Endia+Terry

Greetings!

I am Endia S. Terry my contact information is ETerry@mdcanet.org I obtained my Master's Degree from Cleveland State University in Curriculum & Instruction. My concentration is in Special Education. Currently, I work for a non-profit organization and I am the Disabilities Mental Health Coordinator. In addition, I work with children and families 3-5 years of age.

1. I want to learn more information about the referral process for other school districts. 2. I want to learn/gain more knowledge about autism/ASD 3. Lastly, I want to gain more knowledge on parent's rights for a child diagnosed/suspected of having a disability.
 * 3 things I would like to learn over the next month**

1.I can provide multiple ways I use to establish a rapport with parents or guardians of a child with special needs. 2. I can also provide insight being a former individual with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and what (mainstreaming) inclusion meant to me.
 * 2 things that I can contribute to the topic of serving young children with special needs**

Which population under IDEA is underrepresented, and why?
 * 1 question you have us to ponder**


 * Week 2 On-line Posts**


 * Book Title**
 * I Belong Active Learning for Children With Special Needs **
 * Author: Jan Levanger Dowling & Terri C. Mitchell **


 * Summary **

In this chapter the author completed an overview of a child in their program that was diagnosed with a social-emotional behavioral concern. The chapter mentioned an ineffective way the teachers were trying to this child to stop biting. It was stated that the teachers sprinkled water in the child's face. I thought this was dehumanizing. Subsequently, the teachers found it necessary to converse with the child's special education teacher and they came up with an action plan to accommodate the child when he bite other children. As the child entered the program he would be greeted and he would receive a lot of adult interaction.

The chapter provided key strategies to replace the behavior in which included: Putting demands on the child. This chapter relates to me in several ways because I work with child with Emotional-Behavioral Disturbances (EBD) and according to the IEP things can get out of control especially in the preschool classroom. So I rely on programs such as BeechBrook and Guidestone to offer classroom consultation to the teacher, the child, and the family. I have included an social-emotional activity that would be good to incorporate in a daily activity.

The website is: []

This site also provides printable materials that can be used to address social/emotional concerns in the classroom.

Scripted Stories for Social Situations help children understand social interactions, situations, expectations, social cues, the script of unfamiliar activities, and/or social rules. As the title implies, they are brief descriptive stories that provide information regarding a social situation. When children are given information that helps them understand the expectations of a situation, their problem behavior within that situation is reduced or minimized .

[|http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies]


 * CARA'S KIT**
 * Creating Adaptations for Routines and Activities**

This kit is awesome! I really enjoyed reviewing all the strategies a professional could utilize in a classroom or learning environment. I appreciate the author's statement: " The purpose of making adaptions is to facilitate children's independent participation in everyday classroom curriculum activities and routines." This is exactly what learning should look like. In addition, how cool for the author CARA to create an acronym using her name to come up with the title Creating Adaptations for Routines and Activities.

The note of caution on page 3 that the author mentioned made me ponder as I reflected on various situations I've encountered while in a Pre-School classroom. I have been very guilty by removing a child that has misbehaved and the child indeed receive more individualization for an adult (HINT HINT me) rather than the child's peers. As I continue in my career I plan on incorporating the strategies Cara used to effectively maintain group activities. Especially the ones that stated: Allow the children to hold a small object and add opportunities for movement. Brilliant!

In my days of being an educator I've often experienced children that became upset and begin tearing/ripping the books. I've struggled on-going with this because I could never decide what to do with the child but separate them. I found an article that I used when I experienced this problem. The article can be located at: [] Just like in these strategies the author of this particular article encouraged the individual to purchase dollar store coloring books because the children enjoy hearing the ripping sound. Hence, I like the ideas Cara stated by simply laminating them. I've tried it and it works. Interestingly, having the rip magazines only increase the children wanting to rip more books so I removed the magazines.

Another, great strategy I have incorporated once the books were tore was to put velcro on them and tell the story using a flannel board. This works as well if your ever experience a child that likes to tear books.

Enclosed I've provided some ideas on creating and storing the materials one could use on a flannel board. []

[]

~Enjoy~

I had to perform a group acitivty this morning for a group of pre-school children that were wired up for some reason. I believe its because they know their siblings were in a classroom adjecent to ours and the other children were out for the summer. The behaviors included: throwing things, yelling, and running around. Honestly, I believe it took me about 15 minutes to regain control over my group. Needless to say, I had 2 children that were diagnosed with some sort of disability and their have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) on file. I immediately thought it would be in my best interest to start removing the disruptive children until I remember what the Note of Caution Stated:
 * Session 7**
 * Investigate Kara's kit further and either use it with a child you currently have access to OR hypothisize how you would use it with one of the children you know. Talk about it and comment on other's work.**

//"When something is not going the way we would like, we may try to fix the situation by removing the the child from the acivity or assigning an adult to work with the child. Unfortnately, these types of strategies are some of the most intrusive ones we can use and may result in the child becoming isolatedfrom the other children-the child is spending most of his or her time interacting with an adult rather than developing social abilities and relationships with other children". CARA's KIT pg, 3.////As I thought about it, I would be doing an injustice to the children by removing the children and isolateing them or allowing another adult to work with them.// As, I further explored CARA's KIT I realized that since I have a group of hyperactive children it was in my best interest to **SHORTEN THE LENGTH OF CIRCLE TIME and REDIRECTED THE BEHAVIORS.** Just like the Kit states, //"when the children are fidgety ask the children to perform special tasks!"// //I// had my group doing everything from helping to put things away down to helping the other children. This really worked because the children had delegated responsibilities. I appreciate this KIT because it multiple suggestions for any type of behaviors an educator might experience. On page 12 in CARA's Kit. When children are climbing, jumping, and running around the classroom...........Some of the adaptions included:
 * Vary types of activities (e.g. quiet, active, sedentary, movement) and where they are offered.
 * Provide a variety of defined areas in the classroom for movement activities. (e.g.; a place for one child at a time to jump rope or spin on a sit and spin.
 * Be sure that all free standing equipment or furniture is sturdy so that if children climb on it their risk of injury in mimimized.

