Keyword: Disability
-
Community Resources for Illinois Families
This list provides information about community resources for families in Illinois.
-
Big Tech and Small Children
Most young children interact with some form of technology in our modern lives. This tool kit gives parents and educators recommendations for technology use, how to get involved in technology, what to look for when selecting technology, and how to place limits on technology use.
-
Curriculum Modifications
Curriculum modifications are simple but powerful tools that can help make a learning environment more accessible to all students.
-
The More We Work Together: Partnerships for Preschoolers with Disabilities in Childcare
Inclusion in preschool and childcare occurs when children with and without disabilities learn and play together.
-
Supporting Children with Limited Verbal Skills
These strategies are helpful to all children but are particularly helpful for those with limited verbal skills.
-
What Is Autism?
trum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that can cause social, communication, and behavioral challenges. This “Questions and Answers” will answer some common questions about autism in young children.
-
Early Childhood Special Education and Inclusive Child Care
his resource list contains links to information about early childhood special education and inclusive childcare for children ages 3-5 years old.
-
Special Education Assessment for Preschool-Aged Children: Reviewing Results and Next Steps
When a child is assessed for special education services, first the assessment is conducted and then a meeting is held to review the assessment report results. There are typically two possible conclusions. One is that your child qualifies for special education services and an IEP (Individualized Education Program) is created. The other is that your…
-
Special Education Assessment for Preschool-Aged Children: Participating in the Assessment
When a child is being assessed for special education services, the process can sometimes feel long and confusing. Your local education agency (LEA), usually a local school district, has defined steps and timelines for this process to ensure that a thorough assessment is conducted.
-
What Is an IEP?
An IEP is an Individualized Education Program for a child age 3 through 21 who has been diagnosed with disabilities or developmental delays. IEPs provide a roadmap for special education services. This is especially important for preschoolers, who may be receiving special education services in a variety of settings, such as public preschool classrooms, Head…
-
Special Education Assessment for Preschool-Aged Children: Referral and Getting Started
When a caregiver in a preschooler’s life notices signs of a disability or developmental delay, they may suggest an assessment through the public education system. A diagnosis, or confirmation of a delay or disability, can lead to the child receiving educational services and supports.
-
What Is Assessment?
Families may wonder about assessment for young children. It is common for a child’s caregiver, teacher, pediatrician, or other involved adult to use assessments. Assessment is one way to learn more about a child and their development. Assessment gives families, caregivers, and teachers helpful information about a child.
-
Supporting Siblings of Children with Disabilities
Parents and caregivers of a child with a disability may be concerned about the well-being of their other children. Parents often struggle with having time and attention to give to all their children when one child requires a lot of time and attention.
-
Inclusive Practices and Remote Learning
During the Covid-19 pandemic, some early childhood professionals have transitioned to remote learning. This has been a new way of teaching young children for many early childhood educators. While learning remotely, children with disabilities continue to require the accommodations, modifications, and support noted in their IFSP/IEPs. This toolkit will support teachers with ideas for anytime…
-
Early Intervention: Resources for Families, Childcare, and Early Childhood Teachers
When a very young child shows delays in development, there are services in Illinois to support the child and their family. Early Intervention (EI) services focus on infants and toddlers with disabilities and delays, birth through age three, and their families.
-
Parenting During a Pandemic
On this podcast, we are joined by Christy Lee, mother to four children, two with Down syndrome. Christy shares with us some tips for parenting during the pandemic on topics such as schooling, shopping, and home life.
-
Which to Choose? Universal Design for Learning or Accommodations
No matter who the child is or how he or she is developing, each child deserves access to the fun and engaging activities and learning experiences in your classroom. There are two main ways access can be provided: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and accommodations.
-
Curriculum Modifications: Materials Adaptation
When you have a child with disabilities or developmental delays in your class, you will be considering how to make your day-to-day classroom life more accessible to them. One way of doing this is through materials adaptation. Materials adaptation is when you change an activity, manipulative, or toy slightly to meet the needs of a…
-
Curriculum Modifications: Environmental Adaptations
Environmental adaptations are a change to the context in which a child is working.
-
Curriculum Modifications: Introduction to a Blog Series
Today’s preschool classrooms and childcare centers have children with a variety of needs.
-
Universal Design for Learning and Project Work
Teachers who work with learners with diverse abilities, including children with disabilities, find that the Project Approach provides an optimal learning environment, or a universal design for learning (UDL). Today, many of our environments are more user-friendly for all of us because principles of universal design have been applied.
-
Rolling with the Times: Updating Our Language
For many years, one of our blogs as has been titled Children with Special Needs. We are changing the name of that blog to Children with Disabilities and Developmental Delays and want to share our reasoning with you.
-
Implementing the Project Approach in Inclusive Classrooms
On this podcast we talk with Dr. Sallee Beneke, an associate professor of early childhood education at St. Ambrose University, where she teaches courses in early childhood education and early childhood special education.
-
Early Intervention
This list provides resources and information about the early intervention system in Illinois. Please visit the Illinois Early Intervention Clearinghouse for more information. Contact a local Child & Family Connections office to make a referral for an evaluation. IEL Resources Tip Sheets: Autism: Be Aware of the Signs Do You Hear What I Hear? What…
-
Helping Young Children With Disabilities During a Trying Time: Adding Structure and Routine
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, you may be a parent or caregiver of a young child with special needs who was previously attending a child care center, preschool program, or receiving other services. You may now be caring for your child at home with few outside supports—and this can feel overwhelming. We know young children thrive…
-
Supporting Young Children’s Friendships: An Interview with Dr. Michaelene Ostrosky
This podcast contains an interview with Dr. Michaelene (Micki) Ostrosky about supporting young children’s friendships. Dr. Ostrosky is the head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In this interview, Dr. Ostrosky and IEL staff member Dr. Rebecca Swartz discuss why friendships are important to young children as well as…
-
Speech Development and Delays
This list contains a variety of resources associated with speech development and delays.
