Child to Child - A New Training Program for Head Start
by Joanne P. Brady, Director, Region I RAP, Newton, Massachusetts
One day Jimmy, a four-year-old, paralyzed from the waist down, was playing on the floor in preschool. Danny, a classmate, approached him and said: "Let's have a race!" The nearby teacher listened with interest. Jimmy looked up with a big smile and said "Okay." Both children talked about it and finally decided to have a swimming race. Each child began to move using only his arms "to swim" across the floor.
This simple vignette illustrates what the Child to Child training program hopes to accomplish. Jimmy and Danny are not just classmates-they are playmates. The nearby teacher is ready to facilitate and help-but is not needed because the children's ability to invent ways to play together is the result of many months of creating a climate that fosters an appreciation and understanding of individual differences.
Developed by the national network of Resource Access Projects (RAPs), Child to Child is a training program designed for Head Start administrators, teachers, and parents to promote the social integration of children with disabilities. Most people are familiar with the term integration, but the term social integration has a unique meaning in the field of early childhood special education. Being able to play with other children influences what children learn about the world and themselves. Social integration means the process of achieving harmony within a group so that mutually satisfying interactions can take place between a child with disabilities and his or her peers.
Adults are powerful forces in shaping the physical environment and emotional climate for young children at home, in their neighborhoods, and in Head Start. The Child to Child training program offers Head Start parents, teachers, and administrators concrete strategies that they can use to include young children with disabilities in the various worlds around them.CONTENT OF THE PROGRAM
The training program consists of two new print products. The first, Child to Child: Maximizing Opportunities for Social Integration, offers 20 hours of interactive workshops organized into five modules. These workshops are designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of parents and staff on social integration. The second new product is Getting Results: Follow-up Strategies to Training. This companion guidebook was developed to amplify the power of the in service training received through theChild to Child workshops. Drawing on best practices in inservice training, Getting Results provides practical information for Head Start coordinators on how to use coaching and peer support groups to support teachers as they translate training experiences into classroom practice.
Child to Child: Maximizing Opportunities for Social Integration includes:
- Module 1: Understanding Social Integration, introduces parents, teachers, and administrators to the concept of social integration. It includes activities that promote an understanding of the benefits of social integration for all children participating in Head Start.
- Module 2: The Importance of Social Play, reinforces the importance of play as "the work of children" and helps teachers and parents together examine the characteristics and developmental nature of social play. Through a variety of techniques, parents and teachers learn to identify barriers that may prevent children with disabilities from fully participating in social play situations.
- Module 3: Parents' Role in Fostering Social Integration, is designed to involve all parents in Head Start's efforts to include children with disabilities. In a series of three workshops, parents learn effective strategies that will help children who have a range of abilities play together and make friends. Activities focus on selecting toys and play materials that promote social interaction, exploring feelings when children experience difficulty with social interactions, and practicing strategies that help children interact successfully with their peers.
- Module 4: Teachers' Role in Fostering Social Integration, offers teaching teams and supervisors a series of three skill-building workshops to learn and practice specific classroom techniques. Teaching staff will increase their abilities to identify children who would benefit from teacher intervention, selection pro-social materials, and design and adapt classroom environments and activities to encourage positive social interaction.
- Module 5: Strategies for Supporting Social Integration: A Workshop for the Head Start Management Team, offers administrators (directors and coordinators) information and ideas on how they can support social integration efforts in their programs by examining their own beliefs about enrolling children with disabilities, learning the laws and regulations on children with disabilities, and developing strategies.
FIELD TEST RESULTS
To ensure that Head Start programs benefit from the Child to Child training program, a national field, test of the materials was conducted by the University of Cincinnati and the materials received high marks. Some important findings of the field test were:
- Prior to the training, teachers stated that a lack of adequate resources was barrier to integration. After participating in Child to Child training, teachers recognized the importance of understanding and using integration strategies.
- After training, teachers displayed an understanding of their role in integration by identifying the importance of the adult lead and the critical nature of acceptance. These two factors are repeatedly cited in research as critical to the success of the integration process.
- Ninety percent of the teachers evaluated the follow up training (coaching or peer support groups) as a positive experience. A third of the respondents stated that the follow up reinforced the content and strategies learned in the training.
The Child to Child training program, with accompanying videotapes and materials for conducting in service training and follow up, will be distributed to every Head Start program in the 1993-1994 program year. To learn more about this exciting new staff development and parent education curriculum, contact the Resource Access Project (RAP) in your area.
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