success, to prevent delays and challenges by targeting critical foundational skills, and to provide timely interventions using evidence-based practices at sufficient dosages, which means like the amount of time and intensity to address delays or challenges. 

When we talk about matching supports or strategies to children's needs, learning characteristics, and targets skills, there are foundational or universal supports that all young children need to be successful, like nurturing responsive and effective interactions and engaging environments, you see that in the foundation of our house framework. There's also implementing research-based curriculum and teaching practices, and screening and ongoing assessment, parent-family engagement and equity focused practices. All of those things we would think about as kind of universal strategies and those are all really kind of the bottom part of our house. We think about that as the universal pieces. 

Now there are some children who will need some more targeted supports that are individualized to their learning characteristics. We think about that as the — starting to think about the roof of the framework for effective practices where we start to talk about highly individualized teaching and learning. Then there are a few children, very few children probably that will need really more intensive individualized support, which is also support of the highly individualized teaching and learning component of the house. 

You see that the roof of the house actually is broken down into three tiers, and then the bottom of the house really is that kind of universal strategies that we're providing for all young children. let's take a closer look at that house, roof if you will, of the framework for effective practices, and there are further tears in that. Within the roof, we can see curriculum modifications as the foundational practice. The next tier is what we call embedded teaching, some people call this embedded learning opportunities. Then at the top tier, or the more intensive tier, is where we see intensive individualized teaching.

Becky: Now that Gail has walked us through all of the tiers within the house, let's think about the foundation. We know that every house needs a strong foundation, and tiered supports are not effective if the foundation isn't strong. Let's give ourselves a refresher and remind ourselves what a high-quality foundation looks like for infants and toddlers. In this photo, you can see it's an infant toddler setting, and we want to know, what do you see happening? What do you think is supportive of these young learners? Go ahead and enter your responses into the chat. And as we're waiting for participants to respond, Gail, what do you notice about this picture?

Gail: Well, one of the things I noticed right away is that the caregiver really seems like they are enthusiastic about being there, they're kind of looking, there's some matched affect, and they are very much — looks like they're very curious and being ready to be sensitive and responsive to what the child needs. It just is the first thing I see. How about you? What else do you see?

Becky: One of the things I feel from this photo is warmth.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: You get like a warmth from the educator, like all of the things that you had just said, you can just, I don't know, I can just feel it. And this is obviously a very engaging picture because you see that one toddler with their tongue sticking out. I feel like that's a sign.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: Like I am focused, I am concentrated, I am engaged. I love when their little tongue sticks out, and they're so focused.

Gail: So cute. They all have something to do —it's hands, and they all have something that they're engaged with.

Becky: There's enough materials, they've got their hands in their sand, and there's different bottles and funnels and different sized scoops. It's really wonderful.

Gail: And more than one of some things too, which is so important. When children are like, I want the exact same thing. So that's really great. So much going on in that photo.

Becky: OK, let's check out our next example, and this setting is an infant toddler socialization. Again, go ahead and share in the chat, what do you see happening that you think is supportive of these learners? We want to hear from you. Again, I'm going to ask Gail, what do you notice about this picture first?

Gail: Again, enthusiasm. Like the caregivers, family members seem so excited to be there. And engagement too. I like that there's varied materials, kind of for — we've got children of different ages there. There's like the car that preschoolers using and the paper, kind of crinkly paper for the infant and the older toddler. What do you say?

Becky: I was thinking about the accommodation that's made for the infant. She's put inside the sensory table. Not only can she reach the paper; she can also engage with the other children kind of more on their level. We don't know. I don't know if this baby is only doing tummy time or if she's able to pull to stand. Making that accommodation so she can engage with the materials and the children around her. It's really great.

Gail: Right. Good to see that modification right away.

Becky: And I'm sure she like — I would like that.

Gail: Yeah.

Becky: Being in a tub of paper, why not?

Gail: Tub of paper. Let's do it after this.

Becky: Yeah, a big giant pool.

Gail: That's right. That's fun. Now that we've refreshed what the foundation can look like — remember that's kind of our universal level of our tiered model. Let's look at the roof of the framework for effective practices again. Remember that the roof of the house is a tiered framework, that there are curriculum modifications, it's a foundational practice of the roof, that there is embedded teaching or embedded learning opportunities that are a little bit more targeted. At the top tier are those intensive supports that are, just like we say, intensive individualized teaching. When an infant or toddler is experiencing difficulty accessing or participating in everyday activities, everyday routines; then we might want to start looking at the foundation of the roof to support. 

Today, we will briefly discuss each of the kind of tiers within that roof of the framework for effective practice. Make sure to check out your Viewers Guide for resources to learn more about each tier of the roof. It's just packed with things this time. We're going to start by talking about the foundation of the roof, not to be confused with the foundation of the house, but the foundation of the roof. 

