Inclusion Resources to Boost Professional Development

Inclusion Resources to Boost Professional Development

Dayana Garcia: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the webinar. I'm Dayana Garcia with the Office of Head Start. I'm the inclusion and disability specialist. Welcome to the Inclusion Resources to Boost Professional Development webinar. We are so glad you have joined us today. For this webinar, we wanted to end with a splash for this summer and share some resources that will help you in your efforts to support children with disabilities or suspected delays and their families. Today, we're going to discuss best practices in the field of adult learning and discover a range of resources available through the Early Learning and Knowledge Center, ECLKC, and the Head Start Center for Inclusion, HSCI, websites. We will identify how to use these resources to professional development and training with Head Start, education, Disability Services, and mental health staff as some programs continue to face social distancing and others prepare to return to in-person programming. The session will include opportunities for sharing and exploring these resources.

Our star presenters for today. First, I'd like to introduce Jani Kozlowski. She's the inclusion and professional development systems specialist at the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning. Jani started out as a preschool teacher in a classroom of children with diverse abilities almost 30 years ago. She joined the Head Start world as the education and Disability Services manager for a migrant and seasonal Head Start program and then provided technical assistance to Head Start programs in Region V. Jani has also taught at the community college level and held leadership roles in other North Carolina early-childhood programs. Then I would like to introduce Tam O'Donnell. She's a content specialist and project lead for DTL based at the University of Washington. Tam has worked in early childhood special education for over 20 years. She has held several roles, including birth to 3 educator, home visitor, autism specialist, research associate, curriculum specialist for the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning, and is now a content specialist for DTL. In her time working with the National Center, Tam has developed many inclusion resources that can now be found on the ECLKC. So, Tam and Jani both are excited about the opportunity to put them in your hands and help you think about how to use them. Now, I'm going to turn it over to Jani to get us started by sharing the objectives of the session.

Jani Kozlowski: Thanks, Dayana. Here are our objectives for today. I'm Jani Kozlowski. And this session was developed to ensure that we're not only aware of all the inclusion resources out there, but so we consider those resources from the perspective of how you might use them when you work with educators, either onsite or virtually. New resources have recently been developed, and these, along with the tried-and-true resources, can be really effective for your efforts to support children with disabilities or suspected delays.

Tam: We're also going to discuss the parallel process of how children and how adults learn, thinking about it within the context of the intentional teaching framework. While we're doing this, we really want you to think about all the various modalities you'll use these resources within. For example, they may be on the basis of a community of practice or a shared webinar or shared during an in-person PD session. The possibilities are limitless. We'll tour some of these websites and take you to the resources that might not be so easy to find and then think about how you can use them to support your work with educators.

Jani: It's going to be fun, Tam, a resource tour and all of the resources to share. And you'll see that each slide includes the link to the site, so you can download the PowerPoint from the resources widget and click on the links to take you right to the site. We know that you'll want to explore those resources in more detail on your own after we finish, so that will be an easy way for you to do that. And as a special treat -- drumroll, please -- we have a chance to share some of these resources with you all in hard copy. Later on, toward the end of September, our team here at DTL will mail out an inclusion resource box to every Head Start grantee in care of the Disability Services coordinator. So, be on the lookout for that. Throughout the webinar, we'll let you know about some of the resources that will be included in the box. Pretty exciting, huh?

Tam: It's really exciting, Jani.

Jani: Before we get started, I would like to think about a story to kind of ground us in what you all might be facing. It's a story about a Disability Services coordinator named Alana. And she is a DSC at Buenos Dias Head Start. She's planning to lead an online professional development series for educators in her program who are currently working from home or are in the process of reopening their programs. The series she's planning is all about using effective practices to support children with disabilities to meet their IFSP or IEP goals. And she hopes that participants will finish the series feeling more familiar with strategies to support children with disabilities or suspected delay and be ready to put them into practice with the help of some quality web-based resources. Alana plans to offer an overview of effective practices, help participants set goals based on the practices, and then match participants with resources that will support them while working with children and families. So, as we go through the tour of resources today, let's all think about which resources might be best for Alana to consider as she thinks about setting up her PD series. So, Tam, what would you suggest to Alana right off the bat?

