Keyword: Inclusive Settings
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Curriculum Modifications
Curriculum modifications are simple but powerful tools that can help make a learning environment more accessible to all students.
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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.
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Collaborative Care: Teaming to Support Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities
Like most families, families of children with disabilities use a variety of early care and education programs such as center- or home-based childcare to meet their needs and provide valuable and inclusive learning experiences for their children.
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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.
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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Including Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities in Child Care
On this podcast we talk with Dr. Jenna Weglarz-Ward, an assistant professor in early childhood education and early childhood special education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, about the inclusion of infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays in child care settings.
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Supporting Children with the Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Preschool Classrooms
On this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Emily Dorsey, project director of the Illinois Early Learning Project.
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Coaching Others in Implementing the Project Approach
The Project Approach engages and motivates diverse groups of young children to learn and use higher order thinking skills, so it is a wonderful addition to the curriculum. But learning how to implement the Project Approach can be challenging for teachers, perhaps because it is best learned “in the action” through hands-on experience and experimentation.…
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Waiting to Paint
When teachers set out activities that are of high interest to children, conflicts can arise. Being prepared with strategies to help children cope with the challenge of waiting for a turn can minimize conflicts.
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Pass the Ball Versus Pass the Remote: Supporting Preschoolers’ Physical Activity
Nationally we have witnessed increased rates of childhood obesity and the use of technology by young children, which has resulted in less time engaged in physical activity.
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Language and Literacy in Inclusive Early Childhood Programs
In this interview, we speak with Elise Prosser, a speech language pathologist from the Urbana Early Childhood School in Urbana, IL. Ms. Prosser received her bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing science and master’s degree in speech language pathology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has been working in the schools as a…
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How Teachers Can Help When a Child Says, “Mommy, I Don’t Want to Go to Preschool!”
While there are many reasons a child may not want to come to school, there are a few things teachers can do to support children during this difficult time. Things that help build a sense of belonging may increase the child’s willingness to come to school. These include providing positive interactions, creating equal opportunities to…
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Going to Kindergarten?
Getting required health checks, practicing key skills, and visiting your new school can help your child make a smooth transition.
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Inclusive Early Childhood Programs: How One School District Creates a Place for All Young Children
This podcast contains an interview with Ms. Crystal Vowels about inclusive early childhood programs. Ms. Vowels is the principal of the Urbana Early Childhood School in Urbana, IL. In this interview, Ms. Vowels and IEL staff member Dr. Rebecca Swartz discuss key aspects of inclusive early childhood programs including collaboration, curricular adaptations, and interdisciplinary teaming.…
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Careful Planning, Collaboration Can Aid Smooth Transition to Kindergarten
Preparing young children with disabilities and their families for the transition to kindergarten begins many months before the start of the new school year.
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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.
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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.
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Learning to Get Along with Friends
As children grow into their preschool years, they often want to play with a friend, whether through a play date at home or with a friend at child care/preschool.
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Inclusion in Preschool Classrooms
Here are some questions that parents often ask about inclusion.
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Project Approach: Including Every Child
The Project Approach can benefit all children, including those with special needs. Simple adaptations enable a child with disabilities to join in the work on projects.
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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.
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Engaging Every Child
To engage every child, teachers pay attention to how individual children engage with the classroom environment.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Social Studies Lesson Addressing Benchmark 16.A.ECa
In Mrs. Silva’s and Mr. Chung’s classroom, the children are working on a project that focuses on investigating a local grocery store in their school’s neighborhood. Their project’s guiding question is: “How do people get the food they need in our neighborhood?” In the previous month, the children completed an investigation about a local restaurant.…
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Social Studies Lesson Addressing Benchmark 15.D.ECa
The children in Mrs. Silva and Mr. Chung’s classroom have been involved in a project focused on investigating a local grocery store. Mrs. Silva and Mr. Chung were excited that the children were interested in investigating the grocery store and realized that this investigation would give them an opportunity to include many activities that would…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Math Lesson Addressing Benchmark 9.B.ECa
The children in Mrs. Silva’s class are working on a project about community helpers, guided by the question, “Who are the community helpers in our neighborhood?” At the beginning of the project, the children took a walk through their neighborhood and spotted a fire station around the corner from their school building. They asked Mrs.…
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Math Lesson Addressing Benchmark 8.A.ECa
The children in Mrs. Silva’s class are working on a project about community helpers, guided by the question, “Who are the community helpers in our neighborhood?” During this project, the children are investigating the local post office. With guidance from Mrs. Silva, the children recognized that a mail carrier delivered mail to the school office…
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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…
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Math Lesson Addressing Benchmark 6.B.ECb
Ms. Jones has introduced counting with one-to-one correspondence during morning group time. Through careful observation, she realizes that some of the children vary in their ability to communicate and represent their understanding of meaningful counting. She and her teaching assistant, Ms. Hernández, develop a small-group activity related to their shoe store project so the children…
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Language Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 5.B.ECb
Mrs. Silva’s classroom has just completed a project about community helpers in the neighborhood. Throughout the project, children have investigated a local post office, a library, and a fire station. The children have decided to host an open house as their culminating activity. They have created and delivered invitations to their parents, their relatives, and…
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Language Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 4.D.ECa
A couple of weeks into the school year, Ms. Jones adds several signs and labels throughout the classroom to address this benchmark. This affords the children the opportunity to practice these skills during the entire school year. Here are some examples: Labelling the centers using words and photographs: “Shoe Store,” “Blocks,” “Art,” etc. Implementing a…
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Language Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 3.B.ECa
The children in Mrs. Silva’s class are working on a project about community helpers, guided by the question, “Who are the community helpers in our neighborhood?” At the beginning of the project, the children take a walk through their neighborhood and spot a fire station around the corner from their school building. After e-mailing the…
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Language Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 2.B.ECa
To introduce the small-group activity, Ms. Jones models the activity during large-group time. As she reads the story of Pete, the cat, she places corresponding colored shoes on the felt cutout of Pete as his shoes change color during the story.
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Language Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 1.C.ECa
Facilitating discussion and artistic representation during a small group art activity. Ms. Jones does this by leading a conversation about the children’s shoes, their homes, and who helps children with their shoes—all while children create paintings of their shoes.
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Math Lesson Addressing Benchmark 10.B.ECa
During Mrs. Silva’s classroom project on community helpers in the neighborhood, the children take a walk around their neighborhood and discover a small branch of the public library right down the street from their school. The children ask Mrs. Silva if they can visit the library to talk to the librarian and see what kinds…
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The Arts Lesson Addressing Benchmark 25.A.ECc
Mrs. Silva and Mr. Chung’s class has been investigating the grocery store as a project topic. The children in the classroom love to dance during free play time when the teachers play children’s music. The children love songs with silly lyrics, especially songs by Raffi. Mr. Chung remembers that one of Raffi’s albums is called…
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Discussing Project Work with Children in Inclusive Classrooms
Teachers who are new to project work are often pleasantly surprised at children’s motivation to participate in discussing and planning what to do in their investigations.
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Flexibility and the Project Approach
What a joy it is to have students working with the Project Approach within our building. As the excitement builds for the students and the teachers, it is amazing to see the level of understanding that these small children have.