In high-quality interactions and engaging environments, let's think about curriculum modifications and how we can support engagement for children who might need that next level of support. Again, we have this universal strategy of providing high-quality interactions and engaging environments, but we might have a child that we're noticing is just having some difficulty accessing, participating, writing, in those high-quality environments that we're providing. And that's a good signal that maybe we can make a curriculum modification. 

There's a couple of important things to note and remember about modifications. One is that even though we call it a curriculum modification, we are not significantly altering the content, the scope, or the sequence of a curriculum. A curriculum modification is usually simple, easy to implement, doesn't take a lot of resources or finances to actually use. We often say — you've probably heard us say this a lot on "Teacher Time," that curriculum modifications are small changes that can make a big impact. 

The other thing that we know about modifications is that if they're going to work, they're probably going to work pretty quickly. It’s something that you could try out, and if it's not working in the next couple of days, then maybe we'll make another switch or change. As the foundation of the highly individualized teaching practices roof, many children with or without disabilities benefit from curriculum modifications to increase their engagement and participation. 

Another important point to remember is that when we move to using modifications, the focus of planning shifts to changes to help support the active participation and engagement of the individual children within the learning environment. The modification strategies we plan, and use are based on the individual child's need. Just like any modification strategy that we would plan to use for ourselves, it needs to kind of work for the individual. It's, what is the need for the modification? While curriculum modifications are simple, they're also very intentional, right? It needs to match what the child needs. I might need a modification for my mouth here, I'm having some difficulties with it. 

Let's take a look at the curriculum modifications in action. In this example, the teacher’s goal is to offer a variety of sensory balls as the children are exploring, or as the child is going to explore. As you're watching this video, we invite you to write into your Viewers Guide or share in the chat, what do you notice? How is the teacher using the modification strategy? And what is the child's response? Take a look. 

[Video begins] 

[Video ends] 

Gail: So great. Such a sweet little video that captures a modification. Becky, what did you notice? People are writing into the Q&A, and what did you notice in that video?

Becky: As many people saw, that first, the support, like there's like a beefed-up boppy.

Gail: Yes, that's great. Great description, the beefed-up boppy. It's like, it should be a new brand that your-beefed up Boppy. And what was that helping?

Becky: Sitting. Sitting.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: And it looked like he was pretty stable, but then when he leaned back, you did see him kind of wobble a little bit. Just helping him sit up and stay safe.

Gail: I think that if you're an infant teacher, you really know probably how to use a good boppy with helping support infants that might have some kind of core weakness or some trunk muscle instability, and that just really kind of provides some extra support there. It was a really great modification so that less energy is spent kind of stabilizing so that more energy can be used, and it's kind of grabbing those different types of balls. 

I think the other thing is that it's one of the child's favorite toys that's being used there. Like pretty excited to reach and grab those toys. Some people have noticed, and we also noticed that there's different kinds of sizes and different kind of squishiness, levels of squishiness, if that's like a technical term, level of squishiness, so that some were easier to kind of grasp and hold. Really great example of curriculum modification, super easy to implement and use.

Becky: Now if a child is not making progress with the curriculum modifications alone, or maybe they have a specific goal and objective from their individualized family service plan, or IFSP, then we want to move to the next tier, which is embedded teaching or embedded learning, where we provide more targeted supports.

Let's take a look. When we are thinking about embedded learning opportunities or embedded teaching, again, it's the same thing just some different words. It requires us to think about what skill we are going to teach, when we are going to teach it, and how we're going to teach it. Of course, this takes some planning. Let's check out and see what embedded teaching in action looks like. Again, as you're watching the video, we invite you to write in your Viewers Guide or share in the chat, what do you notice? What does the teacher do? And how does the child response? Let's take a look. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher: Are you ready? Noel? Oh, your thing came out. Can you get your towel? Where's that towel? Towel. You found it. Wow. I'm going to dry my hands with a towel too. OK, put it in the trash. Basura. Thank you, Noel. Gracias. OK, ready? Find your seat. Good job. Excellent, Noel. High-five. You did it. Want to do high-five? 

[Video ends] 

Becky: Another really great video.

Gail: Really good video.

Becky: Yeah.

Gail: For thinking, just that perfect example of embedding that the goal of following directions.

Becky: What did you notice? What stood out to you?

Gail: Well, I noticed that she provides the direction. She provides some hints and supports for them to follow the directions of drying their hand, getting the towel, right, drying their hands, and then provides this really great kind of supportive feedback and like kind of recognition. Both with like good job, you did it, and then the high-five at the end. What did you notice?

Becky: That was along the same lines I was thinking, there were some very clear prompts on like let's get your paper towel.

Gail: Yeah.

Becky: Where's the paper towel? Then right away when he found the paper towel, wow, you did it.

Gail: Yeah.

Becky: That feedback, you could see it, it just happened immediately.