Tam: Well, the first concept that I would want to share with Alana is the Intentional Teaching Framework. So, evidence shows that using an Intentional Teaching Framework is more likely to change and improve teaching practices. This is true for educators and home visitors working with young children, but it's also true for Alana's work as the Disability Services coordinator. We refer to this framework as the Know, See, Do, Reflect, and Improve framework. So, first, we want adults to know the theory and the evidence-based practices by sharing information or knowledge. Then we want to be sure that we can reliably -- that we can and they can reliably see these practices in videos of other teachers and themselves. And then we want them to be able to enact or do these practices in their own early-learning settings. And then last but definitely not least, it's important that we help them then reflect on what works and what does not work and how to integrate that feedback to improve their practice. So, if we go back to our vignette of Alana, she may be offering a training or a webinar, but then it's more likely to stick with the educators she's supporting if she can also then build in that time to reflect and discuss on the lessons learned and then how it felt to implement the practice and what they might want to tweak a little bit. So, the next resource I want to share with you is the Coaching Companion. So, though the Head Start Coaching Companion might not be a new resource to you, we did want to call it out and call out that this was developed with this Intentional Teaching Framework in mind. So, if it's new to you, make sure you check it out on the link that is provided on the slide.

And we know you can't click directly on it now, but remember that you can download all these resources through the resources list widget if you want to access those. So, the Coaching Companion, the Head Start Coaching Companion, provides an opportunity for you or coaches that you support to help educators elevate their practices using research-based adult-learning principles like the ones we just discussed. So, you and your coaches you work with can use this to develop individualized coaching plans with educators that support quality teaching and positive outcomes for young children. You can share resources and videos from the library to offer knowledge and examples of best practices in action. Educators can also then share their own videos, classroom video, and track progress that way. And then you or fellow coaches can go on and offer feedback within the video clips to emphasize certain practices. There's definitely an emphasis on strength-based focus, so seeing what teachers are doing really well and kind of zeroing in on that so that they continue to practice. And then there's question and answers that can be provided through this Coaching Companion for individualized feedback and reflection.

Jani: So, I'm thinking that the Coaching Companion would be really helpful during this time of social distancing as well as for in-person professional development, don't you think?

Tam: Absolutely. This is a wonderful application that can be used, and especially right now if your situation is one of social distancing. So, now, Jani, I'm really curious to see which content areas of focus are most interesting to our audience right now. So, let's do a quick poll to find out.

Jani: Great idea. So, this is a poll that you can respond to, and it's based on the content categories defined by the Division for Early Childhood Recommended Practices. The DEC Recommended Practices offer guidance to parents and professionals who work with young children or who have risk for developmental delay or disabilities. And so, these are the eight domains. Which area of these eight domains is most of interest to you? And I believe you can check all that apply. Here we go. It looks like, Tam, that a lot of interest in family and teaming and collaboration and interactions. Makes a lot of sense that there would be interest in working with families, especially now. We're doing so much of that. I think that's been one of the good things about all of this physical distancing is that it's really increased our ability to connect with families.

Tam: Yeah, absolutely. And thinking about the ways that we can creatively do this. Depending on social-distancing guidelines for your local communities, how can you continue to really stay connected to families? And we have a lot of resources that we can do that with.

