Key Assessment Research Paper

Brittany Mills

Early Childhood development Program

EDUC 315: Observation, Assessment, and Intervention

Dr. Peck and Dr. Neeper

December11th, 2022
 Family Centered Early Supports and Services

Family centered supports and services can be beneficial to families and children that have

disabilities that need help with getting doctor’s appointments or the services they need to be

successful in life. This section of the paper will focus on the Family- Centered Early Support and

Services, specifically program A. It serves Region S (New Hampshire Family-Centered Early

Supports and services, July 2022). Program A serves about six hundred individuals across

twenty-four towns and cities. Program A is a nonprofit that works with children, adults, and

families with disabilities within the community that they live. Program A provides works with

local programs and businesses to provide these people with a place to work and be able to live in

their community. Some examples include having these people work at a grocery store and do

volunteer work to get them involved in the community.

Description of the Program

Program A “is dedicated to expanding the opportunities that enrich the lives of people

with disabilities. Our passion is working together with children, adults, and their families to

create their own desired futures in their own community. We provide our services in a spirit of

partnership and respect” (Pathways, 2018). Program A provides support from ages birth to three

and three to 21 years old, adult services, participant directed and managed services, enhanced

family care, family support and employment opportunities (Pathways, 2018). Program A

expands opportunities and allows those that have disabilities to live a healthy and fulling life

despite their disabilities. Program A is run by a group of volunteers, and they make up the Board

of Directors, these people include those that live in the community and families that receive the
support services program A provides. The board meets often and goes over the programs they

offer, financial standings of the of the program and the next steps for next planning.

Community, Population, and Services

Program A is located in city C, which is west of all the other communities and is in the

southern part of the entire region that it serves. Region S is the fourth smallest population in the

entire state. The estimated population of Region S is 43,146 people. The population is made up

of 21,432 males and 21,672 females (Sullivan County, 2020). There are 17,282 males are 18

years and over and 4,138 males are 65 years and older. For the females there are 17,658 people

that are 18 years and older and 4,810 that are 65 years and older (Sullivan County, 2020). As of

2019, there were 23,150 people in civilian labor force, 22,620 employed and 530 people

unemployed which is 2.3% of the population (Sullivan County, 2020). The median family

income of Region S is $78,592 and the median household income is $61,312 (Sullivan County,

2020). Out of the entire population of Region S, ages 25 and over, only 91.2% have a high

school diploma or higher. In Region S there is about 8.9 percent of people in poverty. The

percentage of poverty is considered relatively high compared to other regions in the state. In

Region S there are about 95.8 percent whites, 0.8 percent black’s 0.4 percent American Indian

and 1.1 percent Asian (United States Census, 2021).

Program A might be serving those that may not be able to pay for services that they need

for their children or for themselves. Another need that Program A might be serving for the

families or individual in this area is giving them the knowledge they need about the disability.

They might not have the knowledge about the disability at hand and so they go to Program A to

get help. Lastly those that have disabilities, their families might not know how to include people
into society because of they do have a disability and it’s a little different compared to someone

that doesn’t have a disability. Program A helps with that transition.

Program A follows the characteristics of Bronfenbrenner’s research and approach.

Bronfenbrenner was a researcher who developed a lot of child development theories and how to

include everyone no matter their disability in society. His approach is to include everyone and

not categorized them or stereotype anyone. His approach is to be helpful to families and include

them in as much as possible (Swick, J. K., Williams, D. R., 2006). One specific perspective he

had that helped with this was his Bio-Ecological Perspective. This included five key systems:

Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem (Swick, J. K.,

Williams, D. R., 2006). All of these systems together all each person to grow with a diversity of

sources and growth. Program A does this because they have work services that allow those with

disabilities to have a job, do community service, encourage independent and many more things.

Program A also has services for family supports. Lastly when a child from the age of birth to 21

years of age is receiving supports, program A includes the families in the plans and

communicates with them and produces plans with the families for that child.

IDEA and Family Centered Early Supports and Services

Description of IDEA Law

In 2014 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized. It is a

law that allows children with disabilities to get the services and appropriate education they need.

It also allows for grants for the state, educational agencies, and other nonprofit organizations to

give free services to children. IDEA is comprised of four different parts: Part A, Part B, Part C
and Part D. Part A is General Provisions, this is includes what the purpose of IDEA and what the

legal definitions are that are included in IDEA.

Part B is Assistance for all Children with Disabilities, this includes allowing states to

assist in providing free education and services to children with disabilities of the ages three-

twenty-one years old. Part C is called Infants and toddlers with disabilities, this is like part B

except it’s for early intervention services for infants and toddlers, ages birth through two years

old and it also pertains to families. Finally, part D looks at the National activities that can

improve education for children that have disabilities. This includes grants for professional

development, technology, technical assistance, parent training and locations to have information

centers (IDEA, 2022).

Part C is geared specifically towards infant’s toddlers and their families, Program A has a

service just for this. They call it: Support Ages 0-3; Family Centered Early Supports and

services. Program A includes services like, developmental evaluation, service coordination,

parent consultation, support, and education and many more services. A child that is eligible for

these services are those that are a risk of developmental delay, diagnosed with a medical

condition that effects development, atypical behavior and has a developmental delay that is at

least 33% determined by evaluation. It is all paid for by the state and private insurance

(Pathways, 2018).

Special Education Process

When a family or an educator is trying to get a child into part C there are many steps they

have to go through. The first step is a referral, this could made by a doctor, parent, or a teacher.

The second step is meeting with a coordinator and requesting services for the child, as well as an
evaluation is done during. During this step, the child will be evaluated in the five main domains

and the parents will be asked questions and give their input (Brillante, P., 2017). Then the third

step is eligibility determination, this when a meeting is held between the parents and the

members that did the evaluation called the Interdisciplinary team. If the team determines that the

child is eligible, then an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) is made (Brillante, P., 2017).

The fourth step is writing and implementing the IFSP. This will focus on the services that

the child needs to receive and then taking action to getting those services that the child needs.

Not only does the IFSP benefit the child, but it also benefits the families because it is planned out

with the families and at their own convenience (Brillante, P., 2017). Most of the time, the

services are being done in a natural environment where the child is comfortable. The fifth step is

reviewing the IFSP. The IFSP is reviewed every few years to ensure that the child and families

are still benefiting from it and make changes to the IFSP as needed. Once the child has turned 3

years old, they can no longer receive early intervention. Now the child and family have to is

transition to special education (Brillante, P., 2017). See appendix A for a visual of the process.

For infants and toddlers and their families to receive the services talked about above at Program

A, they must go through the IFSP process to get the services.