Gail: It was really good, and embedded, right? Within the ongoing context of the daily activities. While this is a skill that probably a lot of children could use a lot of extra practice on, following directions, there's so many opportunities to embed it, but to have all of that. The prompt; to get the towel, to dry your hands. Those are both following directions and then providing those prompts in the feedback. So great. 

Now finally, we're going to advance up to our next tier. When an infant or toddler needs more intensive or specialized skill building, we provide intensive support that is intensive individualized teaching. There's a lot of intensity going on there. Let's watch a video, and as you're watching this video, we invite you to either write in your Viewers Guide or share in the chat. What did you notice? What did the teacher do? And what is the child's response? Again, this is a more intensive and individualized teaching. 

[Video begins] 

Teacher: Burrito? Seth, can you tell Miss Whitney, "I..."?

Tablet: I...

Teacher: "Want...”

Tablet: "Want...”

Teacher: What do you want? And touch here, tell her the whole thing.

Tablet: I want burrito.

Teacher: Burrito.

Whitney: Oh, sure, Seth. Good asking.

Tablet: Water.

Teacher: Water? Awesome. Can we do a sentence? Let's try. "I...”

Tablet: I want...

Teacher: Which one do you want?

Tablet: Water.

Teacher: Then touch here for the whole thing.

Tablet: I want water.

Teacher: Oh, OK. Awesome. Here, go —

Whitney: Abiel, would you like a burrito? OK, you can get one. Do you need help?

Abiel: No.

Whitney: No? OK. Do you need help, or can you get it by yourself?

Teacher: Can you tell Miss Whitney a sentence? Let's try. "I...”

Tablet: I...

Teacher: "Want...”

Tablet: Want cup.

Teacher: Tell her the whole thing.

Tablet: I want cup.

Whitney: Oh, sure, Seth. Here.

Teacher: A fork or a spoon?

Whitney: Well, they're more like snap peas, huh?

Teacher: You have a cup, let's try again. "I...”

Tablet: I...

Whitney: You saw it in a movie? Would you like to try one? And look, on the inside.

Tablet: Want...

Teacher: And you need a spoon, right? "I want spoon," and then you can say the whole thing.

Whitney: Would you like some?

Tablet: I want spoon.

Teacher: All right, Seth. OK, can we tell in a sentence?

Tablet: I [Inaudible] 

Teacher: Try again. "I...”

Tablet: I...

Teacher: "Want...”

Tablet: Want...

Teacher: What do you want?

Tablet: I want...

Teacher: What do you want?

Tablet: Applesauce.

Teacher: Yeah, you want applesauce. All right. 

[Video ends] 

Gail: OK, this is just such a great video. What do you notice about this video?

Becky: The first thing I noticed was the responsiveness and the patience of the specialist, she was there, and how persistent the child was.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: Like stuck with it making the sentence, putting it all together.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: And the specialist used prompts.

Gail: Yep.

Becky: Both verbal and gestures to support the child.

Gail: Absolutely. I love that even though this is more of an intensive and individualized teaching moment, right, it's teaching the child to use an augmentative communication device, which is a piece of specialized equipment, and there's going to be more kind of one-to-one and more frequency of the instruction. The child is still with the group, actually, and the reinforcer for using that is actually like getting some of the snack materials. Getting the cup and getting the snacks. And people are writing in some great things here that they're observing, and just like you and one of the big takeaways here is, all of the response prompting that's happening.

The teachers, they're providing some verbal prompts. Use the — I shouldn't say device, but she's saying, say, “I want.” She's using some verbal prompting, some gestural prompting, like pointing to what it is that the child needs, and a little bit of physical prompting as well. A really great example of what that kind of intensive more individualized teaching that might be used less frequently, but that is still something that we put at that roof of the house. 

Now,  especially when we watched that last video, we're reminded that when you're doing this work of providing highly individualized teaching and learning for young children, you are not alone in doing this. There is a team of people that are with you to support you. That was a really great example of having somebody in the classroom helping the child learn how to use that augmentative communication device, and the Head Start teachers right next to that experience to also be learning how to support the child with doing that, learning how to use the method of communication device. 

But other people that are on your team are the disability service coordinator in your program, the Part C and Child Find provider, specialists like the physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language therapists or pathologist, nutritionist, and more, and your ECS specialists from your T and TA network. There's just a lot of people that are around to support you, including the partnership that you have with families.

Becky: Today, we're going to walk through a series of seven steps that can provide guidance on how to provide highly individualized teaching for infants and toddlers with disabilities. don't worry about writing all of these things down word for word, this list is in your Viewers Guide, and there's also resources along with the list to help you implement each step. Before we look into the seven steps, it's so important that we always start with partnering with families. It's crucial part of our work with infants and toddlers and young children, and families, as we know and as you all know, our children's first and best teacher.