Jani: Yes, we do. Well, this is actually the first step on our resource tour, Tam, so I'm going to share my screen and take you to our first place on the tour. So, this is a landing page that we call Resources Supporting Individualization. And you'll see that it is divided up by the same content areas as the DEC Recommended Practices. And the way that these resources are divided up is by level of knowledge. So, if we go to the "family" section, which is the one we were talking about, that you all chose, you'll see a list of links, and they're broken up by these different categories -- the knowledge awareness level, the knowledge application level, the knowledge acquisition level, and the mastery level. And the resources are pretty broad. They have – we have some facilitator guides. We have video links. There's all kinds of resources both on the ECLKC and beyond, across the web. So, you can really get on there and explore based on those various categories. I'm thinking that Alana could use a poll to identify areas of interest among education staff. And then she could give them some resources to check out on the landing page. One strategy that I've heard folks talk about on MyPeers is the strategy of having folks go to a resource or view a video or a webinar as a way to learn about a topic individually and then come back together as a group and discuss. I think we're becoming much more comfortable with some of these online platforms and can even do some breakout rooms. If you have a large group of educators that you're working with, to explore an area, discover resources, and then come back to talk about it. So, now we're going to take a look at some webinars. We've got a landing page for webinars on the inclusion section of the ECLKC, too.

Tam: That's a great idea, Jani. We have these online webinars that focus on practices, Head Start standards, and more, right, Jani?

Jani: Yeah, that's right. We're going to take a look at the collection of Inclusion series webinars. And those topics are about interactions, individualization, effective teaching practices, clarification of the Head Start Program Performance Standards, and more. So, actually, I took us to the poll, but let me take us back to this page, and I'll go ahead again and share my screen. And I'm going to take you to our landing page for the inclusion webinars. So, this is what it looks like, and you'll see that we have them categorized into these different four areas. There is a High-Quality Inclusion Federal series, where we have Office of Head Start and other federal leaders sharing information about Head Start Program Performance Standards, practice-based coaching, and more. And then there's a Highly Individualized Practices series, and that's where you'll find some of the more recent webinars that we have offered in this Inclusion series, things like strategies that education staff can use every day in their classrooms or on home visits. Then we also have the Disability Services in the Head Start Program Performance Standards series, and those webinars focus on issues that are really unique to the Head Start community. And then there's also the Disability Dialog series, and that focuses on tips and tools for working with children with disabilities and also features guest experts who share resources to support children with disabilities and their families.

So, let's now go back to the poll. And you'll make sure to check out those webinars later. So, these are some areas that we thought that you might be interested in. Tam, I'm not surprised, but these three – remember the three-newsletter series that we did around supporting social and emotional learning? It looks like those three are some favorites there.

Tam: Yeah. And I'm not surprised. And I think it would be wonderful for people to check these out, considering that there's going to be a lot of ways that children want to express all of the emotions that they have been building up over this time, this unique period and a lot of time at home. And I think teachers, educators are going to need lots of ideas on how to kind of help children reintegrate. So, now that we've talked about the topics, let's take you to our landing page of Disability Services newsletters. So, the Head Start Disability Services newsletters are produced monthly by DTL. And this page provides current and past issues of the newsletter. So, you can also find a button there if you want to subscribe to the newsletter on this page. And every newsletter includes the DTL e-mail address so you can send us ideas, as well, for new topics. If there's something that you're not seeing that you're really curious about and you want resources on, please shoot us a note so that we know what's on your mind. Jani, are you sharing your screen?

Jani: I'll remove that right now.

Tam: Perfect. So, we'll try and get you to some of the topics that you seem to express some interest in.

Jani: Let me know when you can see the landing page, Tam.

Tam: OK, I see it.

Jani: OK. So, there was that interest in that collection, those three. So, if you look here, there's Promoting Positive Behavior, Teaching Social Skills, and Preventing and Addressing Behaviors That Challenge Us. I think those were the top three from the poll. Which one do you want to take a look at, Tam?

Tam: I can't see the topics close up, Jani.

Jani: Oh, OK.

Tam: Were you gonna dig in?

Jani: Let's look at Teaching Social Skills and Problem-Solving. This is what they look like. Yeah. It's a great place to go, to this newsletter landing page when you want to find the most current resources on a particular topic. The newsletters include content for both preschool and infant-toddler. Home visitors are going to benefit from this content as well. And I love the fact that some of these topics span across multiple months. So, like we said, the Social and Emotional series spans across three months. We also have a STEAM series that went along with our webinar on STEAM for children with disabilities we had in March. And I'm thinking that Alana might want to have participants in her PD series read an article or two and then share lessons learned with their group.

