Observation: Preschool Program Serving Students with Disabilities

Pasadena City College Child Development Center is located at 1324 E. Green St., Pasadena, California. It is a laboratory school that is affiliated with Pasadena City College (P.C.C.), which is located one block away from the Center. The Center has the infant, toddler, two-year olds, preschool, and early primary program. The neighborhood is generally quiet although it is a mixture of some residential buildings, businesses, schools, the public library, and a major street (Colorado Blvd.). It is a two story building. The school part is on the first floor and the office part is on the second floor. The exterior of the building is well maintained and good condition. The outside of

Doing field experience at St.Mary’s Preschool has taught me a lot not only about the educational system but about myself as well. I’ve learned over these couple of months that in order to become a wonderful teacher, you have to have an enormous amount of patience and dedication. Teaching isn’t an easy profession and through this experience, my respect for my teachers have grown tremendously. Many students often take their teachers for granted but they don't realize what they do for us.

In my first semester of college at Concordia, I had the opportunity to have the class EDU 120. A requirement for this class was having 10 hours of fieldwork; at least 3 hours in each level of childhood. The reason for this requirement is to help the students discover what grade level they want to teach in the future.

For the classroom observation assignment I was able to observe at Stepping Stones Family Childcare and Preschool Program. I conducted observations for five hours each on the dates of September 24th and September 25th of the year 2015. This licensed home-based daycare and preschool program is located in a quiet suburban neighborhood on 4103 Bryant Street, Blasdell, New York. The facility allows for a twelve-child capacity (ages 6 weeks to 12 years with four additional school age) and is owned and founded by Kim Bannister. When I observed, there were two additional staff present. Therefore, there were a total of 3 adults and 12 children at the center when I observed. New York State Senator Marc C. Panepinto was also present on September 25th as he read to the children and toured the home. I chose this specific setting as I personally thought it would be an interesting dynamic to study how a home-based preschool program is run.

The place I observed was the Infant Development Program in their preschool program called Stepping Stones Preschool in Lock Haven, PA. I observed in one of their three to five year old preschool programs that is held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 11:30am to 2:30pm. This particular classroom had two head teachers; Mrs. Kate and Mrs. Lisa. The teacher call their students Owls this is because their class name is Owls. When they want to get the kids to listen to them or they want to get their attention a teacher will say “Owls Owls Whoo Whoo” and the kids will say “Owls Owls Whoo Whoo”. Another thing the teachers will also refer to the students as friends. In this classroom there was four boys and four girls. I observed two

I chose this article because it specifically targets the inclusion of autistic students in general education classrooms. The evidence shows that having a child read social stories and practice social interaction through role play causes an increase in a child’s social behavior thus helping him or her socialize better with classmates and teachers. This builds a better foundation for a child to express his or her wants and

I observed the preschool classroom of Ms. K. Today was a smaller group, as several children are on vacation. This is a new facility and just the host teacher was in there at this time. I came into the classroom at 8:00 and left at 9:00. I spoke with the host teacher before and after the observation for feedback, which I felt was beneficial to both her and me. I observed the children during inside for 20 minutes. I observed the children during outside play for 40 minutes.

Socially, children with autism have a lot of difficulty with peers as they do not express as much empathy or social involvement as their classmates. Baron-Cohen (2002) refers to children with autism preferring less involved social interaction, saying that “(children)often engage in “parallel play” at the edge of a group rather than joining in cooperative play”

The program consists of 10 sessions designed to be delivered in weekly sessions of approximately one hour each. As it can be seen on Table 6.1, during the sessions children are involved in activities aimed at teaching them coping skills and problem solving techniques, thereby, helping them deal more effectively with challenging situations in life. Before the program starts, each group facilitator receives a group leader manual and each child receives an activity book that they complete throughout the program’s implementation (Barrett,

Autism is categorized by deficits in maintaining social relationships and difficulty communicating. The number of children being diagnosed with autism is steadily increasing. Therefore the need incorporate effective interventions that focus on the development of the individual child has become an imperative component for their success. The key for children with Autism to achieve academic and social success depends upon the collaborative effort that is shared among all parties involved: family, teachers, peers; mental health professionals and the community.

The common traits of ASD, which include anti-social and often disruptive patterns of behavior, can make children with autism challenging for typical learning children to approach. Though the issue of including children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms is a complex one, peer-mediated interventions can promote the growth of social skills at every level of education. By educating the general population of typical peers and empowering them to be a part of the process a dent can be made in the social exclusion often experienced by the ASD children in mainstream settings. Implementing these interventions enriches the lives of all of the children involved, “possibly developing sustainable social relationships” expanding the effects of the program beyond the academic setting (Hughes et al., 2013). Also, these methods provide teachers an unobtrusive method of teaching that has benefits for the entire class. These methods could be helpful to other student populations that have intellectual

This area is linked in many different ways, building children’s social skills up because they are interacting with other children, learning to take turns and share with peers. They are building relationships and starting to become independent from their main carers.

After eleven intervention sessions, he was interacting, verbally and non-verbally, with his companions seven percent of the time (Gena, 2006). The interventions are not just effective for young children; a physical education instructor in a high school study observed that post-interventions the target children were more likely to, "...socialize with their peers more than with the aide” (Hughes et al., 2013, p.11). Using methods such as peer-to-peer, small group or class-wide interactions enriches the ASD child’s school experience by teaching them social skills in a natural environment and allowing them to make meaningful connections with their classmates while learning which behaviors are appropriate.

Studies show that being involved in activities such as singing, playing an instrument, and listening to music really show effectiveness on a child participating in socializing (Arbesman at al.2013). Singing would improve in your speech in communicating with others and improving mental functions with memory and thought. Playing an instrument would improve a child’s attention to be involved, mental functions of sequencing complex movements. Children without disabilities advance their social skills by doing after school activities and talking to their friends, which gives schools a better reason to advocate for the children with disabilities to be a part also. Friend ship skills and Lego social skills made more relationships with Autism children reduced social difficulties. (Arbesman at al.2013). The competence of a child with better social interaction brought out better behaviors at home and in school (Arbesman at al.2013). All children needed to learn to participate in social activities it is part of learning and finding independence for a person. The activities listed above was proven to work with evidence of a study divided into three levels of structures and different methods of teaching children in new ways that they wasn’t use to. When the child gets the choice to

To encourage the development of social skills students are encouraged to interact with one another throughout the day in a variety of methods, including partner work, small group activities, and large group activities. These teaching techniques enable autistic children to relate to their peers. As autistic children relate to their peers more they are more accepted and in turn continue to learn and acquire new and improved social skills.