They know their child the very best, and as educators, we need to create positive relationships and partnerships with families so that we can do our best work and support their child in their development and teaching, excuse me, their development and learning the best that they can. We also know that families are an integral part of our seven steps for providing highly individualized teaching and learning, and collaborating with families ensures intercultural competence, it helps support an understanding of the child's cultural values, and this also aligns with effective practice. Again, super important and crucial that we partner with families. And really, we see it right away in the first two steps. 

In the first step, we want to identify and clarify the child's and family's routines. We want to partner with the family, and we want to ask questions like, what does it look like leaving your living space and using transportation? Is it include getting into a car seat? Does it include getting on public transportation, or getting a stroller and walking? Or what is your nighttime routine look like? Or maybe it's your Saturday morning routine. Does it include a very bubbly bubble bath? I'm sure there's a great story with this picture that I would love to know more about this routine, it looks like a wonderful routine to have.

Our second step is gathering information on individual child and family goals and objectives. This is again where we also need to collaborate with families. And if the child is in a center base or home family childcare, we also want to understand the routines and the daily activities that happen in that setting as well. We're curious, Gail and I want to know, where are you serving infants and toddlers? Are you in an early Head Start center? Is it a family childcare? Or even a home-based setting? Let us know in the chat, and we want to hear.

Gail: So excited. Lots of variety coming in. That is great. Let's think about step two, which is gathering information on individual goals and objectives. We can gather information about the family's goals by participating in the child's IFSP or Individual and Family Service Plan meetings or working with a Part C provider and Disability Service Coordinator and the child's family to understand the family's top goals for their child. We can also interview the families to ask about their family routines, understanding if there's that bubbly bubble bath that happens on a regular routine, transportation, feeding, all of those things, and what routines the child is doing really well at, and which routines are the family having some concerns about, in terms of the child's participation in those. 

There is a process for doing this, it's called a Routines-Based Interview, and you can find out more information about that in your Viewers Guide. But one thing that we also want to know is, how many of you have participated in a child's IFSP meeting before? Let us know in the chat if you've had that experience. We are very curious about that. Looks like some people have, that's great. Next, we're going to partner with step three, we're going to partner with the families to clarify any current concerns that they have and learning needs for their child. If the child is in an early Head Start center or family childcare, we can think about what are the daily routines in those settings?

We're going to ask families about their routines, but we also will be thinking about, what are the daily routines in your program? Then, we're going to be thinking about if the child has been provided services at home, then we're going to think about more about the child's routine within the family setting and their daily activities. If the child's in a center, we're going to think about the center routines, but we'll also be thinking about what happens when they go home as well or where their family is. Then we're going to think about how the child is doing in those different routines, activities, and transitions, and this will help us find all of the child's strengths, where are they doing really well, and maybe they even need a little bit more challenge, and where they might benefit from more support, or perhaps a modification or adaptation. 

Now this matrix you're going to find in your Viewers Guide, and this I think is super helpful to do this step. Here's one example of how we can clarify a current concern or a learning need for a child. On the left-hand column, you're going to list the typical daily activities and routines that happen. Let's say here, this one is in an older toddler classroom, and then we're going to describe in the second column, what do we expect children to be able to do during that activity? OK? Here we're thinking about what are the typical daily routines, like what is our daily schedule? Then what are we expect children to do? What are our expectations? 

Actually, I will say that doing this activity with your teaching team is really helpful because it just helps you all kind of get on the same page, if you will, about what are we expecting children to be able to do with support or independently at that time? When we're thinking about a specific child that we're noticing might be having some difficulties or has same individualized learning needs, in that third column where it says, how is the child doing? We're going to just think about, is the child doing well? We might just say good, like good, yep, they're pretty good at that. 

At arrival and drop off time, the expectation is that children will say goodbye, and then that they'll go to the carpet and play with a toy as just that arrival procedure. Then we might think about for a child that we are thinking about, is this, are they doing good at that? Do they do that well? Do they need some more support in able, being able to do that well? Or maybe they're ready for a new challenge. In that final column, we're going to write down what is the concern that we might have, or the learning opportunity? Again, that's the columns, and you would individualize this based on your own settings. 

What is your daily routine, or what is the family's routine at home? What are the expectations? Then how is the child doing? Then like I said, in the third column we're going to mark, and here's our example. For this example for this child, they're doing well at arrival and drop off. At breakfast, they need a little bit more support we've noticed. At playtime, they need a little bit more support. They're doing great with the diapering and toileting routine. And outside play they are doing really well and they could use a little bit of enrichment or challenge there. OK, and then in the final column, we describe what our concerns are, OK? And you could do this together as a teaching team, you can do it with the families. 

The child at arrival and drop off is doing — we've marked good, so we don't actually have any concerns, we put NA there. Then we just noted that they're happy in the mornings, gives Dad a high-five, heads to the cars on the carpet. Then we see at breakfast time, we've marked that this child needs a little bit more support. What are our concerns in that column, the fourth column, we list those. He has a little difficulty with remembering the steps for hand washing and difficulty with kind of pumping soap from a dispenser, gets confused and frustrated with where to sit, has some difficulty scooping up soft foods with a spoon. 

