Observing and Interacting with Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting

I observed at a preschool early childhood program in the Centralia City Schools.  This early childhood program is located within the kindergarten center and is one of two programs that the school system offers.  It is a half-day program with approximately twelve children in each session for a total of forty-eight children receiving special needs services. 

The program that I observed in has a lead teacher and three aides.  There is boy with spinibifida and a girl with autism who have private aides.  The other aide takes care of the needs for the other ten children.   In addition to teaching these children they are also potty training them without a private bathroom in their room. 

I spoke with the lead teacher and asked her if she believed that the amount of special need children in the program has increased over the years and she said that they have definitely had an increase in the number of children that have entered the program.  She said that the children are referred through Birth to Three, Head Start, and a community screening that is done every spring.  There are two special need early childhood classes and when the child enters the program they stay with the same teacher until they go into kindergarten.  She indicated that it was exciting to witness the child develop and grow while they were in her class.  She is a definite advocate for inclusion in the classroom.

I have observed in this class before this semester and I was pleased to see that she follows the same routine every day.  By this I mean they do the same sort of activity daily at the same time.  I spoke with the main aide and she said that they rotate toys on a daily basis in some instances and on a weekly basis in other instances.  They usually start with free play but this is very controlled free play, the aide has manipulatives out for the children to play with individually, then they have a circle time, art project and free play associated with the weekly theme, snack, book time and music.  The children definitely know what to expect next daily.  I believe this routine is very important for all children but especially for a special needs child. 

During the art and free play time each aide works with the children on some sort of individual activity such as sorting from smallest to largest and records their progress on a chart, thus they have a daily evaluation of the child’s development in various areas.  There are usually four activity centers with teacher directed activities going on at the same time.  I thought this was a great way to constantly assess the child’s development and it seemed to be fairly easy and without a lot of paperwork.  When it comes time to assess the child’s development they have a lot of data and input for the child’s IEP.  This method also provides them with a time line for the child’s development since daily sheets have the date posted on them.

One thing that I observed was that the teacher checked their backpacks as soon as they arrived.  I asked her why she checked them and she said that she had sent homework home with them the day before and she was checking to see if it was completed and returned.  If they returned it completed they got to take something out of the treasure chest.  I thought that this was a really good idea for getting them into the habit of doing homework.