Tam: Yeah, that's a great idea, Jani. I mean, we know that right now people have a little bit more time for some PD if they're working from home. And so, it's a good time to catch up on some reading. And like we said, there's newsletters on a variety of topics that I think are of high interest right now, like behaviors that challenge adults, which we just talked about, but also the previous interests that our audience shared was connecting with families. So, I believe we have a newsletter, for example, about supporting children who are dual language learners and their families. Is that right, Jani?

Jani: Yeah, we do. I'm looking for that one. Oh, here is. It's called Supporting Children Who are Dual Language Learners with Disabilities or Suspected Delays. Every newsletter also includes a vignette that you can use as a teaching tool, as well. And I'm thinking that that newsletter on supporting children with dual language learners might be helpful because also there's a special section on working with families. Like you said, it's of interest to this group, as well.

Tam: Yeah, and, Jani, I just want to put one more plug in. We talked about the Intentional Teaching Framework and providing knowledge, allowing people to see what best practice looks like, encouraging reflection, and these newsletters actually are built around that same framework. So, there's the vignette that allows you to kind of really see what this might look like in real life. There are videos, typically, that we share, and then we provide opportunities and learning activities for reflection and practice.

Jani: That's a really good point. And one of the things that's really cool about the newsletters is that, every month, there is free access to a special article through Young Exceptional Children magazine, and it's only available for that month and the following month. But it's a great way to get some up-to-the-minute and current research, as well. And so, that research article frames the topic, and then, like you said, it goes into a variety of different resources in support of it. So, where are we going to go next on our tour?

Tam: How about we check out the Disability Services Coordinator Orientation Guide?

Jani: That's a great idea. This is a new resource that we're super-excited about. It's brand-new. Well, it's almost brand-new now. But it's recently uploaded onto the ECLKC, and that's really how it was intended to be used. It was intended to be used like as an e-book so that you can jump around from place to place. There are embedded links throughout, and as I said, it's super-exciting because this guide ... This will come to you in that inclusion box in the bound hardcopy as part of that special inclusion box you'll get at the end of September.

Tam: So, Jani, maybe you could kind of break it down for us and share what all is covered in the guide. I know it's pretty robust.

Jani: Sure. So, the guide covers content in these different chapter areas. It's framed by three sections: the basics, coordinated services for children with disabilities and their families, and improving Disability Services. And then we have a section with appendices. So, if you have questions about your role as a Disability Services coordinator, you can jump to that chapter that applies to the question that you have. And that's really how it was intended to be used, as kind of a resource that you can jump to back and forth, depending on what the question is that you have.

Tam: This is great, Jani. So, I'm wondering, I'm thinking that the Referring and Evaluation chapter might have some good information for Disability Services coordinators and education staff as they start thinking about supporting children with IEPs and IFSPs that are returning to programs. So, information about assessments and ensuring an up-to-date IEP for key transitions.

Jani: That's really a good point. Yeah, that chapter and the Partnerships chapter also will be really helpful to staff as they gear back up during this critical time for children who are -- especially children that are leaving Head Start and entering kindergarten. Those relationships with schools and early-intervention programs are super-important right now more than ever. Our children and families really benefit from our support to make sure that children are evaluated in a timely manner and that IEPs and IFSPs are kept up-to-date.

Tam: Right, and then the chapter on Supporting Staff will probably come in pretty handy for people, as well, right now.