Then we see at playtime, we've also noted that the child could use a little bit more support here, grabs toys from others, sits very near and sometimes kind of on other children. We've seen that. Then diapering and toileting, we see that they're doing good there, we don't have any concerns. Then outside play, we noted that this child needed a little bit more challenge, they loved basketball, and we're thinking about bringing out some hoops and some more balls for them to kind of increase a little bit of challenging creativity there.

Becky: Now our next step is to create a plan. After we have clarified the current concerns using this helpful chart that Gail just walked us through, then we want to create a plan for providing some modifications and adaptations to the environment or a learning activity, or maybe creating more supportive teaching through embedded learning opportunity. We have another chart for you and this matrix is also in your Viewers Guide. This is another helpful table that will help us create a plan for curriculum modifications. You just filled out the blue chart that Gail walked through, you could take one of those concerns and use it in here to help start planning for curriculum modifications. 

In the left-hand side, again, we have the daily routine and activity, breakfast, playtime, diapering, and we have what are the concerns? There's — these are the same concerns, I see. During playtime, grabs toys from the others, sits very near, sometimes on children. Then we want to, in the next column, how will we modify, we want to think about the eight types of curriculum modifications, which are all listed in your Viewers Guide, and determine if some of those could be helpful for the child to access and participate more fully, and more independently in a routine or activity. 

In the next column, we have materials and prep. This is where we will write down what kind of materials are going to be needed and who's going to practice and by when? We have another column for that, which is really helpful to keep everybody on the same page to know what's going on and what we're supposed to be doing and kind of where. Then we want to determine when we're going to come back together to reflect on the curriculum modifications and decide, is this working or is it not working? That's a really important step that we want to come back and reflect on our plan and our curriculum modifications. 

Another thing we want to plan for is embedded learning opportunities or embedded teaching, and this requires us to consider what we will teach, when we will teach, and how we will teach. Tere's another sort of table that you could use, it's also included in your Viewers Guide. What we will teach, and this is a learning goal from a child IFSP where the child uses two-word approximations to request terms. In the next column, we want to think about what we will teach, and we want to think when is the best time to teach this? That's going to be when the child is motivated because they want something.

Maybe it's a toy they want, maybe they really want bubbles, that's a favorite activity, or it's during snack or mealtime where they want something to eat or drink. We want to think about how we will teach. We are going to provide highly desired toys in the view of the child and just out of reach and offer only small portions of snack foods at each serving so that the child has multiple opportunities to try using their words and try making those requests. When we notice that the child is looking, we will use words like, oh my turn or more fish, and we'll wait for the child to try to make that request. When they do, we will give them the toy or snack food right away. This is a really important note, we will never, ever, ever withhold food from a child.

Gail: Never.

Becky: Never ever. In this situation, we just mean that when you're providing snack to the child that you're giving them small portions. Maybe it's one cracker at a time so that you're creating more opportunities for them to practice the skill of making a request and asking for more. Again, we will never withhold food from a child, it's just about creating more opportunities to practice the skill.

Gail: Yes, absolutely, because if they want fish crackers, then it's one fish, then they're going to have lots of opportunities. I know for me, I really love fish crackers still, that I would be making that request a lot. I love that in this chart we also see kind of what that kind of response prompting is going to be. We're going to model like saying, my turn, or maybe if they're learning to do a gesture, it's going to be a gesture. Really helpful kind of to think about that. What are we going to teach, which is probably a goal that has come from an IFSP or something that we know that the child might need some more support on, when and how? I love that.

I'm going to navigate through to the next thing. We've covered a lot. We've talked about looking through the child's day and thinking about where they might be doing well and celebrating those strengths. Where do they need some more challenge? But also, where do they need more support? That's where we thought about either curriculum modification, or do they just need more opportunities to learn a skill? Which is that embedded learning opportunities. Well, that can feel like a lot. I've had multiple children in my classroom or in my program, and I've got a lot of modifications and a lot of goals that I'm trying to provide embedded learning opportunities. How do I organize this?

Now we're going to talk about constructing an activity matrix that could be used in a childcare or center-based setting, or it could actually be used at home as well. This matrix is really designed to help you organize how you're going to make all of these changes and provide all of that embedded learning opportunity. We want you to share in the chat, how many of you have seen or created an activity matrix? They've kind of been around for a while. My guess is that we've got some experienced users out there today in "Teacher Time" viewing world. We'd love to see that. Some people are very familiar, and some people, some people have not. But we're going to just walk through how to create one, you and I, together, as an example in case you aren't familiar.

