Thursday, May 12, 2016
My Personal Research Journey-Week 2
I have chosen to study the topic of early intervention effectiveness in relation to the coaching/collaborative service delivery model regarding serving preschool children with special needs in early childhood environments. Specifically, I would like to find out what factors improve the effectiveness of this model and what factors decrease or impede the effectiveness of this model of intervention. With the limited and/or lack of funding available in early intervention right now the organization I work for has had to find creative ways to help children demonstrating delays. One way we are doing that is by implementing a coaching and collaboration service delivery model to help improve inclusive practices, provide training to early childhood educators and implement children's IEP's in "typical" early childhood environments.
I have found the simulation process to be very intimidating and I have really struggled narrowing down a sub-topic of interest. I feel as though constructing the research chart has already begun to help clarify terminology that I did not have a clear understanding of before, however, I know that I still have a long way to go in understanding how to design and implement a quality research project.
If anyone has any experience working with early intervention staff through a coaching/collaborative approach I would be more than happy to hear your experiences, good or bad. Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to how to improve inclusive practices and/or communication between early intervention providers, I'm all ears.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I teach 3-year-old pre-k in a school district and we are a collaborative entity. Our classrooms are within the schools and we have access to all intervention services. Fortunately the collaboration is between staff such as myself the general education teacher, sped, speech, ESL, OT, PT, school psych who does evaluations if need be, and principal (there are probably people I'm forgetting). One thing that has been very helpful within this collab is holding weekly meetings between myself, sped, and speech teachers. We decide if and what accommodations on classwork need to be made for the week. These also allow for us to give and receive updates on the kiddos we are meeting about. OT/PT services are generally done right in the classroom so communication is fairly easy. The collaboration is fabulous and has been a wonderful thing for our children and their families. For me, I can not imagine not having access to the specialty resources--I could never serve the children appropriately without everybody's help and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHi Megan!
ReplyDeleteI am actually a Pyramid Model coach at my organization - what you described is pretty much what I do. Currently I am helping to develop a statewide coaching initiative for child care and preschools in Montana. As part of Project LAUNCH, I am also designing a partnership between an Early Childhood Coach (me) and an ECMHC (Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant). SInce you mentioned IEP's, I am thinking you have heard of PTR-YC (Prevent, Teach, Reinforce Young Children) as a Positive Behavior Intervention Support? I am trained to train providers and practitioners in this method and we use Practice Based coaching in the programs as a way to implement strategies to fidelity. If this is like anything you are doing with your organization - I am more than happy to offer any help I can. And if I'm wrong...well...I guess I'll put the cork back in the wine bottle ;-).
I, too find the simulation overwhelmingly intimidating - and I am not confident my topic of ways environmental strategies can foster social-emotional growth through a case study will work. I guess we'll figure it out together! :)
Have a great weekend!
Heidi (The Other One - Ha!)
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI too chose to the topic of early intervention strategies for children with special needs. I constantly go back and forth with my self asking, if this process is overwhelming for us I can not imagine how the students and families impacted must feel! I know that it is a lot of information coming from various sources and can be quite challenging to address all issues at once. I have observed in clinical settings and have even attended two IEP meetings and sometimes still have trouble following along. I must narrow down my research topic. I look forward to reading about your findings and bouncing around ideas.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteThe school I teach at also has an approach to early intervention in which some has shown success such as speech therapy! We have a partnership with a local behavior therapy center that tries to help young children to get better and receive help before they are labeled or dismissed in the public school system. My experience with their partnership is that it too slow and the staff seems to be confused on the process. I say the process is too long for the teachers who are not knowledgeable on how to control or redirect some of the extreme behaviors.