(Dis)ability, Assessment, & Intervention in FCESS

Cleft Pallet & Cleft Lip

Cleft lip and cleft palate are openings in the top part of the lip, on the roof of the mouth

or both. Cleft lip and cleft palate happen when the mouth is developing, and the parts don’t close

properly. This is one of the most common birth defects that babies are born with (Mayo Clinic,

2022). Sometimes cleft palate and cleft lip is a split in the roof of the mouth that isn’t always
seen on the face of the baby when the baby is born. The split is in the lip and the roof of the

mouth, and it affects one side of the face or possibly both. Appendix B shows what a cleft Pallet

and cleft lip looks like. Sometimes a cleft lip or palate can be caused by the muscle of the soft

plate, and this often isn’t seen at birth. Characteristics if this includes difficulty eating,

swallowing, ear infections and nasal voice (Mayo Clinic, 2022).

Assessment: Identification and Eligibility

The child would be diagnosed with cleft pallet or lip by the professionals that are able see

it on the child’s face. One way this can be done is when the child is still in the womb and an

ultrasound is done (Mayo Clinic, 2022). However, a cleft lip can be easier to see on an

ultrasound than a cleft palate is because a cleft palate is on the inside of the mouth. A good

indicator of a child having a cleft pallet is that they have a weak suck and takes a long period of

time to eat. Another indicator is milk coming out of the child’s nose while eating (Mayo Clinic,

2022).

For a child to be eligible for services they have to go by four main things. The first one is

that the child’s developmental delay is at least 33% effecting the child, there is atypical behavior,

the child is at risk of a developmental delay and lastly the child is diagnosed with a medical

condition that impacts their development (Pathways, 2022). Following these four things, cleft

palate and cleft lip would fall under the diagnosed medical condition that impacts their

development. Therefore, the child would be eligible for services because the child’s speech is

delayed.

Assessment Process
 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)is a law that provides families

with free and appropriate public education to children eligible for services (IDEA, 2022).

Children who are ages birth to two years old will receive early intervention services under IDEA

Part C. For the child to be able to be eligible there is a process that needs to be done and this

called Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).

The first step is that the referral is done, this is when the parents, doctors or any other

family members have a concern for their child and are requesting services and they fill out the

referral. This is done by contacting Program A. Then Program A will conduct an evaluation of

the child, a team of professionals that are familiar with cleft palette and cleft lip will go and

determine if the child has a developmental disability or delay. The team will also ask the parents

questions about their child and the team will assess and evaluate how the child does in each of

the developmental domains. Because a child has a cleft lip or pallet, there might be a delay in

their communication development (Brillante, 2017).

Once this is done then Program A would sit down with the parents and the team that did

the evaluation and discuss the eligibility of services, if it is determined that the child is eligible

then an IFSP can be developed (Brillante, 2017). The intervention is then planned with the

families and laid out of what exactly will happen. The speech therapist would come to the

family’s home, this allows for the child to learn better and be more comfortable in their own

environment (Brillante, 2017). After about six months of the child receiving the services, the

plan will be reviewed with families to make any changes that are needed.

The Infant- Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA)

 The Infant-Toddler development Assessment (IDA) is a detail developmental assessment

that helps build an IFSP. IDA is a set of processes and procedures that include a Provence profile

and measures eight developmental domains (IDA, 2022). A professional will come to go the

home of the families so the child is in their natural environment and the professional will also

talk with the families about what they notice about their child’s development (IDA, 2022).

The Provence Profile has many different aspects to it. The first one is that is goes in depth

to the psycho-social development domains, it has natural observations and includes parent’s

reports. The second one is that it is criterion referenced, the professional will go based of off a

criterion when observing the child (IDA, 2022). The eight domains that are looked at are gross

motor, fine motor, relationship to inanimate objects, language/communication, self-help,

relationship to persons, emotions & feeling states, and coping behavior (IDA Part C crosswalk,

2018). Lastly, it provides guidelines for the percentage is for the delay (IDA, 2022). Once this is

all created then there is the service plan, which is a detail summary of the developmental

competencies in each domain and the findings of this will help make the service plan. While

making this service plan the professionals will also partner up with other professionals to gather

information and take it from many sources to help them formulate the plan.

The IDA has a total of six phases. The first phase is referral & pre interview data

gathering, this is to confirm the referral and gather the information about the child and their

families. The second step is initial parent interview this is when the parents are interviewed about

the child’s history, health, and development. The third step is health review, this is when

information that is gathered about the parent’s health history, the child’s health history and any

other information that is prevalent is looked at (IDA, 2022). The fourth step is developmental

observation and assessment, this is creating the child’s profile of development. The fifth step is
integration and synthesis, this is when the information is gathered through the assessment and is

consider for consultation. This is also used to look for program options and prepare and make a

conference with the parents. The last step is share findings, completion, and report, this is

making sure the assessment is complete, the findings of the assessment are shared, and a plan is

developed with the parents and facility that is involved (IDA, 2022).

Unfortunately, professionals can only do the assessment, and they need to be trained on

how to administer it. The professional that is administering is has to be trained in a full range of

developmental disciplines. When the professionals go to score the assessment, it must meet the

criteria for IDEA and with the National Task Force on Screening and Assessment of the National

Early Childhood Technical Assistance System Guidelines (IDA, 2022). With scores also comes

reliability, with the Provence domain are relatively high ranging .90 to .96 for the ages of 1 to 18

months, for score for ages 19 to 36 months is .78-.96 (IDA,2022).

Goals/Purpose of Infant-Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA). The goal of this

assessment is to look at all aspects and domains of the child and determine the best service for

the child. This assessment looks at all the five main domains and the sub domains that look more

in dept of the child’s development. It looks at both the child and their family’s health, the

professionals look at their health records to see if there is any genetic markers or any abnormal

health patterns. Not only does it look at the child but also their families, the families are asked

questions and interviewed about their concerns that they have for their child. It also determines if

monitoring needs to be continued, if consultation, intervention, or other services are needed for

the child and their families (IDA, 2022).

Con of Infant-Toddler Developmental Assessment (IDA). Some cons when it comes to

IDA is that you need specific training for this assessment. This specific assessment a
professional need to do and needs to do training through the IDA website to be able to use it.

Another con is that it seems to be really time consuming. There is a lot of steps and aspects that

are put into the assessment that might make the process take a long time and the families and

child might not be able to accommodate the time. The last con is the reliability coefficients, it

seems as if there is a wide range of reliability. For example, the reliability rate for Provence

domain score is .78 to .96 for ages 19 to 36 months (IDA, 2022). To some people that might not

seem like a big gap, but when talking about reliability that is.

Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language scale

The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language scale is designed to assess the communication

skills that children birth to 36 months have. The assessment assesses verbal areas and

interactions by looking at the interaction attachment skills, pragmatic skills, gesture skills, play

skills, language comprehension skills and language expression skills. While the professional is

looking at these areas, they will also observe the behavior that occurs, they also might bring out

the behavior that the professional is looking. The professional will also talk to the families and

parents about what they have notice about the child’s communication skills (Wang, T, 2016).

The professional that is administering the test must be a member of the assessment team

that is working with the child and the family. The professional has to have a lot of knowledge

about child development and language as well as have the appropriate training and tools needed

(Wang, T,2016). To administer the language scale, the first thing to do find the basal level of

performance for each developmental area, starting with interaction attachment. Then the next

step is once the basal level is established, the test happens until the child fails all the items

looked for in the developmental domain areas for that (Wang, T, 2016).
 When doing the tests, the professional would write down three things on the assessment

(Wang, T, 2016). The first one is observed (O), this is when the professionals sees the child

demonstrate the behavior that is being looked for. The second one is Elicit (E), this when the

professional or parents facilitate the behavior that is being looked for directly by the child. The

last one is Report(R), this is when the behavior is not observed or facilitated during the

assessment (Wang, T, 2016).

The families or parents are asked about the skills that the child has mastered and how

frequent does it happen. Once this is done the highest level of score that the child scored is then

used for that developmental area. The third step is repeating steps one and two for each

developmental area (Wang, T, 2016). When it comes to score this assessment, it is a pass/fail

assessment. If a child can’t play with other children and communicate, then they fail that aspect.

The performance of how the child did is compared to predetermined developmental markers of

where the child should be (Wright, 2020).

Goals/Purpose of Rossetti Infant- Toddler Language scale. The purpose of the

assessment is provide the professional with a clear and easy tool to help assess the child’s

preverbal and verbal communication skills by observing and interacting with the child. The

professional also has the “freedom” to determine in many different ways if the child has

mastered each skill or behavior that is being looked for (Waler, Kinslow 2021). When

administering the assessment there are many different benefits to it. Some of these benefits are

that it incorporates the child’s play and games that they like to use, it is conducted in the natural

environment, it includes pragmatics and social language testing, and parents and families play a

key role in the assessment and many other things (Wright, 2020).
 Con of Rossetti Infant- Toddler Language scale. There are a few cons of this

assessment. The biggest con is that it is criterion-based and there are expectations of where each

child should be developmentally, realistically not every child is going to meet that criterion

Some other cons is that it requires a wide variety of materials, does not provide standard scores

and it is not a good predictor of the abilities that the child has.

Ethical Considerations of Assessment

In this field it is important to take ethics seriously. Ethics is important because without

ethics, judgment, negativity, and biases could affect the work that is being done. Ethics makes it

so that each person is respected for who they are, their beliefs, religion, race, gender, etc. In early

intervention, professionals work with anyone and everyone so being professional is important to

show respect to everyone that is worked with. When the child and families are getting the

supports and services, they should feel comfortable and respected when they are working with a

team of professionals to best support their child or their needs. If there is judgement or negativity

it can affect the outcome of the process, and make the individuals involved uncomfortable and

insecure. Ethical considerations need to be followed in both the IDA assessment and the Rossetti

Infant-Toddler language scale because if they are not there could be a lot of bias and incorrect

information provided. Both assessments are very observation heavy and include information

from the families and parents.

For ethical considerations there is two main laws that are put in place to protect everyone.

The first one is Health Insurance Portability and accountability act of 1996(HIPAA) is a law that

requires personal patient information about their health to only talked about as long as the patient

is aware of it (CDC, 2022). The second law is Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

(FERPA), This federal law allows parents the right to have access to their child’s records. It also
allows parents to have a right to a certain extent to what is disclosed in documents and records

about their child (Protecting Student Privacy, 2022). These two laws connect to Part C that is

talked about to get children and families services that they need. These are connected because

HIPPA makes sure that any of the health services that the children and families receive don’t get

talked about unless they know first about it. FERPA allows families to know where their child is

in their services and what further actions can be taken on their part.

When thinking about ethical considerations professionals also need to go by NAEYC’s

Code of Ethical Conduct and DEC’s Code of Ethics. NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct is a

guideline that is used by professionals, so they know the responsible behavior they are expected

to uphold, it sets a common basis for resolving the principle ethical dilemmas that happen in

education (NAEYC, 2011). This is important because if there are ethical issues, the code of

conduct will help to resolve those ethical dilemmas if they occur during practice. Then there is

also DEC’s Code of Ethics provides principles and guidelines in four areas, professional

practice, professional development and preparation, responsive family practices, and ethical and

evidence-based practices (DEC 2022). These principles are important because there are four

sections within it holds a lot of information for professionals to use. Both ethics are important to

any kind of work in education and need to be followed.

Evidence-Based Interventions

Evidence-based interventions are practices or programs that have documented evidence

of how effective the intervention is. Evidence-based interventions use a mixture of policies,

strategies, activities, and services that have been proven effective through research and

evaluation (National Center for Healthy Safe children, 2022). It is important have evidence-
based interventions in the classrooms and out of the classrooms because it helps to give children

more opportunities to learn and develop.

Narrative Intervention

Narrative Intervention is a way to get the child to talk more and develop the speech and

language the child might have delay on. This intervention has the child talk about how their day

went or a story that they just read (Spencer &Solcum,2010). Within the child talking about their

day or the story that they just read, there will also be targeted words that the child might be

working on. Over the many years that the intervention has been used, it has been proven one of

the most effective interventions that speech professionals can use (Spencer &Solcum,2010).

When a child has a cleft lip or palette it can delay their speech or they have a tough time

speaking, narrative intervention targets those words that they have a tough time with and has

them tell a story with those specific words. So, the child is continuing to speak those words and

with lots of practice, the child might be able to say those words easier. This is also something

that families or parents can do at home as well. They can read a story that has a handful of the

words that the child is having issues with and then can ask the child to tell the story back to

them. This intervention is related to Rossetti Infant Toddler scale.

Parent- Implemented Intervention

Parent-implemented Intervention is an intervention that allows the parents to be more

involved and do most of the intervention. The parents and the team will meet up and talk about

what difficulties the child is having with speech and what some goals for the intervention can be.

The professionals teach the parents to implement communication strategies and things that they

can integrate into their routines (Brown & Woods, 2015). This intervention would really allow
the child to grow and develop more because now the parents are more involved in the

intervention. It allows for the child and the parents to have a greater connection. It also allows

the parent to do the intervention in the child’s natural environment and include it in their daily

routine without the child even noticing it. This intervention connects to the Rossetti Infant

Toddler scale.

