Early Childhood Special Education programs are for children from ages 3 to 5.

The children in these classrooms demonstrate developmental delays, including difficulty with speech, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, sensory processing difficulties, and other delays that impact their learning. The focus of the programs is to teach children the skills they will need to succeed in school.

The classes often have many adults in the classroom. There is always the teacher and should be an assistant. There should also be a speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and social worker who service the program. These individuals may work with children in the classroom or may pull one or more children out of the classroom to work on the goals for that child. The teacher and therapists work together to plan how to best support each child. Therapist services within the classroom are frequently the best way for each child's goals to be addressed because they are then working on the skills within the context of how they will be using them. At this age, one skill often impacts another, so the approach of working on improving a skill while working on general learning of all skills is often the most effective.

Each child in the classroom will have an Individualized Educational Plan, or IEP. This is a plan that is written with the parents, teacher, therapists, and administrators. The plan lists the goals and objectives that the team wants to help the child work on. It also includes the services (time in the classroom and the time that each therapist will work with the child) the child will receive. Teachers and therapists use theIEP to plan for the child.

Early Childhood Special Education classrooms implement a preschool curriculum to build preacademic skills in all of the children. These skills include learning colors, numbers, letters, counting, patterning, and shapes. Preschool curriculum also includes learning how to participate in group learning experiences, fine motor skills (beginning writing, cutting, etc.), sharing, and other skills to help prepare children for school. The activities should be hands on and play oriented. Play time, games, and interactive activities ate the best for helping young children learn. These are the most motivating for young children and lead to the mastering skills.

Early Childhood Special Education classes are positive environments to support young children's learning to help them prepare for Kindergarten (its a german word which is translated: " childrengarden") and future school experiences.

These guidelines contain three sections:

A. The Individual Educational Plan – Introduction

B. Steps involved in Individual Education Planning

C. IEP Meetings – Sample Format

The IEP is written plan prepared for a named student. It is a record of what is being agreed as ‘ additional to’ and ‘different from’ the usual differentiated curriculum provision that is provided by every class / subject teacher. The collaborative nature of the process, through the involvement of teachers, parents, SENOs, other professionals and the students him/herself facilitates the creation and development of a working document, enabling true inclusion of students.

The IEP is a working document as opposed to a ‘once-off’ - it is intended that the IEP is added to, amended and updated as appropriate, depending on the individual needs of the student. There is no universal template – one size will not fit all. The IEP must contain key information including:

· student’s strengths and needs

· student’s current level of performance established through formal and informal assessment

· student’s priority learning needs

· targets

· resources and personnel involved

· implementation of the plan

· date of review of the IEP

When developing an IEP it is important to bear the following in mind:

• The primary focus of an IEP is on the student – that it is individualised and student-centred. It reflects the needs of the student, details priority learning needs and SMART targets and sets out a specific timeframe.

• An IEP is inclusive – the IEP should show how the student has access to, participation in and benefit from the educational provision

• An IEP is holistic and looks at the whole student. It should include pupil strengths, needs and abilities.

• Collaboration is the key to a successful IEP. Collaboration involves a whole-school approach (principal, teachers and SNA if relevant), other relevant professionals, the parents and the pupil where possible.

• An IEP should be accessible to all the relevant stakeholders and written in clear, jargon-free language.

• The principal has overall responsibility to ensure that the various elements of the IEP are implemented.

Step 1 – Gather Information

Gather information on the students’ current level and performance in education from as many sources as possible.

Types of information in the IEP

· Cognitive ability

· Literacy skills

· Numeracy skills

· Gross and fine motor skills

· Self-management skills

· Personal and social skills

· Language and communication skills

Other areas

· Learning style/s interests

· General health

· Attendance

· Motivation

· Ability to keep class rules/ routines

Sources of information

· Student profiles from previous teachers (mainstream, learning support or resource teacher)

· Parents and the student themselves if appropriate

· School records and reports, earlier IEPs (performance from the beginning of the IEP process)

· Any formal assessments

· Checklists (observation lists/records)

· Work samples e.g. portfolios

Organising planning meeting

· Who will attend?

· What information is circulated in advance of the meeting to facilitate a productive time saving process?

Step 2 – Generate a Student Profile

· Generate a student profile. Level of detail is important here - ‘able to take turns and join in team games in the yard’ is a lot better than ‘has good social skills’.

· Document student’s strengths, abilities and talents.

· Document student’s specific needs and the connection between needs and learning.

Step 3 – Set Priority Learning Needs

· Set priority learning needs and time frame for attainment

· Identify priority learning needs for those areas where the student is experiencing difficulties.

· Concentrate on a realistic number of the student’s most significant needs.

Step 4 – Set Smart Targets

· Set SMART Targets. These are:

Ø S pecific

Ø M easurable

Ø A greed

Ø R ealistic

Ø T imed

For example: “Seá n will be able to…..”. This means identifying:

1. What Seá n will do;

2. Conditions under which Seá n will perform the task;

3. The materials and supports required to achieve the target;

4. The time frame in which the target will be achieved;

5. Appropriate strategies to help Seá n achieve his targets.

Step 5 – Review Regularly

· Review targets regularly. This is a collaborative exercise involving a whole school approach. Each staff member has a role to play and needs to understand/his/her role/function in relation to the implementation of the IEP.

· Set a review date.

· Distribute documented IEP to all relevant parties.

· Review and plan appropriate ways of meeting targets within different settings. This will include mainstream / classroom teachers as they have a key responsibility in including students with special educational needs.

1. Welcome and Introductions

2.Purpose of meeting - to discuss and discover the strengths and needs of (the student) and to develop a purposeful IEP

3Present level of performance

a. Strengths – in school, home and community (teacher and parents)

b. Needs – in all environments

c. Assessment information – informal as well as formal

4.Formulating targets – based on strengths, needs and assessment information

5.Determine supplementary aids and services – including curriculum modifications and adaptations

6.Agree location – where targets will be addressed

7.Closure – develop a ‘wish list’ by having each person share a wish for the student during the coming year (parents to listen and add theirs last)

A Linguistic Model of language	Bloom and Lahey (1978) divide language into three separate but overlapping components: form, content and use. The overlap of these in the centre of the diagram below represents knowledge of language and a successful integration of form, content, and use to understand and transmit messages. Form Refers to the surface features of language and how these are arranged according to the grammar of the language. It incorporates morphology, syntax and phonology.. Content Refers to the topics and ideas that are encoded in linguistic messages (whether these are transmitted through sign language, writing or speech). Use Refers to the reasons why people communicate – the function of language. In addition it refers to how people both understand and choose from among alternative linguistic forms in order to reach their goals – the context of language. Language use is akin to pragmatics.
Receptive language	The comprehension of language, listening and understanding what is being communicated.
Auditory Processing	The brains ability to accurately perceive speech in both quiet and noisy settings.
Expressive Language	The production of speech and communicating a message.
Articulation	The set of motor skill learning where moving the speech articulators in our mouths in rapid, precise and coordinated sequences becomes automatic. Refers to how a child pronounces words.
Grammar of language	The grammar of a language is made up of syntax and morphology
Syntax	Syntax: rule system governing the order and combination of words to form sentences, and the relationships among the elements within a sentence. Children with syntactical problems often lack the length or syntactic complexity of their age peers.