I was able to complete the group activity by shortening the time and the children went directly into their work areas. I had the opportunity to play the role as PLAY LEADER. I had to influence and model the play theme. I was familiar with this concept, I just never knew that there was a technical name for it. (Again, great training materials). As time progressed I was able to join other children in other work areas.

In closing, I never was introduced to materials like this and I am grateful that I am an active participant in these trainings. Honestly, if I hadn't read the materials I could say I may have been at witts ends. Now, I am confident that I can now have a productive group and implement new strategies that will be beneficial to my students and me as well.

//**Read another chapter and summarize it for the group. Comment on someone else's post.**// //**Book Title: Inclusion Strategies for Young Children, 2nd Edition**// //**Author: Lorriane O. Moore**// //**Chapter 2-INCLUSION**// In this summary you will find, the categories of the Individuals with Disabilties Act (IDEA) , the definition of inclusion,what legislation states to support inclusion along with the benefits and barriers to inclusion. Finally, I will summarize my experience of being a participant of mainstreaming which later became inclusion. Under the Individual with Disabilities Act (IDEA) [formerly the Education of the Handicapp Act] there are twelve acategories in which a child that has been suspected and diagnosed as having a disability can qualify. The categories are listed as follows: The author noted that in the past child with special needs were often called exceptional children, handicapped children, and special education children. These terms were often recieved with a negative connotation because the focus was directed on the chid disabilty and not their qualities. Hence, every state has thier own definition of each eligibilty of criteria. Thus, under The Ohio Department of Education website they have a resource guide for parents that explains the entire process from the evaluation process down to the Individual Education Plan (IEP) implementation. The Guide for Parent is Ohio's summation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. The link is listed below; simply click on the bullet that reads: Whose IDEA is this to get a perspective on how Ohio works with children with a special need.
 * Session 8**
 * Specific learning disability
 * Speech or language impairment
 * Serious emotional disturbance
 * Visual impariment (including blindness)
 * Hearing impairment (including deafness)
 * Mental Retardation
 * Orthopedic impairment
 * Other Health Impairment (OHI)
 * Traumatic brain injury
 * Autism
 * Attention deficit disorder (ADD
 * Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

[]

The author defined inclusion as teaching children with special needs in the same environments as children with and without disabilities to have equal access to school curricula and programs. Inclusion has been dervived to foster children with disabilities the opportunity to educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) to meet their needs and often the the regular education classroom is the LRE. In the past the term mainstreaming was the key element in placing a child with special needs in a classroom to provide certain services that the child may have required. Subsuequnetly, the IEP was president in determining what option is conducive for a special need individual.

There are many benefits in providing inclusion to children. Some benefits include: The author aslo stated there were barriers to inclusion. Whereas, the delivery of services are the noted barrier becuase many professions believe a lack of training impacted the effectivness of inclusion. Lastly, funding has impacted inclusion because many educators feel that the ratio component has not been met. In my own experiences I was mainstreamed in a regular Elementary School where there was a special educator teacher was on staff. I adjusted fine however, coming from a predominatly handicapped school where there were physical therapist, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, etc. on staff to provide quality services to special need children to only speaking to a special ed teacher if I had problems or concerns was quite a challenge at first. As time progressed I only visited the special ed teacher once a year and that was during my IEP meetings. As I remember the physical education class was very hard because being mainstreamed meant I was to do everything my regular ed peers did which included running, jumping, and exercising. I cried because being physically impaired prohibited me from doing some of the requirements. My parents m with the Special Ed teacher, the gym teacher, and prinicpal and they concluded that some things I just can't do and my IEP reflected this. As I progressed through Junior High School mainstreaming was a continuum. But by this time I had joined the Girls Jr. High School Volleyball Team. I was recognized as being a "normal" student by my peers and socially accepted by others. Subesquently, when the time arrived for me to attend High School my IEP was disgarded and I attended a regular ed school where in the past I had professionals in place to assist me if I needed to handling things on my own.
 * 1) Young children in inclusive settings have increased their social skills by interacting with other peers.
 * 2) The inclusion setting promoted a sense of belonging. It helps the children achieve a sense of self worth in which builds the childs self esteem.
 * 3) Inclusion allows the child to exercise the right to be educated with their peers
 * 4) Inclusion limits the effect of being labeled.
 * 5) Inclusion benefits all children. Children with and without disabilities.
 * 6) Inclusion promotes communication between special educators, regular educators and parents.

For other individuals in an inclusion setting things can go quite different yet we may all have experienced some challenges and barriers that coincided with our particular disability. In closing I like the introductory sentene the author used in this chapter.

//**~All children have both similar and unique characteritics. for children who have special needs, it is important to remember that they have the same basic need as all children. ~Lorrianne O. Moore**//

And as we have learned in this training Inclusion: It is just the right thing to do!

Listed below is a checklist to ask yourself when you work with special need children. Ponder on the questions if they are applicable to you in your educational setting. []