Early Storybook Reading

Early Storybook reading is a quite simple strategy that benefits children with hearing

loss. This is where simply a parent or family member reads a book to the child. It has been

shown that early exposure to speech can help stimulate the auditory cortex, enabling auditory

neural development. By stimulating those areas, it may allow the child to be able to hear

something (Brown et al.,2019). This is something that is very crucial when the child has hearing

loss. While the book is being read the child might be able to read the lips of the parent and hear

the muffling sound of their voice. This also allows the parents to be able to implement this

strategy and be able to have a growing bound with their child. This strategy could be connected

both to IDA and the Rosetti infant-toddler assessment.

Progress Monitoring

There are multiple ways that a child’s progress can be monitored while they are in the

classroom environment. Some of the observational strategies that educators might use are,

running records, Curriculum Based Measurements (CBM), and checklists. These can be used for

both speech and hearing because these can be kept and looked back at, and the teacher can keep

doing these assessments.

 For the running records and the checklists, they are typically used in IDA and Rossetti

Infant-Toddler intervention. CBM is helpful when looking at what the children can do

throughout the school year. The teacher can have a graph and document each time they do an

assessment, and this can show the child’s progress throughout the year, so the teacher can do a

speech assessment and then put on the graph how many words the child got right and keep doing

the assessment to see the child’s progress. These tools will show if the child is making progress

and if the child isn’t making progress, the teacher can see that and change the interventions that

are being used.

Primary Grades Public School

School F will be the focus of this section of the paper. School F is located in City K in the

northeast part of the city. There is approximately 240 students in School F, Kindergarten through

fifth grade (Franklin Elementary, 2022). There is approximately forty-two staff members that

work at School F. There is two classrooms per grade and the average class size of each

classroom is about eighteen students. School F provides comprehensive learning, this is

comprehensive services that meets the need of all of students there (Franklin Elementary, 2022).

Description of the School

School F’s mission is “to encourage positive learning experiences, self-worth and respect

for others, through vibrant and caring environment, thus promoting responsible citizens for the

future” (Franklin Elementary, 2022). Not only does school F have this as their mission statement,

but there is also a song about caring and respect of the school, see appendix C. There is not only

a song about caring and respect but they also have a school song, see appendix D. School F also

has a philosophy statement which says “ If your child is not learning the way we teach, we shall
teach the way he or she learns- by providing experiences to develop your child to his or her

fullest potential both socially and academically so that he or she will become a healthy, happy,

responsible member of society”(Franklin Elementary, 2022).

School F wants to provide the best education they can, for that to happen school F

provides many different areas of study and programs that help and promote the students. School

F has library, art, music, physical education, and technology as specials that all children go to.

Then school F also has other programs that help with other needs of students. (Franklin

Elementary, 2022). There is the English Language Learner (ELL) program, this is a program

helps children coming from homes where English is not the main language or not spoken and

helps them learn and explore the American culture (Franklin, 2022). Another program that the

school has is called The Collaborative Learning Center (CLC). The CLC is a program that

provides individualized instruction for the students that need it the most and that need that

special instruction in small groups (Franklin Elementary, 2022). Other services school F offers is

reading specialist, behavior interventionist, counseling, school adjustment counselor, title 1,

student support team, special education service, speech and language, psychological services,

physical therapy, and occupational therapy (Franklin Elementary, 2022).

School F’s curriculum is focused on making sure that all the needs are met for all the

students. School F makes sure that all of the lessons and activities are developmentally

appropriate for all grade levels. School F also includes social curriculum. This helps build the

foundations for fun and caring environments in the school (Franklin Elementary, 2022). School F

provides a wide range of services and programs to ensure that every student gets the education

that they deserve, from having a program to help with students when English isn’t their first

language to individualized instruction (Franklin Elementary, 2022).

Community, Population, and Services

School F is located in City K. City K has a population of about 23,106 people. The white

race makes up most of the population at 92.8%, Black or African Americans at 1.7%, American

Indian and Alaska Native is 0.4%, Asian 1.6%, Hispanic or Latino at 2.7% and two or more

races at 2.9% (Census, 2021). 92.9% of the population in City K have a high school diploma or

higher and 42.7% has a bachelor’s degree or higher. The poverty rate in City K is about 11.7%

(Census, 2021). The median household income is $57,393. Unemployment rate of City K is

2.7% (NHES, 2022). From October 2021 to September 2022, there were about 101-200 drug

overdose/ abuse incidents reported (DHHS, 2022). In City K there is a huge prevalence of food

insecurity. There are some similarities and differences when it comes to City K and Region S

that was talked about in the beginning of the paper. Region S is about 20,000 more people in

City K but both areas have about the same unemployment rate. Another similarity that is shown

is the percentage of races, whites are both very predominate in the areas. The last similarity is

that both areas have about the same percentage of people that have a high school diploma or

higher. Some differences that are shown is City K has more people in poverty by almost 3% than

Region S does.

Potential needs that School F can provide for the students that go there is food assistance.

There is a huge food insecurity in School F, providing free and reduced lunch could help this.

Another potential need is making sure that there is diversity and no segregation of race, African

Americans make a small percentage of the population in City K. One last potential thing that

School F could do is provide a program that helps with assistance for clothes and basic needs for

the students. The poverty level is high in City K at 11.7%. Therefore, having this could help

reduce the poverty level.

 School F has a service called School Adjustment Counselor, this is a counselor that helps

with family issues, crisis intervention, casework and so much more (Franklin,2022). This service

could be beneficial for the students because they might not have a loving home life or have other

things going on. One home life situation could be that a parent uses drugs, unfortunately drugs

has a huge presence in City K and those students could potentially be in those situations. By

having this counselor to help with the buffer it follows the Bioecological Model. This model is

the idea of the relationship between the child and their families as well as the relationships that

are affected by school. The school counselor makes sure everything is going well and keep the

relationships that the children to keep flourishing and keep going. Another service that School F

provides is the CLC. The city of K has a high poverty rate and unemployment rate. This could

lead to families not having the right resources they need and the students getting the right

services, structured and individualization for education they need. The CLC provides all of this

and more.

Description of Part B in IDEA Law

IDEA is a law that makes free appropriate public education eligible to children with

disabilities There is four parts of the law. Part A is the outline of IDEA, the purpose of IDEA and

the definitions within the entire law. Part B is the assistance for all children with disabilities. This

part provides free appropriate public education for children ages three to twenty-one with a

disability (IDEA, 2022). Part C of the law is for infants and toddlers with disabilities, it includes

grants that assist in providing early intervention for children ages birth to two years old. The last

part of IDEA is part D, this is the national Activities to Improve Education of Children with

Disabilities (IDEA, 2022).