Jani: That's right, and that might be helpful for Alana, too, as she's planning for her series. We know that most Disability Services coordinators wear a lot of hats. I know that I did when I was one. And a super-important hat that you all wear is that role of supporting other staff. So, each chapter is organized in the same way, and you'll find that the theme of coordinated approaches can be found throughout in each chapter. And so, there is a section on key ideas. There are definitions and descriptions of the concepts. So, if you keep on hearing or a certain term or an acronym, you'll be able to find it there. Each chapter has a section on what is your role your specific role as the Disability Services coordinator. There are links right embedded in to the Head Start Program Performance Standards, to legislation, to briefs from other national centers, to recent research. There's a section on the people that can help you in your role because it's not something that you have to do all by yourself. And it's a way for us to remind ourselves that we collaborate not only externally, but we collaborate with the people within our own program and help you understand what the boundaries are. What's the thing that I have to do and with something that's somebody else's job? So, try to clarify that to some degree, although it is different in every program. You'll also find some tips for success. And what I like is the section on questions. There are questions that you could consider asking with your colleagues, especially if you are playing a leadership role and you might have a chance to meet with management team and discuss a particular area of your job that really is dependent on a team approach, coordinated approach. And then, again, in the end of each chapter, there is a little vignette that you can use for discussion. And so, these are some key resources and appendices that are at the back of the guide. And you'll see that there are checklists and tracking sheets and lots and lots of resource links. So, again, I think that the guide is really helpful online as an e-book with those active links, that you can jump around the web and find information that you need. And we know that some of you, or many of you, are still working from home. So, it's a good way to get caught up with ideas to incorporate in your job for your in-person work when you return and also find ways to support families from a distance, as well. So, remember to download the PDF of this PowerPoint so you can have easy access to the link.

And now I'm going to share my screen so we can check it out together. So, here is the landing page for the Disability Services Coordinator Orientation Guide. And so, you'll see the three sections that I mentioned are over here on the side. And since we have been talking about the challenging time that we're living in right now, let's take a look at the chapter on coordinating mental health services. And so, that's in the section on Coordinated Services for Children and Families. And then there's a subchapter within that section called Coordinating with Health and Mental Health Program Services. So, you'll see here the different sections that I mentioned, those key ideas and the definitions and concepts. So, if you have questions about what do you mean by EPSDT, there are links and definitions to explain that. And then you'll see in this highlighted box, there are links to all the related Head Start Program Performance Standards. So, you can click right on the link and go directly to the standard. Information about your role and how about partnering with the people in your program to help you. There's a section about your role. Little bit here about working with a mental health consultant. Behaviors that challenge us. There are the tips that I mentioned. Helpful tips from insiders to learn from experience, learn from your peers. And then those questions to ask your colleagues, a whole list of them that you can see. And then again, at the end of each chapter, is a scenario for discussion that might be useful for Alana, as well, if she's thinking about future PD planning efforts or if it's something that she might want to use for a team discussion, because I really think that vignettes like this bring the content to life.

Tam: Wow, Jani, so this is, like I mentioned, is pretty robust. It's a treasure chest of information and teaching and learning opportunities.

Jani: That's true. But again, it's not necessarily something that you want to sit down and read from cover to cover in one sitting. It'd be pretty overwhelming, I think, if you did that. But it works well as a guide to reference along the way as questions emerge for you or if you want to have a review of areas that are in your role. So, let's see. And I think next what we're going to do is show you a series of inclusion standards and action briefs. So, these standards and action briefs were developed to provide some guidance to grantees around the Head Start Program Performance Standards that could benefit from some contextual information. So, they're all formatted around a vignette and include questions to consider and possibilities for thinking through issues. These briefs cover a variety of content areas, but there's a collection that are specific to your work with inclusion. And guess what? These standards and action briefs are going to be included as a booklet in your inclusion resource box.

So, let's go online, and we'll check them out. So, this is the main page where you can find all of the standards and action briefs, and you'll see that these aren't just the ones that are specific to inclusion, but they're all of the standards and action briefs. And so, while we're at home to stay safe, the situation is similar to what we think about as interim services, right? That's really what we're trying to manage right now are interim services. So, here's the standards and action brief on that. And so, you can download it as a PDF, or you can read it online. And again, it starts out with a vignette and then breaks it down into the questions that the protagonist of the vignette would ask, the kinds of things that she might do or he might do to figure out an answer and then how they arrived at the conclusion. So, you know ... This specific brief on interim services will provide some guidance on Head Start programs, can provide support for children who are waiting for the evaluation process, for example, or are in the middle of getting evaluated. The process may have started prior to COVID and now, when programs reopen, will have to be picked up again. And so, in the example from the vignette, in this brief, the Education and Disability Services team agree on some online training and coaching to support the educator, and they also put a communication plan in place to make sure that the family was kept in the loop and that strong connections were maintained with service providers during the process.

