DCF Special Needs Appropriate Practices (SNP)

Support Service

Agencies and organizations that offer various types of educational and other resources for children with special needs and families.

What elements are most important to the parents during their first meeting with a prospective childcare provider?

• hours of operation
• cost and quality of your care
• available enrollment space for a child that age
* by law, you cannot ask any parent if they have child with special needs.

Accommodation

Making or becoming something suitable; it means adjusting to circumstances.

Modification

Small changes in the environment that allow all children to participate in activities to the best of their ability and succeed at some level.

Inclusion

All children have the right to be included with other children in their own age group, in all activities and in their natural environment.

Related Service

Transportation, development, corrective and other services that are needed by a child with special needs in order for them to benefit from education.

Student with a disability

A child with challenges to his it her mental, physical, sensory, emotional or behavioral development, or with special medical needs.

Natural Environment

A situation in which day-to-day settings, routines and activities promote learning for all children, regardless of their ability or disability.

Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA)

A federal law that requires states to provide education to all children, regardless of their disabilities.

Americans with Disability Act (ADA)

A federal law that prohibits discrimination based upon disability.

Mainstreaming

An obstacle method of working with children with special need in which children earned the right to be in classes or school by demonstrating their ability to keep up with the work load.

Disability

A condition where on cannot function in the same way most people the same age can.

Multidisciplinary

A team approach to helping children with special needs that involves specialists from more than one discipline.

Transdisciplinary

When a caregiver, working with a child's family, using teaching, learning and sharing of information to help a child with special needs.

People First Language

• refer to the person first not the disability
• avoid portraying with special needs as heroic, superhuman, an inspiration to us all or other extraordinary terms.
• avoid using terms rooted in concepts of dependency and helplessness.

Common Attitudes

• how are children with special needs commonly portrayed by others?
- unable
- needy
- demanding
- difficult
• children with special needs are just like other children. At times anyone can be any of these or none of these:
- invisibility
- infantilizing
- objectifying
- not noticing or not talking about the special need
- unable to do or achieve treatment
- seeing person's disability

List of illnesses Disabilities

• handicapped person: have a disability or a special need
• crippled: person with a physical disability
• deaf boy/girl: child who hearing is impaired or child with hearing loss
• CP victim: person with cerebral palsy
• Aids carrier: person with AIDS
Suffers with...
Person who has...

What are the basic requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?

• child care providers cannot discriminate against persons with disabilities on the basis of their disabilities.
• centers cannot exclude children with disabilities from their programs.
• centers have to make reasonable modifications
• centers must provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services.

Specific types of disabilities

• autism
• deaf
• deaf-blindness
• hearing impairment
• mental retardation
• multiple disabilities
• orthopedic impairment
• others health impairment
• serious emotional disturbance
• specific learning disability
• speech or language
• traumatic brain injury
• visual impairment

6 domains of development that can be delayed

• Physical Health/ Motor Development: involve physical growth and abilities.
• Cognitive Development & General Knowledge: include thinking, planning, cheating, exploring and questioning.
• Language & Communication: includes a child's ability to see, read and write.
• Social & Emotional: is defined by forming relationship and attachments.
• Approaches to learn: include thinking, planning, cheating, exploring and questioning.

Developmental Disability

A chronic condition that is diagnosed in childhood and substantially limits major life activities in adulthood to help support these children.

Early Intervention

Appropriate support in the first three years of life of a child with special needs.

Autism

A group of brain-based neurological disorders characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted and repetitive pattern of behavior.

Down Syndrome

A genetic disorder that results in a number of physical characteristics and intellectual impairments.

Three types of positive behavior

• prevention
• redirection
• positive reinforcement

Describe Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP)

Are valuable general guidelines to support the learning of children. DAP is often referred to as Age of Stages.
• Three main aspects of DAP:
- general knowledge of child development, or what you know about how children develop and learn.
- specific knowledge of particular child, or what you know about the strengths, needs and interests of individual children.
- knowledge of social and cultural context contexts, or, what you know about the social and cultural contexts in which their children love.

Adaption

Any adjustments or modifications in the environment, instruction, or materials used for learning that enhance the child's performance or allows at least participation in an activity.

Family Involvement

• Family: are big, small, extended, nuclear and multigeneration. They have one parent, two parents, boyfriends, and girlfriends. They're cheated birth, adoption, marriage, remarriage, foster care or a desire for mutual support.
• Family Culture: unto itself, with different, values and unique ways of realizing it's dreams. Together, family become the source of our rich cultural heritage and spiritual diversity.
• Norms (cultural norms): a standard, model or pattern regarding a typical for a specific cultural, racial, ethnic, religious or social group.
* First teachers in a child's life? Parents and Family members

Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect

• are child care workers consider mandatory reporter? Yes
• mandatory reporters? Refers to people who, by the nature of their profession, are uniquely positioned to see child abuse and neglect when it occurs
• what are you required to report? As a child care provider, it's your duty and your legal responsibility according to chapter 39 of Florida statues to report any suspected case of child abuse or neglect.
• why would being different raise the probability that a child will be mistreated? Often, abusive people prey on people they:
- consider weak
- see as not really people
- react with strong, negative emotion
• why do you think the incidence of sexual abuse of both children and adults with disabilities is so high?
- they're are often seen as easy target
- they may experience sexual activity as pleasure, even when it's inappropriate.
- they may have difficultly resisting authority figures
- children with disabilities are taught to be compliant
- authorities maybe slow it or reluctant to investigate or prosecute.

Discipline

A method of guiding behavior behavior before it becomes inappropriate.
• Basic principles:
- setting limits
- modeling healthy behavior
- offering positive alternatives to understand behavior
- explaining what's acceptable and unacceptable
- give positive reinforcement
- telling children why or why not when they ask
- be proactive
- telling children what they are not allowed to do
- demonstrating self control
- teaching respect
- empowering children to make decisions

Punishment

An authoritative consequence to a behavior that an adult has deemed inappropriate.
• Basic principles:
- making treats
- using shame and blame
- being reactive
- being judgemental
- sending a child to timeout
- using negative consequences rather than positive choices
- degrading of child
- paddling, hitting or spanking
- instilling fear

Impact of the brain

• The brain stem: controls instinctual reaction (reflex)
• The limbic system: controls emotional reactions (feelings)
• The cortex: controls rational reactions (bad reaction)

Active calming techniques for children

1. The Drain- Extend both arms out of your body
2. The Balloon
3. S.T.A.R ( stop, take a breath, and relax)
- take three breaths. Relax your body
- use affirmation
- wish the child well
4. Pretzel

What kind of assistance are available to you, what kind of assistance available to the family of a child with special needs?

• organization and agencies:
- Florida child care resource & referral network (CCR&R)
- Florida directory of early child hood service (Central Directory)
- Florida diagnostic and learning resource system (FDLRS)
- child finder
- early learning coalitions
- state agencies
- national organization
• Assistance:
- curriculum
- strategies
- child development
- health
- environmental adaption
- law and regulations (The Americans with Disabilities Act)