 Part B is specifically for children ages three through twenty-one years old. Part B is then

broken down in many different sections. This includes, the use of funds, state eligibility, local

education agency eligibility, evaluations, eligibility determinations, individual education

programs and education placements, procedural safeguards, monitoring, technical assistance and

enforcement, administration, program information and preschool grants (IDEA, 2022). Part B of

IDEA can be connected to School F because there is assistance for education of all children with

disabilities. This school provides services and specific teams to best support the children that are

going to this school. Part B of IDEA connects to primary grade levels which School F because

the school helps with all children with disabilities. This allows each individual child with a

disability to receive education.

Special Education Process

There is a series of steps that it taken when trying to get services through part B of IDEA.

The first step called “Child Find program.” This is when the state has to identify and evaluate the

child with the disability. In order to do this the parents must give consent first. Then the “Child

Find” can proceed and do an activities and assessments (Küpper, 2011). Instead of doing the

“Child Find” a referral or request for evaluation could be done. the evaluation would be done by

a school professional to see if the child has a disability. Parents also could contact the child's

teacher or other professionals to ask for the child to be evaluated. In order for the child to be

evaluated the parent must give consent to do so, evaluations need to be completed within 60 days

of the parent giving consent (Küpper, 2011). Step 2 Is evaluating the child. During the

evaluation, the child must be assessed in all of the areas of the suspected disability. The results of

the evaluation will be used to decide the child's eligibility for special education and services. If
parents don't agree with the evaluation and the results they can take their child to Independent

Educational Evaluation, the parents can ask for the school to pay for this (Küpper, 2011).

Step 3 is eligibility. A group of professionals and parents come together to look at the

child's evaluation results. Together they will all decide if the child does have a disability defined

by the IDEA law. If parents disagree with the decision, they can ask for a hearing of the

eligibility decision (Küpper, 2011). Step 4 is figuring out if the child is eligible for services.

Within 30 days after child is determined eligible for services, an IEP must come together and

write an IEP for that child (Küpper, 2011). Step 5 is the IEP meeting. The school will schedule

this meeting and there is a wide range of staff members there including the child, the parents, and

the IEP team (Küpper, 2011). For the meeting, the school has to contact the families and notify

them early enough to make sure that they can attend, tell the families the purpose, time, and

location, who will be attending and notify the families they can invite other people who have

knowledge or expertise about the child to help with this step (Küpper, 2011).

Step 6 is holding the IEP meeting and writing the IEP. Before the school can provide the

special education services for the first time the parents must give consent. The contents of the

IEP are also discussed (Küpper, 2011). Step 7 is providing the services. During this step, the

school ensures that the IEP is being carried out. Each of the child's teachers will be given a copy

of the IEP. This includes the accommodations, modifications and supports that the child needs

(Küpper, 2011). Step 8 is progress measured and reporting to families. The child’s progress

towards the goals are measured, parents are periodically informed about the progress and goals

that are being made (Küpper, 2011). Step 9, IEP review. The child's IEP is reviewed at least once

a year or as often as needed, parents and team members have to attend these meetings. Parents

can always suggest changes, agree, or disagree with the goals in agreeing disagree with the
placement. The last step is the child being reevaluated. About every three years the child must be

reevaluated to determine their progress and if there is any other services that need to be included

(Küpper, 2011).

(Dis)ability, Assessment, and Intervention in Public School

Visual Impairment

Visual Impairment is “any visual condition that impacts an individual's ability to

successfully complete the activities of everyday life” (Project Ideal, 2022). When a child is

diagnosed with visual impairment there are four categories that their visual impairment could be

put into. The first one is low visual acuity this is when the child has vision between 20/70 and

20/400 with the best correction (glasses or surgery) that they can get. The second one is legal

blindness this means that the visual acuity is 20/200 or worse with the best correction (Future in

Sight,2022). Then blindness, is when the acuity is worse than 20/400 with the best correction.

Lastly there is total blindness which means the person is unable to see anything, even a little bit

of light (Future in Sight,2022).

Common signs that children may have visual impairment is closing an eye or cover one

eye, squinting their eyes, say that things are blurry, having trouble reading or doing close up

work, holding objects close to their eyes to see and blinking more than usual (CDC,2022). For

children that have visual impairment it makes it challenging for them to learn. Common things

that are seen with children that have visual impairment is the low motivation to explore the world

around them, play with toys and socialize with other peers. These children are now limited to

what they can mobility do so that also decreases their motor development as well. Most

importantly visual impairment can affect all four developmental domains: social, motor,
language, and cognitive areas (Project Ideal, 2022). However, children with visual impairment

can learn at the same pace as their peers, they just need extra direct interventions.

Assessment: Identification and Eligibility

Visual impairment is diagnosed by a regular doctor or nurse that can check the child's

eyes. This typically starts with a doctor shinning a light in the child's eyes, if the doctor has any

concerns, then the families would be referred to a specialist called optometrist. This specialist

will test visual acuity and visual field. Visual acuity tests how clearly a child can see an object

and how sharply they can see it. Visual field tests what a child can see on sides of their

peripheral, above, and below (Navigate life Texas, 2022).

For a child with visual impairment to be eligible for services they need to make the

requirements of the legal definition of visual impairment put out by IDEA. The definition of

visual impairment from IDEA is “means an impairment in vision that, even with correction,

adversely affects the child's educational performance (IDEA, 2022). The term includes both

partial slight and blindness (Parent Center Hub, 2022). After a child is deemed visually

impairment from the definition of IDEA, then the child can start receiving special education

services.

Assessment Process

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Is a law that is put into place to

give children with disabilities the appropriate special education services and education they need

to be successful. This section will look at part B of IDEA. This law is for assistance for all

children with disabilities ages three-twenty-one years old. This part of the law looks at the

eligibility requirements and procedures for services and the timelines for all of the steps taken.
The process takes place under this and is called Individualized Education Program (IEP)

(Brillante, 2017).

The first step of this process is making a referral. When an infant or toddler is already

receiving early intervention services the agency in charge of the early intervention will make the

referral for the public school system of where the child will go after the child turns three. If a

child is not in an early intervention program, most of the referrals come from families. If a

family is concerned about their preschooler’s development, they can contact the public school

near them and request assistance (Brillante, 2017). The child finds system, mandated by IDEA

has policies in place to locate, identify, evaluate, and serve any child living in the communities

that might have a disability and would benefit from special education services. Another thing is

that pediatricians in preschool programs could provide families with information about the state's

referral and evaluation process. Other individuals such as teachers or physicians can also refer a

child for an evaluation (Brillante, 2017).