We're going to consider the following learning goals for a two-year-old who has a developmental delay. They are working on using two-word approximations, so maybe saying something like, my turn. They are working on functionally playing with toys, so maybe stacking toys, or using the shapes order. Saying, all done, instead of typically right now when they're all done it's crying, and we're wanting them to start using that all done phrase. Then drinking from a cup with a straw instead of the bottle. There's quite a few things that we're working on here for learning goals that we have.

Now, what we want to think about is when might the teacher work on these goals in their toddler classroom, and in which routines can instruction on these skills be easily embedded? If we remember back to the video we saw about that embedded learning opportunity for following directions, it was so easily embedded in that routine of washing hands. Could be turn the faucet off, you've got multiple opportunities. Get the towel, dry your hands. Those are three instructions following directions that could be embedded even just in that one routine. Think about when might the teacher work on these goals in their toddler classroom, and in which routines can instruction be easily embedded?

Now here's a blank matrix. We have so many. This should be like the "Teacher Time" episode on charts and matrix’s, I think. Here's yet another matrix for you and one more that you'll also be able to find in the Viewers Guide. But this is so helpful. I know that when I was teaching on a regular basis, I was really grateful to have learned about an activity matrix because it just helped me to organize all of those curriculum modifications and learning opportunities.

On the left-hand side, which we've done a lot, you're going to write down the daily schedule for your classroom, for your family childcare, and this could also be the families' kind of routines at home, what do they typically do? That's going to go down that left-hand side where it says daily schedule. Across the top, this is an activity matrix for one child, across the top we are going to list the goals that we've identified that we're going to prioritize doing some embedded teaching with. Remember that was using two-word phrases, playing with toys, saying all done, and drinking from a straw. Then what we do is in the intersecting cells. Now we have the daily schedule written down, there's playtime, diapering and handwashing, lunch, and then playtime. It's just a snippet from a daily schedule.

Then, we have the goals across the top. Then in the intersecting cells there, we're going to write down when we would imagine and how we're going to teach that skill that the child has within the context of that daily schedule. We also could note on this, like materials that we want to meet, that we need to do this, or any modifications that we're going to provide. Here we have the daily schedules and playtime, and then we have across the top, using two-word phrases. During playtime, I could imagine a lot of learning and practicing, my turn.

We might even think more about like, what toys might be out during playtime that a child would have to take turns with, right, so that they could practice a lot of my turn? I was talking about those like, I call them busy balls. It's like the ball ramp that goes down, and you can only put one in at a time. There's a lot of opportunity to say, my turn, right? Because one child goes, you go. Or it could be go car. If we're doing cars and ramps.

Then also during playtime, playing with toys is one of the goals, and so we would make sure to put out some stacking cups. What I love about this is we're going to modify the stacking cups because we know that this child particularly loves Paw Patrol. We're going to put some Paw Patrol stickers on those stacking cups so that they're drawn to them, and then we're going to practice that functional skill. You want to do the next one?

Becky: Sure. Then we have diapering and hand washing. For this goal, we have in the middle, there's playing with toys, we're going to have a basket of small toys on the changing table, and then we can hold up two toys for the child to choose from while she's being changed, so that she has this opportunity to continue playing with toys while getting the diaper done. We also are going to encourage all done. Saying all done, gesturing all done when the diapers over, when hand washing is over.

Gail: And people can look at the rest of those. I think the goal here when you're doing your activity matrix is thinking about, when can I naturally embed this learning opportunity within the context of something that's going to happen anyways? The daily routine. We're not pulling a child aside, doing individualized learning, and then having them also then have to learn how to use it again in the context. We're going to provide that instruction within the context.

We also just have to be really more planful about thinking about, how am I going to give as many positive practice opportunities on this new skill as I can within a daily routine? And it gets to be kind of fun. It's kind of a fun teacher challenge. To think about like, gosh, how many ways can I get this child to practice these skills and how many opportunities can I provide in a single day? Think about that as a little bit of a challenge there.

Becky: Our next step is six, to implement the plan. This is when we do it. You use all those charts that you've worked so hard to create to implement the plan, and in step seven we want to check to see if the child is making progress. If the child is making progress, wonderful, we'll continue implementing the plan or maybe we'll move on to another goal. If the child is not making progress, that's also important to find out. Our first step then is to make sure and double-check us that we are following the plan, and if we are following the plan, then we might want to consider providing more opportunities for learning, or maybe it's time for even more intensive instruction. We are so excited for our teacher toolbox because we have so many great tools for you today, and our special guest, Dr. Jennifer Fung, is going to tell us all about them. Let's hear from Dr. Fung.

[Video begins]

Jennifer Fung: The first helpful resource I wanted to highlight can be used for planning curriculum modifications to support a child's participation and engagement. This is the child participation evaluation form, and you can find this handout in both your Viewers Guide and on the ECLKC website. We know it's important to promote participation and engagement to support learning, and in order to do this, it's important to know each child's needs and interests. We encourage you to use this resource to help increase your awareness of a particular child's needs for additional support when it comes to participation and engagement throughout the day.