Tam: That's great, Jani. [Crosstalk]

Jani: Go ahead.

Tam: Oh, I was just going to say it's so exciting that all our listeners are going to get copies of all these briefs.

Jani: Yes, absolutely. Let's move on maybe. [Crosstalk]

Tam: Yeah, how about we take a look at some of the 15-minute In-service Suites? So, these are oldies but goodies, and some have been refreshed a little bit. And we know that there are definitely going to be some of you that are extremely familiar with this but maybe others that are new to your role. But these are another wonderful resource, especially if you're trying to support educators remotely or virtually because everything is packaged up for you online. So, they're tailored, especially for people who have a busy schedule or if you're needing to work around a modified schedule for teachers who are educators working from home who also maybe have children and may not have long stretches of time, may need to have a shorter opportunity to learn about a best practice. So, each of these suites comes with, like I said, a package of training materials. And again, these were organized around the Know, See, Do framework, as well. So, all the suites provide content knowledge, opportunities to see practices in action with videos, and then learning activities and then opportunities for reflection and supervisor tools. So, here is a ... All the suites come with a highlight video that is a quick kind of five-minute at-a-glance experience on the topic. And then there's a table of contents. There is ... Presenter notes come with it that go with each of the PowerPoint slides. There are learning activities, tips for teachers that are kind of quick, at-a-glance handouts of the key points and then tools for supervisors, like I mentioned, that can be used to encourage ongoing practice improvements and then helpful resources for those that are really curious and want to dig in a little deeper into the research behind the practice. So, like I said, you can modify these, you can mix and match, you could just send the highlight video, you could pick out ... Like, Alana, for example, could pull out one of the learning activities that seems especially relevant, that she can modify a little bit to do virtually or in person as needed. Or she can schedule a Zoom opportunity, a training where they go through the entire suite. Like I said, they're supposed to be pretty short and sweet, and the timing can be modified as needed. So, here, how about we check out one of the highlight videos? I'm a big fan of these. I think that they do a wonderful job at summarizing the topic in a succinct way, along with, like, the visuals of seeing what the practice looks like. So, this one is the introduction to curriculum modifications. All right, should we give it a go, Jani? We ready to play it? OK.

Narrator: Hello, and welcome to this short module on curriculum modifications.

Teacher #1: Sally, find the ...

Sally: Blue diamond.

Teacher #1: ... blue diamond.

Narrator: You'll learn what we mean by a curriculum modification and see some of the different types of modifications that teachers can make. Curriculum modifications can help children take full advantage of the learning activities, routines, and materials in your classroom, or in any learning environment. These modifications can be helpful to any child who is struggling to participate. The House framework helps us organize the important components of effective practice that supports school readiness for all children. The foundation of the House represents effective and engaging interactions and environments. The pillars contain the research-based curricula and teaching practices, as well as ongoing child assessment. The roof represents highly individualized teaching. All the components interact with each other and are necessary for effective practice and positive outcomes. Curriculum modifications fit into the roof of the house, highly individualized teaching. The roof consists of three tiers of support -- modifications, embedded teaching, and intensive individualized teaching. In this module, we learn about curriculum modifications. A curriculum modification is a change to a classroom activity or to the classroom materials in order to maximize a child's participation. These changes aren't big, but they are intentional.

Teacher #2: Could you ask him if there's anything he wants me to know about the caterpillar?

Narrator: Here's one way to think about the significance of curriculum modifications. They are small changes that can have a big impact.

Boy: He said that, like, he see them walking.

Teacher #2: You see them walking.

