Our text states that “when the program includes children with special needs, an important emphasis on specific skills cannot be left to chance.” I find this statement very true and helpful when thinking about how to embed goals into daily activities in a classroom with both typically and non-typically developing peers.
My case study child only has two goals which are for cognitive and attention. The first goal states that he will identify, name, and sort objects by color, shape, and size. This is clearly a skill that is worked on in preschool classrooms daily through play. It has been very easy for me to go into a center with my focus student and discuss colors, shapes, and sizes. For example my student was playing in the block center last week and he was building large structures. I began to build with him and built smaller ones. This provided a great opportunity for us to discuss tall and short as well as big and small. I was able to document progress on his goal. I got so much more out of the student instead of me pulling him to the side, away from what he wanted to do.
The second goal is for him to attend to both individual and teacher-directed activities for 10 minutes. I have been able to monitor this goal just by going into the classroom and observing. During times such as circle time which is a teacher-directed activity I note how long he attends without being distracted. During center time I have noted how long he has stayed engaged in one center before moving on to something else. This goal is definitely embedded into daily routine but I have also worked on helping him increase his attention. The biggest task has been finding out way he is only able to pay attention for such brief periods of time and then how to overcome the problem.
I think it is very important for educators to realize the all goals must be embedded into activities in order to keep the children’s interest. The text states that “the usefulness of any activity is determined largely by its appeal to children.” I think this is an extremely important statement. You cannot say a child is not making progress when it’s not that they don’t know the material, it’s that you have not made it appealing for them.
References:
Cook, R, Klein, M, & Tessier, A. (2008). Adapting early childhood curricula for children with special needs. Columbus, OH: Pearson.
I absolutely agree that we need to incorporate the child's objectives and goals into the daily routine. I also wrote about this in my post. I think it is important to remember that every day activities like center time, recess, and circle time can encourage growth in a child's area of need. This is also when educators can do informal assessments. During their play when they are the most comfortable will usually be the best time to get the most accurate results.
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