The next resource we wanted to highlight is also a resource related to curriculum modifications. You can find this handout, again, in your Viewers Guide, and also on the ECLKC website. This worksheet will help you learn about and also practice selecting different types of curriculum modification strategies that are really designed to meet the specific needs of an individual child in your learning environment. If you work in a learning environment with multiple adults, we encourage you to work through this handout together. This handout works in partnership with the child participation evaluation form.

You can use the information that you gather from the child participation form to help you really intentionally think through the types of modifications that might support that individual child's needs for support when it comes to participation and engagement. There are so many resources that can help you learn about and use highly individualized strategies and support. Let's take a look at just a few more that you see here on the screen. One of the resources that we wanted to highlight are the ECTA Practice Improvement Tools.

These come from our good partners at the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, and these Practice Improvement Tools, there are so many of them and they were really designed and written to help a variety of different professionals and providers learn about highly individualized practices and supports. The practice guides talked about a variety of different highly individualized strategies, like environmental modifications and embedded teaching and systematic instruction, different strategies and supports that are aligned with the different tiers that Gail and Becky have been talking about. You can find a link to these ECTA Practice Improvement Tool Guides in your Viewers Guide. We definitely encourage you to check those out.

Another resource that we wanted to highlight are the infant toddler training modules on ECLKC. There are a variety of training modules and materials related to supporting infants and toddlers with disabilities, and many of these describe and demonstrate different highly individualized teaching strategies, like embedded learning opportunities. Definitely check those out if you haven't seen them already.

The last resource that we wanted to highlight today is the Inclusion Lab App. The Inclusion Lab App is the Office of Head Start's newest mobile app and it was designed to help people like Disability Services coordinators, education managers, coaches who are supporting education staff and teachers like you, to select highly individualized strategies and supports that are matched to a child's individual learning needs to try out and use those individualized strategies and supports, and then to evaluate how well they're working for the child. Is it supporting the child's learning? Is it supporting the child's participation?

The Inclusion Lab App has a variety of different forms and resources and planning tools; it has videos of different instructional strategies in action. We definitely encourage you to download the app, check it out, and talk about it with your team and give it a try and see how it might support your support for young children with disabilities and suspected delays. Don't forget to check out your Viewers Guide for links to all of these resources and more.

[Video ends]

Gail: So great.

Becky: Yeah.

Gail: We should note that some of the videos we watched in this episode are also on that app, so...

Becky: Yeah.

Gail: ...you can find them there too.

Becky: Check out the app, and Soul.

Gail: And Soul.

Becky: The seahorse. It's time for our BookCASE segment, and the BookCASE is where we highlight books related to our episodes theme. We are so excited to hear from our librarian, Emily Small, and I got to meet with her earlier this month. Let's check out what books she's pulled for us.

[Video begins]

Becky: Hi, and welcome to our BookCASE segment. I'm so excited to be here today with our "Teacher Time" librarian, Emily Small.

Emily Small: Thanks for having me back.

Becky: If you are new to "Teacher Time," or as a refresher, CASE is an acronym that helps us intentionally choose books for our learning environment. And C stands for connect, where we connect the content in the book to a Head Start early learning outcomes framework goal or domain. A stands for advanced vocabulary, where we can use the book to introduce new and novel words. S stands for support active engagement while reading the book. And E stands for extend the learning beyond the book, where we take the content of the book into the classroom and into our learning experiences.

Emily: Well, we have a huge stack today. We're going to talk about all of them briefly and then we'll dive into one more. But there is a CASE for all of these books in the Viewer Guide.

Becky: Yes. Emily, you have this big stack of books is all about identity and belonging.

Emily: Yes. Te first one we have here is a counting book that includes Braille, super tactile, really fun to play with. It encourages the children and adults to count both by feeling the Braille dots, as well as you can count just by the texture of the items. That's "Counting," Braille. We have "I Can, Can You?” And this features photographs of children who say what they can do, and they repeat back then, can you? 

We have "This Little Wonder, No-Limits Primer.” This is nonfiction, it all features real people and the things that they've done and accomplished. We have "The Five Senses, Hearing.” This is part of another series, it's also nonfiction. Great vocabulary in this one, learning about the different parts of the ear and how you can hear, and then talks about sign language as well.  This one's fantastic. These are all great. Then we have "We Are Little Feminists, How We Eat.” This has photographs of children and all the things they eat and how that they eat. So great ones to talk about the photographs. 

For our CASE, we have "We Are Little Feminists, On The Go.” For our C, the connection, this is all pictures, photographs of children with and without disabilities, and we're connecting it to the ELOF in the social-emotional domain. Advanced vocabulary, it's full of really simple sentences that also have rhymes, so we're seeing words like hike and bike and glide and ride. It's always great to point out those rhymes as you're seeing them. 