The second step is conducting an evaluation, the evaluations are conducted to determine

if the child has a disability. The evaluations are individualized and based on the child's needs and

the concerns that families have brought up. The evaluation has to have valid and reliable

assessments that assess all areas that a child might have a disability. Interdisciplinary teams of

experts (Brillante, 2017) do evaluations. The results from these evaluations are used to determine

if the child meets the requirements for special education services. The third step is determining

eligibility for services, the team that does the evaluation looks at the results and decides if the

child meets the criteria to receive special education services. If the child is found eligible, then

the team will collaborate with the family to develop a program that will help the child. If the
team finds that the child is not eligible for services and the parents disagree, they can challenge

this under IDEA (Brillante, 2017).

The fourth step is writing the IEP. Once a child is determined eligible for services the

team of people, parents and teachers can now write an IEP. The specific categories that are

included on the IEP is the individualized goals for the child, the specific supports and services

needed, specific instruction, ways to make progress towards the goals and the present level of

Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAAFP) (Brillante, 2017). The

location of where the services take place is also included. The placement must be in in a

comfortable place for the child, where the child is able to learn with their peers who do not have

disabilities and has to be included in everything with their peers. Once the IEP is written,

families have to give consent for the IEP to start taking into effect. If the parents feel like that

their needs be changes to the IEP, then the parents can request a new meeting to reevaluate it

(Brillante,2017).

Step number five is reviewing the IEP, the team meets about once a year to review it.

During this review two important things are looked; the progress that is being made by the child

and the current goals. During this meeting new goals for the next year are also decided. Parents

or other school professionals can request additional meetings for the IEP if the child is not

making progress towards the goals that are set (Brillante, 2017). The last step is transition

planning for post-secondary school, this is when the child turned 16 years old the AP team, child

and family all sit down and develop goals that will help prepare the child for adult life. this can

include how do you get a job. How to live independently and how to be a member of society

(Brillante, 2017).

Functional Vision Assessment (FVA)

 An assessment that can be used to assist children with suspected visual impairments is

Functional Vision Assessment (FVA). This assessment is used to determine how a child sees,

how it affects their vision and their ability to complete day-to-day tasks. (Kasier & Herzberg,

2017). When it comes to doing the assessment a trained professional or teacher can do the

assessment. It has to be a professional and someone that is around the child for extended periods

of time. This assessment is a mixture of interview and observation based as well as in order for

the assessment to be done, the parents must give written consent. The assessment looks at four

different sections: ocular function, visual skills, function acuity, contrast, and color perception.

There are five key categories that much be included in the assessment. The first part the

actual assessment of the child. The first section is acuity, this is when the professional has the

child do near tasks, closer than sixteen inches. Intermediate tasks, which are sixteen inches to

three feet away and distance tasks that are more than three feet away (Foundation for Blindness,

2021). Then the ocular function looks at muscle balance of the eyes, this how they move and if

the eyes look healthy or not. Visual skills look at the functional aspect. What are they actually

able to see? Can they scan an area? Functional acuity looks at how far they are able to see and

how close can they see. Contrast looks at what colors can the child see? Is one color better than

another? Color perception looks at the child’s depth perception. Can the child differentiate

between colors (Foundation for blindness, 2021).

Then the next step is to get the clinical/ophthalmology information. These are the results

from seeing a specialist/ eye doctor. The next category is direct observations, this is when a

professional watches how the child is in the direct environment with the suspected impairment.

The next category is interviews with the teachers or even the student. The last category is formal

testing (Foundation for blindness, 2022). There is no rating scale for this assessment, at the end
of the assessment the professional gives recommendations. Overall, the child’s functioning, body

awareness, being able to do physical activity and vision is all tested and looked at during this

assessment.

Goals/Purpose of Functional Vision Assessment (FVA) The purpose of this assessment

is to informally and formally assess the ways that the child sees with the vision that they

currently have. As well as looking at the deficiencies for learning and functioning skills because

of the visual impairment. Lastly it looks at the behaviors that the child has while trying to cope

with the visual impairment. The assessment measures how the child does with their vision to

perform routine tasks in different places with different objects throughout the day. The goal is to

determine what and how the child sees. Another goal is what can be done to best help this child

learn without having the ability to see (Future in Sight,2022).

Con of Functional Vision Assessment (FVA) Cons to this assessment is that it is very

lengthy. This assessment takes a lot of time and practice to be able to do it correctly. From the

researching findings, a rating scale is not provided for this assessment. This assessment is

extremely extensive and looks at all aspects of vision. There are so many tools that can be used

for this assessment, each tool is different and measures slightly different things. When it comes

to doing the assessment, some things that need to be considered while doing this assessment is

appropriately making sure it is in a comfortable setting for the child. Lastly to ensure that the

tools that are used are the appropriate ones to use when assessing the child.

Learning Media Assessment (LMA)

Learning Media assessment (LMA) is an assessment that allows for professionals to be

able to select appropriate literacy items for children with visual impairment. It looks at
immediate and long-term needs for the child in literacy (Rosenblum et al., 2021). Specifically,

what is the students learning style. The categories that are looked at is vision, touch, hearing, and

other sense that are used all together or singular to have an active response to anything or

everything. The person administering this assessment must be a teacher, they do need specific

training (Rosenblum et al., 2021).

Most LMA assessment formats include five categories. The first one is, how the child

using their sensory channels. How well does the child see? Do they use their touch to be able to

read or figure out what something is? Does the child use their hearing to figure out what is going

on around them? (Paths to literacy, 2022). The second category is learning media. What does the

child do to read or write? Does the child use braille? Does the child use something that helps

them write? The third category is literacy. What level of literacy does the child have right now?

Are they using low, medium, or high? What is the child’s reading fluency? (Paths to literacy,

2022).

The fourth category is the literacy tools and technology that is being used. Does the font

need to be enlarged for that one child? Does the books need to be high contrast for the child to

see? The last category is the summary and educational implications. This is the part of all of the

informational gathered and what is recommended for the child (Paths to literacy, 2022).

Goals/Purpose of Learning Media Assessment (LMA) There are three main goals of

this assessment. The first one looks at what types of learning media the child used and what will

use to accomplish tasks to assist them. The next literacy media that the child will end up using

for reading and writing that they will be doing (Paths to literacy, 2022). Lastly, look at how
efficient a child can be with gathering information. This is done by using different kinds of

sensory objects and senses. The purpose of this assessment is to allow teachers and professionals

to make the best decision possible when selection literacy media for this child (Paths to literacy,

2022).

