Criterion 12
Individualization for Children with Disabilities, Suspected Delays, or Other Special Needs
The curriculum provides guidance on how to individualize for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs. Individualization for children with disabilities, suspected delays, or other special needs includes providing more specialized supports for them to access and participate in learning and social experiences and activities. Specialized supports may occur in a variety of ways, such as specific teaching practices and ways of interacting with children or adaptations to daily schedules and the learning environment. Individualizing for children with disabilities or other special needs enables all children to access, participate, and thrive in early learning settings.
What do the ratings mean?
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Full Evidence
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Moderate Evidence
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Minimal Evidence
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No Evidence
Curriculum
Review
The Creative Curriculum® for Family Child Care, 3rd Edition
Full Review & Ratings Teaching Practices and Interventions: Volume 1: The Foundation offers specific guidance about working with children with disabilities or special needs. Volume 2: Routines and Experiences provides guidance on inclusion and specific strategies for working with children with attention challenges while being responsive to each child at their individual age and developmental stage. Additionally, the curriculum offers guidance on adapting the environment and presenting materials to accommodate children's individual needs and abilities.
Learning Environment: The curriculum provides specific guidance on adapting indoor and outdoor equipment and being flexible with routines to make all experiences accessible to all children. Volume 2: Routines and Experiences includes guidance on including children who have attention, comprehension, or physical challenges. It also offers strategies for supporting learning and participation.
The Gee Whiz Curriculum for Family Child Care
Full Review & Ratings Teaching Practices and Interventions: Gee Whiz Education Curriculum 2019–2020 User's Guide, The Learning Environment & the Gee Whiz Curriculum, and "Get Ready" page in monthly units promote making adaptations as needed. They encourage providers to modify activities to suit the developmental needs of the children. The User's Guide provides an overview of individualizing the curriculum using a five-step approach: Observe and record; reflect on observation; plan experiences; do; reflect again. While there are anecdotal observations and planning tools (e.g., Individualization Web; Customized/Individual Lesson Plan), the curriculum offers no guidance within monthly units on determining children's development ability and supporting children as individuals. The User's Guide includes some strategies for addressing delays and supporting inclusion. Activities within the monthly units lack guidance on determining children's developmental ability and supporting children as individuals.
Learning Environment: The curriculum provides general instructions and guidance for all children regardless of background, ability, or DLL status. There are few examples of individualizing based on specific descriptions in the materials. The curriculum includes strategies to examine the environment and adjust materials for children with special needs. For example, in Examining the Environment, an important step is examining the learning environment: Is your sink easily accessible to all children? Do you have different types and sizes of paintbrushes in your art center? Monthly units reference age-specific developmental stages but does not connect them with activities. The curriculum lacks specific guidance on research-based teaching practices and other interventions in daily routines and learning experiences to support the development and learning of children with disabilities, suspected delays, or special needs.