For supporting engagement, talk about the photographs and what the children in the photographs are doing. It's a great one just to flip through, especially infants, and just notice what they're paying attention to. Then Extending The Learning is thinking about how diversity is present in your learning environment. Do you have a range of people with different abilities, in terms of figurines and baby dolls? What photos or books are available for children to look at? That's "We Are Little Feminists, On The Go.”

Becky: Thank you so much, Emily. These are such wonderful books and we can't wait to see you again.

Emily: Thanks for having me. 

[Video ends] 

Gail: I'm going straight to library to get "We Are Little Feminists.” I think that - I hadn't heard of that book before. It's so great to have these uncovered for us.

Becky: As always, I love pulling books from the list that Emily creates for us for my own child. They're always great, and I also can't wait to go to the library to check them out. Again, don't forget that full book list is in your Viewers Guide, and Emily has made the CASE for every book she pulled for us. You can find those in your Viewers Guide.

Gail: Just love that, being so intentional about book selection. It's so great. All right. Well, we are heading into the end of our "Teacher Time" episode. I'm feeling a little sad about that, but this is the part where we were talking about, It's All About You. We want to turn our attention to you. We know that, just in our own experience and we know as former educators, that we do our best caregiving, our best teaching when we feel well ourselves. Engaging in self-care practices can really help you and helps us build greater social and emotional capacity to work through problem solving together with young children. Our ability to create an engaging environment and support all children is really contingent on the extent to which we feel healthy and well ourselves. 

We just know that to be true, that when we show up and we're feeling energized, we've gotten a good night's sleep, we've had a healthy meal, we have good relationships, that we are going to feel ready, more ready to work with young children. This episode, It's All About You, is focused on finding your support team. We said you're not alone in doing this work, and it's particular doing highly individualized teaching and learning you're not alone because you have a lot of support within your programs. But also, just personally your support, we want to talk about making sure that you've got your support team. 

We think about relationships and thinking about, do you have a friend that fits these three categories? Or it can be multiple friends, could be one friend. But we think about the importance of having somebody that provides emotional support to you. This is that kind of unconditional love and support, they're there to help you when you're feeling sad, they're there to help you when you're grieving. They're also there to share joys and be excited for you and when you're excited and be happy when you're happy. 

Think about that. Do you have somebody in your life that provides that unconditional emotional support to you? The next thing is, instrumental support. Do you have somebody in your life that you could call and rely on to provide things like picking your child up from childcare if you're going to be late? Or maybe if you were at home feeling sick, this is somebody that might be able to run to the store and grab some cough medicine for you, or whatever you might be needing. That instrumental support, somebody you can count on to provide you support and help you when you need things and you do the same for them. And that may or may not be the same person that provides unconditional emotional support. 

I have a friend that is like my emotional lifeline, love them so much. I would not rely on that person to pick my child up from childcare, and that's OK because I have a neighbor that I've made good friends with down the block that we can provide that instrumental support. I can get their mail for them, if they need help, going to help shovel their walk if they need that, and they do some same things for me. The next thing is mentoring. Do you have somebody in your life that is a mentor to you? That is helping you think about the type of educator that you want to be, an area of personal growth that you want to bloom in, and somebody that's providing that ongoing mentoring and support. And again, that might be somebody different than the one that provides instrumental support or emotional support. 

Thinking about people that you have in your life that fill these three important roles, and if you've got somebody, let's express gratitude to them right now, because we know expressing gratitude is also a really great strategy to increase your health and wellness. There's a spot in your Viewers Guide where you can write down and think about a thank you for those people right now. If you don't have somebody that fills one of these roles, think about how you might reach out and start building an exceptional relationship with somebody so that you have that support. Maybe you've recently moved and it's getting to know a neighbor that can be, provide some of that instrumental support as an example. That's finding your support team, It's All About You, and we're very excited to share that with you.

Becky: OK, let's see. First, we want to have you actually send in your questions on MyPeers.

Gail: Yes, we're running out of time.

Becky: Yes.

Gail: We're going long.

Becky: We are. We would love for you to join MyPeers in the "Teacher Time" community. We're in there, we're active, we will read and respond to your questions there. Please do.

Gail: Yes.

Becky: The other thing we want to hear from you is to go ahead and please put in the chat what topics you would like us to focus on next "Teacher Time" season. This is actually our last infant toddler episode of this season, but we will be back in the fall, and we want to hear from you. What do you want us to talk about? What do you want us to think more about with you and reflect on with you more? Go ahead and share your ideas in the chat. You could also share them in MyPeers. That's another helpful place to put that information. We really take into account what you have to say.

Gail: Take it seriously. You have an opportunity to influence. That's great. We'll be back on Thursday, May 2, and we are so excited to talk about highly individualized teaching and learning in preschool. Similar but a little bit different than what you heard today. If you've got a colleague that would benefit from hearing the preschool version, please encourage them to join. Or for you, come back and hear us again.

Becky: Thank you so much for joining us today.