Con of Learning Media Assessment (LMA) A few cons to this assessment is that there

is a wide variety of tools and forms that can be used. All tools and forms are mostly similar,

there is slight change in some of it and what it measures. It could take a very long time because

not only does it include assessing the child, but also interviewing people and looking and

medical and educational records. Lastly, this assessment can only be done if the FVA has been

done prior. Some important considerations to make sure this assessment is used appropriately is

making sure that the right tools and forms are used for to ensure the most accurate results

possible.

Ethical Considerations of Assessment

When working closely families and children’s ethical considerations are extremely

important, especially when it comes to assessments. The families are trusting you as a

professional. They trust you to not disclose any of the private information to anyone that isn’t

allowed to know about it. Ethics is a huge part of daily life, and especially when working in

family centered early support. In early support systems there is many different types of

individuals and as a professional it is important to show respect to each individual that each

professional works with. The families should feel comfortable and respected when they are

working with a team of professionals to best support their child. As a special educator/classroom
teacher it is important to follow the responsibilities and considerations to support ethics and

every individual that they come in contact with. The work that special educators do is extremely

important, and the connection with the families, make it even more critical. When conducting the

FVA and LMA there is a lot of confidential information that is gathered. Between medical

records, financial standings and what accommodations and tools that the child needs to be

successful.

With ethical consideration, comes some very important laws and code of ethical needs to

be followed. The first law is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA). HIPAA

is a federal law that requires national standards to protect sensitive patient health information

from being disclosed with the patient’s consent or knowledge (CDC, 2022). HIPPA only allows

for professionals that have the right to the medial information and the legal guardians of the child

at hand. This is important because if there were ethical issues between a family and the

professional this law will protect that individual’s information from being shared with others

(CDC,2022). The second law is Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is

a federal law that protects the privacy of student’s educational records (Protecting Student

Privacy, 2022). This law is important for children with disabilities because it keeps all of their

educational records safe and does not allow anyone in the school system to transfer or access

these records. None of the records are released unless a professional or families request to have

them. Both of the assessments requires to be a record of them, and both of the assessments holds

a lot of sensitive information.

Two important code of ethics that need to be used are NAEYC’s Code of Ethical

Conduct and Dec’s Code of Ethics. NAEYC’s Code of Ethical Conduct offers a guideline for

resolving the ethical issues that may happen in educational systems as well as behavior
expectations (NAEYC, 2011). Section two of the ethical conduct talks about ethical

responsibilities to families. The second one is DEC’s Code of Ethics provides principles and

guidelines in four areas, Professional Practice, Professional Development and Preparation,

Responsive Family Practices, and Ethical and Evidence Based Practices (DEC 2022). In this

code of ethics, there are a few categories that need to be followed to allow with the assessments

discussed. A couple of the categories are using best available evidence to make decisions and

professionals roles.

Evidence-Based Interventions

Evidence-Based Interventions are practices that have been peer reviewed and proven to

be effective. This can include policies, strategies, and activities (National Center for Healthy safe

Children, 2022). All of these can be incorporated into the classroom to best support a

child/children’s needs. This is beneficial to the children because they are being offered this

support inside their school classroom, which will help them get through their day. Children with

disabilities should be included in a regular classroom with other students. This facilities the

child’s growth and development and benefit from being around other children (National Center

for Healthy safe Children, 2022). Evidence based interventions align exactly with school F’s

philosophy. The philosophy says “If your child is not learning the way we teach, we will teach

the way her or she learns… (Franklin Elementary,2022). This reinstates that the school will find

the best practices and activities that ensures the child to learn the best. Three intervention/

strategies that will be talked about to help children with visual impairment is assistive

technology, braille, and physical activity.

Assistive Technology
 One of the strategies that can help children with visual impairment is Assistive

technology. Assistive technology includes rehabilitative devices, adaptive decides and other

technology that addresses the gaps that a child has with visual impairment (Chanana, et al.,

2022). Assistive technology doesn’t just includes devices, but it also includes pieces of

equipment that are used. Assistive technology uses specific devices or equipment that is tailored

to that specific child. Children that have visual impairment come across two major challenges on

their lives, one of them being able to be independent and not being able to experience everything

the same way as their peers (Chanana, et al., 2022).

Assistive technology also allows children with visual impairment the ability to study and

have access to the curriculum that is being taught. Assistive technology helps break the barriers

down that children face when doing this. It also helps maintain, increase, and improves the

outcomes that the child will have when it comes to learning (Chanana, et al., 2022). Assistive

technology can be one of the recommendations that the professional gives when they have

conducted the FVA. Some specific examples of assistive technology is braille, tactical

manipulatives, devices that talk about to the child and many other things.

Braille

The second intervention is using braille. Braille is a system that allows a child to read and

write by using their sense of touch to feel the dots. Each letter of the alphabet has specific

pattern/sequence of dots. The pattern of the dots differ between the presence or the absence of

the dots (Toussaint & Tiger,2010). Just like with literacy, the child learns how to read and write

braille before they use it themselves to learn and demonstrate their knowledge. One way that

braille can be used, is that there are objects, and each object has braille saying what it is. See

Appendix E for some examples. If a child is really good with feeling, braille will allow this child
to be able to read and write with braille. After the LMA is conducted, braille might be one of the

things that the teacher recommends for that child to use (Future in Sight,2022).

Physical Activity

The third intervention is how to teach children physical activity that have visual

impairment. It is proven that many children do not have the motivation or will power to want to

explore and be physically active because they can’t see. Because of all of this, children are likely

to have lower levels of motor skills as well. As long as physical activity is taught correctly, there

are many things that the child will benefit from. Some of these being self-confidence, advocation

for themselves and most important independence (Liberman & Linsenbigler, 2017).

Some general things that can be done to facilitate these are making the child feel included

in the whole activity. Have specific equipment out for that child. For example, upside down bike

and kayak on grass. Another thing is tactical maps. Second strategy is explain all the terminology

and parts. Teach in whole, part, whole and do peer guide. The last strategy is discuss what fear or

anxieties does the child have about the activity (Liberman & Linsenbigler, 2017). Physical

activity could be a recommendation that the professional makes once they have done the FVA.

Progress Monitoring

A child’s progress will be monitored in relation to the intervention strategies. There are

multiple ways that a child’s progress can be monitored while they are in a classroom setting.

Some of the observational strategies that educators might use are, running records and

Curriculum Based Measurements. Running record is useful when observing how the child is

using the intervention strategy and if it is successful or not. For example, this could be used

while watching the child use assistive technology. Another way is how the child interacts with it
and is the device benefiting the child. CBM is a helpful tool that is used throughout the school

year to see the child’s improvement of physical activity This tool show how the child has

progressed throughout the year with their physical activity and if they have improved on it. CBM

can also be really great for tracking how a child is doing with braille. Some other tools that can

be used is informal assessments. This can just be a teacher teaching their class and they notice

something that a child is doing.