Narrator: There are many ways to modify or change the curriculum. It can be useful to think about eight different categories or types of modifications: environmental support, material adaptation, activity simplification, child preferences, special equipment, adult support, peer support, and invisible support. Let's take a peek at each of these and start to learn more about making modifications. You may already be using some of these practices. Environmental support means that you alter the physical, social, or temporal environment to promote participation, engagement, and learning. Materials adaptation means that you modify the materials, make them bigger or easier to use.

Teacher #2: Nice job. You wrote your name – Nick. We're going to add this. Your finger is on the sticker. There we go.

Narrator: Simplifying the activity means that you break it down into smaller parts or even reduce the number of steps.

Teacher #3: OK, what's next, Marquel? What is next? What's next?

Marquel: Get boots.

Teacher #3: Boots first and then coat. You're right. Boots first.

Narrator: Another way to modify the curriculum is to take advantage of the child's preferences. Use preferred materials, activities, and people to encourage the child's participation. You can also use special equipment to help a child gain access to an activity or use toys or materials. Adult support is another type of curriculum modification. Adults join in, they model, and they encourage, and so do peers.

Girl #1: That's moving.

Girl #2: Yeah, lookit! They're moving!

Narrator: Peer support means that other children model and encourage participation. Finally, there are modifications called invisible support.

Teacher #3: I think what helped was when I asked him to take the leadership in the drumming, and he really was very interested and engaged.

Narrator: Sometimes teachers rearrange naturally-occurring events within an activity to help a child participate more fully. There are many ways to modify the curriculum. Use our longer module and the mini modules that provide more description and examples of each type of modification. Use curriculum modifications or simple changes for children who aren't taking full advantage of the learning activities. Use modifications when a child isn't able to use the materials or toys. Use modifications to help capture a child's interest in the activities, interactions, and routines. Remember, curriculum modifications are relatively small changes, but they can have a big impact on a child's learning. Thank you for listening. Learn more by going to the longer modules and using the tips, tools, and resources. Learn how to be intentional about making and using these modifications. Find out what works in your classroom.

Jani: I love those highlight videos. It's really helpful.

Tam: Yeah, and when you're thinking about curriculum modifications, like, it's such ... again, another wealth of tools that you can use to support children with disabilities. So, thinking about this list of ... nice list of suites that we have on all the curriculum modifications, I'm curious what our audience thinks. So, how about we do a poll to see which one they would be most interested in exploring next?

Jani: Yeah, let's do that. I wonder which one they will check out first. So, you saw the introduction clip. Which of those areas are most of interest to you? OK. Let's see what we get here. Looks like activity simplification is of interest. And peer support. All right, well, next, we're going to take a quick peek at the IM. We want to make sure that you're all familiar with the IM that was recently released by the Office of Head Start. It was released on January 22nd of this year and provides some guidance for programs and highlights requirements in the performance standards related to inclusion. And it includes a list of free resources for grantees to help with their implementation efforts. And then we also wanted to show and make sure that you're aware of the OHS page on responding to COVID-19. It's an e-book, and there's now a subchapter on children with disabilities, as well as a chapter on supporting summer learning for children with IEPs and IFSPs. So, this is all really new for us, and it's great to have a place where we can go to get specific ideas as we navigate these uncharted waters. There's some great tip sheets there that can be helpful for families, as well, and information, as well, about supporting families as they transition to kindergarten.

Tam: And I bet there are a lot of resources in the e-book that would be helpful for Alana, as well, Jani.

Jani: That's a good point.

Tam: So, now we're going to show you a few resources beyond the ECLKC, starting with the Head Start Center for Inclusion ... on Inclusion. Let's see here. Just click in here. So, we know that many of you may be familiar with this site already. We just wanted to let you know that there will be some new resources coming out very soon. And we're also going to -- we're showing you here a sneak preview of what the site is going to look like when we launch a refresh in the early fall. So, this is an OHS-funded site. It's been a long-time favorite for accessing inclusion resources that can be used for training and to address the specific needs of educators and families. So, though the current site that you access might be a little bit dated, please know that it's coming soon. It's going to be nice and refreshed. And on the new site, you'll be able to search by topic or by the type of material that you're looking for. So, whether it's training materials, tools, or tips for teachers, you'll be able to easily access what you are hoping to find. Do we want to screen-share, Jani? Is there time, or should we keep moving?