-
Moving from Early Intervention to PreK: What Parents and Caregivers Want to Know
This list contains a variety of resources associated with moving from Early Intervention to PreK for parents and caregivers.
-
Supporting Children with Autism in Child Care and at Home
This resource list contains a variety of resources associated with supporting children with autism in childcare and at home.
-
Tech Time! Video Games and Young Children with Special Needs
Don’t start too young. Time spent on video games may be lost active play time and lost opportunities for interactions with parents, siblings, and other people important in your child’s life.
-
Reading Partners: Sharing the Lead in Storybook Reading
Bilingual couples often hope that their children will grow up fluent in each of their languages. Reading storybooks in both languages can help support this ability. This clip shows the benefits of repeated readings of a familiar book in both English and Spanish.
-
Connecting with Concepts and Skills
In this video Lisa models several ways you can help children connect with new vocabulary and concepts through reading their favorite books with them.
-
Birthdays, Holidays, and Family Gatherings
How can you make these holidays and birthday celebrations meaningful and stress-free for your child, especially when he becomes the center of attention at gatherings?
-
Autism: Be Aware of the Signs
ASDs are developmental disabilities that can cause social, language, and behavior problems. The symptoms and severity of ASDs vary greatly. This can make it hard to define or diagnose them.
-
Scribbling as Early Steps to Reading and Writing
Young children tend to love colors and making marks with pens, pencils, crayons, and markers. An easy home activity is setting up a “coloring or writing” space with markers, paper, tablets, and even old magazines.
-
Inclusion in Preschool Classrooms
Here are some questions that parents often ask about inclusion.
-
Creating a Sense of Belonging in Preschool
Families and teachers want their children to feel welcome at preschool, to be accepted by their friends, and to feel secure in their daily routines.
-
Answering Questions About Your Child’s Special Needs
During the summer, families tend to spend more time out in their communities and traveling to interesting places with their children.
-
Thoughts on Project Work with Children Who Have Special Needs
The 2013–2014 school year was my first year at John L. Hensey School, where Kim Burd and Laura DeLuca teach our early childhood special education classes. I have enjoyed observing their teaching methods and learning about the Project Approach with them. Theirs is a very hands-on, real-experience classroom where they create opportunities for all learners…
-
Chores and Children: A Time to Learn
Preschoolers need step-by-step instructions for new tasks and time to practice. Keep the tasks simple. Demonstrate as needed. Most children will learn quickly from observation. Other children benefit from friendly reminders and visual supports.
-
Changing Seasons and New Concepts: Same and Different and Before and After
Fall is a great time to talk with young children about concepts that are important for them to learn.
-
Games for All Young Children
Play and laughter can help develop friendship while encouraging physical fitness.
-
The Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 26.B.ECa
Snow had fallen on the playground and the children in Ms. Jones’s and Ms. Hernández’s classroom ran to the window to see the snow falling on the trees. The children were excitedly talking about how the snow on the branches covered the tress. When the sun came out, the children were excited to see the…
-
The Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 25.B.ECa
Ms. Jones and Ms. Hernández are planning for their school year. One of their goals is to engage the children in hands-on investigations of nature. Their school is next to a park, and they plan to use that space to extend their learning outdoors. They decide the seasonal changes in the park trees could be…
-
Physical Development and Health Lesson Addressing Benchmark 23.B.ECb
The classroom’s pretend grocery store is a popular play area. In other adapted lesson plans, the children have taken a field site visit to a local grocery store and reflected upon their trip with photos (16.A.ECa), learned a silly song about grocery stores (25.A.ECc), and built a pretend grocery store where they exchanged money for…
-
Physical Development and Health Lesson Addressing Benchmark 19.B.ECb
The children noticed the trees on the playground blowing wildly in the wind during a spring thunderstorm. Many children stood by the window and talked about how the tree branches moved in different directions. The teachers decided to plan a “tree dancing” activity during music and movement time build on the children’s observations of the…
-
Science Lesson Addressing Benchmark 12.B.ECb
Ms. Jones and Ms. Hernández have had a chance to reflect on the nature collections they have carried out with their classroom. They have noticed the children were very excited to collect many items from the ground. However, the children were so eager to find a variety of items that they began to pull branches,…
-
Science Lesson Addressing Benchmark 12.A.ECb
It is autumn, and Ms. Jones and Ms. Hernández are engaged in an investigation of trees in the park next to their school. The park has several different kinds of trees. The children in the classroom have been picking up leaves, nuts, and seed pods that have fallen from the trees. The children often show…
-
Science Lesson Addressing Benchmark 11.A.ECf
Over the course of the year, Ms. Jones and her teaching assistant, Ms. Hernández, have engaged the children in their classroom in an investigation of trees in the park next to their school. When school began in the fall, the children were excited to see the leaves change color. The children noticed snow on the…
-
Math Lesson Addressing Benchmark 7.A.ECc
Throughout the year, during typical classroom interactions, Ms. Jones has exposed children to vocabulary for describing and comparing attributes (e.g., “It’s cold today, so I wore my heavy coat”). Ms. Jones decides to plan a lesson targeting a benchmark about attributes. She and Ms. Hernández plan to use materials in the classroom shoe store to…