Reflection on Learning

Overview

The two contexts that I researched in this paper was Cleft pallet/ Cleft lip and Visual

Impairment. Cleft pallet and Cleft lip is a birth defect. This occurs when a baby’s lip or mouth

does not form like it should in the womb (CDC, 2022). Visual Impairment is any degree of

vision loss that someone has experienced, and it effects their day-to-day life (Family Connect,

2022). Both of these is something that is seen in a lot of children, and it affects them in every

way, shape, and form.

Ideas and Practices that Resonated

There was quite a few things that really resonated with me. The first one is that I realized

how important it is to know about disabilities. No matter where a teacher goes to go teach, they

are always going to be teaching children with disabilities. The next thing that resonated with me

was intervention strategies. The reason why intervention strategies really stuck with me because

it can be so diverse and there are so many different kinds of intervention strategies. For example,

there is three main areas of intervention. There is curriculum, practices, and policies (WWC,
2020). As long as these three main areas are covered when doing an intervention, the likelihood

of the intervention being effective is high.

Another important thing that resonated with me is assistive technology (AT). I never

knew about AT until we talked about it in class. AT has two specific categories, one of those

being devices. This is equipment or technology. Then the second one is services, this includes

the supports and services that children need to keep the equipment and technology going (IRIS

Center, 2010). Going into schools for Practicum, it was cool to see all the AT that was used, and

I was able to identity what kind of AT it was. I was also able to ask questions about it and deepen

my knowledge about AT. AT helps break down the barriers that children with disabilities. The

last thing that resonated with me was all about IDEA laws. I feel like is something that is

important, and I will be able to apply this in my future work.

New Understandings and Remaining Questions

I have a lot of new understandings since being in this class. One of the most important

understandings that I have is about IDEA. It is extremely important to understand IDEA when

working with children with special needs because they have the right to special education

services and all the other aspects that come with IDEA. Another important new understanding is

FERPA, this protects the privacy of student records for their education (Protecting Student

Privacy, 2022). The only people that are allowed to be able to look at the student’s records are

the professionals that need to have access to it and parents. FERPA goes hand in hand with

IDEA as well. Both of these laws are important, and all teachers should really know this law.

The last thing that gave me new understanding is the IEP and IFSP process. IEP is for

early intervention services; birth-three years old and IFSP is for three years old to twenty-one
years old. Before this class, I didn’t know the differences between these two. I thought that the

two were the same things. I now know the difference between them and what how much work

and the process of each one is. It was hard for me to choose the most important things I learned; I

learned so much, but I think these are the most important. A couple questions I still have is what

happens if IDEA or FERPA isn’t followed? Lastly is what is the best ways to help children with

trauma?

Research Process

The process of researching, writing, and collecting artifacts supported my learning

because I was able to learn from others work and be able to write my paper based off of their

work. Doing this research paper supported my learning and growth because research is one of

my weakest spots, I tend to have a really hard time with it. Although I had a hard time doing

research for this paper, I was able to strength this area and learn more from it. I have more of an

idea of where to look, what words I should search and what words I don’t need to search. The

artifacts allowed me to understand the content more as a reader and writer because I am more of

a visual learner. For example, for Cleft Palate and Cleft lip, writing about what it looks like was

one thing and I was imagining it. But actually, seeing a picture for it and seeing what it actually

looked like, helped me out more and I was able to understand what both of these looked like.

Most importantly I learned a lot about myself as writer and researcher. I figured out what

worked for me and what didn’t work for me. Some things that were challenging for me was

finding the right articles that I needed, like I stated above. I would find an article about the

disability, but it wasn’t in the right context. The next challenging thing for me was just writing

about the research in general. I am not very good at writing research papers, so this paper

definitely challenged me in that aspect. One last challenging thing for me was finding article that
were free and I was able to get full access to. A lot of articles that I found were just the abstract

and not the whole article, so that was a little of an obstacle. Some new tools that I learned about

was all the free online trainings that were available. I never new how many trainings were online

and that they were free, I always thought you had to pay for them. Another tool was using the

Keene State college Mason library database to find my articles, I didn’t know about this tool

beforehand.

Advocacy

Advocacy is one the most important aspects to early childhood because parents/families

need someone to help them. Some parents/families may not know how to advocate for

themselves or their children. As a professional, I can help them with that, and help be their voice

for them. Children should receive support and services in many ways throughout the day. It is

also important to create relationships with families so the professionals and families can work

together as a team to best support the child/children at hand and their needs. Supports and

services can’t be successful unless the relationships are good, and everyone is on the same page.

I see myself becoming an advocate for children and families by supporting them by

listening to their thoughts and concerns. I can give them advice as well as the right resources

they need. If they want, I can help facilitate certain things. I can become involved as an advocate

by communicating children and families. Communication is so important between the families

and teachers. When everyone works as a team, it will be beneficial for the children which is so

important. I will also periodically check in with children and families to ensure they have

everything they need.

Growth as a Professional and Educator

 Overall, I have grown a lot from being an educator, professional and as a person. I have

grown more as an educator because I have learned so much more about disabilities and special

education. I have learned more interventions and strategies that I can in my future career. I have

learned more on how to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other educators, no matter

the opinions and differences.

I have grown more has a professional because I feel like I have learned more on how to

become a professional. Between making sure I am prepared and having everything I need to be

professional to ensuring that I am following the Code of Ethics. Most importantly I have

improved a lot of my clear and accurate written and communication skills. It is essential to use

the proper vocabulary as a professional. Lastly as a person I have grown a lot. From my time

management skills to my ability to achieve my goals that I wanted to. I feel like I have grown so

much throughout this semester and will continue to grow.

Conclusion

I have learned a lot over the course of this semester through this research and other parts

of the course. I have a better understanding of special education and all of the working parts of

special education. This course has shed light on a great deal of topics. I have more of an

appreciation for special education and the educators that do special education. I have seen and

read things that I had never heard about before as well as seen things I never would have thought

I would ever see. I have grown a lot as a person and educator. I have learned more about myself

and how to be a better educator. Specifically for children with disabilities.

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 Appendix A

Process of IFSP

Visual Representation of the Process of an IFSP. This also goes into a little bit more

detail of the entire process to get support services and an IFSP.

 Appendix B

Cleft lip and Cleft palate

This shows the difference between a Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate. It also shows what it

looks like when a child has both.

 Appendix C

Cares song

This song is about being respectful and kind for others

 Appendix D

School Song

This is the school song that School F has.

 Appendix E

Objects with braille

This shows some objects that teachers can use for the child to feel and get a sense of the

object as well as feel braille.