Jani: Let's keep moving.

Tam: OK. So, we encourage you, again, to access the link through the list of resources that we shared with you and the resources widget, but we want to make sure that we're able to share with you all these resources. So, on the Head Start Center for Inclusion website, you can access and download these easy-to-use visual supports. So, these are supports that you can share with other educators or that educators can share directly with families who are trying to maybe offer some support to their children in their home setting. And then, also, just take a note that the visuals were developed really carefully to show diverse representations of children and avoid stereotypes through the artist's lens. So, here you see an example of different emotions and the ways to problem-solve when struggling to wait for a turn or to share.

Jani: These visuals are great ... I know those are just a couple, but they provide a way for educators to communicate with children in a variety of ways, and they can be really useful for children that are still learning to use words for communication. The educator might ask the child, "Are you feeling mad?" And point to the picture. And we also hear that the strategy is helpful for supporting children who are dual language learners.

Tam: Absolutely. Thanks, Jani. So, here is a close-up of some other visuals that, like Jani mentioned, they can either be used to teach new concepts or teach emotion ID and or to allow children to communicate how they're feeling. So, here's one on emotions, and then here's another example that we have showing different emotion-regulation strategies that can ... Again, these visuals can be used to support children and learning to identify strategies and accessing them with the support of a visual. And here's another -- And then here's one that shares different behavioral expectations that an educator might have or that a parent or family member or caregiver might have at home when working with the child. So, these are just a few different examples of the visual supports that you can access for free and download from the Head Start Center for Inclusion website. And then, along with the new launch, like I mentioned, in the fall, we'll be posting a new set of resources focused on infants and toddlers. So, we'll be sharing an updated set of five Disabilities Information Guides focused on autism, Down syndrome, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, and fetal alcohol syndrome. We'll also be posting a set of handouts addressing some frequently-asked questions focused on infants and toddlers on some really important topics right now, such as suspension and expulsion, embedded learning opportunities, and practice-based coaching. And then, in addition, you're going to be able to find a set of tips for educators focused on topics such as universal design for learning and working with Part C providers. And then there will also be four new mini suites that are coming soon. They're very similar to the 15-minute In-service Suites that we shared a moment ago, just slightly more abbreviated and adapted to fully focus on children – infants and toddlers with disabilities. So, the topics for these packages are going to be curriculum modifications, embedded learning opportunities, routines-based planning, and activity matrix. For a full list of the resources, again, you can find those in the resource widget.

Jani: That's pretty exciting. I can't wait to see them.

Tam: One last resource I want to -- Oh, go ahead.

Jani: Oh, I was just saying that there are a couple of other resource hubs that we wanted to make sure you knew about -- the Pyramid Model, National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, the ECTA Center. Both of those sites have some great resources, especially in this time of COVID. So, we're sharing these slides with you so you have these links to some key resources for disability coordinators. These are linked to the Connect modules, where you can find video clips and more. And Circle Time. Tam, can you ... What can you say about that in 30 seconds?

Tam: Well, I would just encourage you to cultivate learning with this web-based series. It's fun and exciting. There's a hosted show, and then along with it comes a lot of print materials that are all free, easy to download, such as a magazine, more visual supports, learning activities, and other really relevant handouts and resources that can be used in a variety of ways.

Jani: And season three is all about inclusion. So, yeah, so let's make sure that we continue the conversation. I see that we're out of time, but make sure that you go on to MyPeers and share your thoughts about what you've learned today and other strategies that you have for working with children with disabilities. And make sure that you complete your evaluation. That's how we can find out what you think about our webinar and how we can support you in the future. So, this was a lot of fun.

Tam: I really enjoyed it, Jani. Yeah, it was really fun to get all these great resources into the hands of everybody who needs them.

Dayana: Yes. And thank you, everyone, and a special thanks to our presenters and all the participants out there. Please take care of yourselves and be kind to one another. Thank you.

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