Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings : A Video-Assisted Program for Educators and Families - Facilitator Manual [English]
The Center for Persons with Disabilities
The SPIES (Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings) curriculum is designed to introduce adults to intervention strategies for use with preschool children who have disabilities, special health needs, or who are at risk for the development of a disability. Many who provide services designed to promote the development of children believe that services should be conducted within the context of everyday settings. In the SPIES curriculum, everyday settings are defined as the daily routines and activities that are part of a child's life. The SPIES curriculum, which includes a participant manual, a facilitator manual, and six videotapes, contains the following six modules: Module 1, "Creating Teaching Opportunities," introduces eight techniques adults can use to create teaching opportunities based on a child's interest, including choices, access, and insufficient materials. Module 2, "Providing Help," discusses how to help children who have difficulty recognizing and responding to cues in their environment, including physical help, verbal help, and nonverbal help. Module 3, "Incidental Teaching," describes a strategy for systematic intervention in everyday settings, including both school and home settings. Module 4, "Tracking Progress," discusses the process of collecting data regarding children's behavior as it relates to their objectives. Module 5, "Prior to Preschool," provides information on working with young children and how to meet their needs by adapting the intervention strategies for preschoolers. Module 6, "Planning Intervention across the Day," presents a seven-step process to create a written plan for providing intervention and discusses how to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. In the manuals, modules 1 through 5 contain bibliographies and glossaries, and several modules contain appendices. Transparency masters are also included.
The Center for Persons with Disabilities. Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings : A Video-Assisted Program for Educators and Families - Facilitator Manual [English] (1998). Center for Persons with Disabilities: Logan, UT.
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material
(print, video; CD-ROM version available for $44.00, CD-ROM version is an abbreviated version
of SPIES material and includes one CD-ROM disk and a participant's manual for all 6 modules)
Center for Persons with Disabilities
Attn: Connie Panter
6800 Old Main Hill
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322
Phone: (435) 797-1987
URL: http://www.cpd.usu.edu/
Languages Available: English, Spanish
Estrategias de intervencion en situaciones cotidianas del niño preescolar - Manual del facilitador/videos [Spanish] [Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings : A Video-Assisted Program for Educators and Families]
Strategies for Preschool Intervention in Everyday Settings: A Video-Assisted Program for Educators and Families [Videos and Facilitator Manual]
Intended User Audience:
This material was developed for instructors and participants in professional development, including service delivery personnel,
faculty/trainers, administrators, paraprofessionals and pre-service
students. This material was developed for personnel representing a wide variety of disciplines, including early intervention/early childhood special education, early childhood education, social work, family therapy, speech, physical and occupational therapy, and psychology. The experience level regarding early intervention services is intended to be at an introductory or beginning level. The material was developed for English and Spanish-speaking audiences, although children and adults of many ethnic origins are depicted on the videotape.
Product Development:
The material was developed by the SPIES project staff: European American individuals who use English as a first language. Children ages 0-5 (as actors in the video), parents and family members, faculty/trainers, service delivery personnel, preservice students and paraprofessionals of various ethnic backgrounds participated in the development of this material. The developers consist of individuals in the fields of early intervention, early childhood special education, early childhood education, psychology, speech pathology, and instructional technology.
Product Evaluation:
This material was evaluated and field-tested by individuals from many
cultural groups, including European American (55%), African American (20%), Native American (10%), Hispanic (10%) and Asian (5%). Their suggestions were incorporated in the revisions. Summaries of evaluation at nine sites in seven states are available from the developer. Participants included faculty and students from five universities, Head Start personnel in three locations, childcare personnel, service providers, and parents of children with disabilities. These individuals either taught or participated in preservice or inservice education using the curriculum. Disciplines included early intervention, early childhood special education, psychology, early childhood education, child development, childcare and speech pathology. This material was field-tested in Utah by child care providers, early childhood special educators, parents of children with disabilities, Head Start personnel on Ute tribal reservation, and preservice students and faculty. In South Carolina this material was field tested by students and faculty at the University of South Carolina. In Washington this material was field tested by inner city Head Start personnel (Seattle), district special education personnel,
and University of Washington faculty. In Wyoming this material was field tested by service personnel enrolled in special education courses and by faculty. In Florida this material was field tested
by graduate students at Florida State University.
Product Dissemination:
Four copies of the revised material have been disseminated. Field test versions were disseminated to faculty at five universities, child care inservice providers, Head Start personnel, and special education administrators who evaluated them during preservice or inservice education in Seattle and Maple Valley, WA; Laramie, WY; Tallahassee, FL; Columbia, SC; and Logan, Brigham City, and Fort Duchesne, UT.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has been a special education professor for 20 years,
and for over ten years has coordinated personnel preparation programs
in interdisciplinary early childhood education. She has been a K-6
classroom teacher and still coordinates and teaches preschool in a
primary school with Asian American children. As a parent of culturally
and linguistically diverse children, she has learned many valuable
lessons and has been working with parents, professionals, and diverse
children to bridge the cultural gaps between them.
Audience:
SPIES is for personnel preparation, as well as in-service training in early childhood special education and early intervention. SPIES can be used by instructors and trainers; participants and trainees, who can be pre-service students, practitioners, parents, volunteers; and administrators and supervisory personnel. SPIES – English Version is mainly for English speakers in U.S.A. and Canada. However, it can be used judiciously but effectively, with or without modifications for personnel training or as resource material, by professionals in other countries if they have English proficiency. SPIES is fairly generic and inclusive in orientation. It can be used for audiences of dominant sociocultural background, or diverse sociocultural associations. SPIES can be used with audiences who have no background in special education and early childhood education. However, it is more suitable for individuals with some background knowledge in special education, even though the developers’ intent is for personnel representing a wide variety of disciplines, including early childhood special education, early childhood education, and related fields.
Strengths of the Material:
The product has been field-tested by individuals from many cultural groups, in Utah, South Carolina, Washington, Wyoming and Florida. The material is exceptional in organization and clarity. The written language in the manual and the oral language in the video are readily comprehensible, especially if the audience has some basic training in special education and is quite familiar with the "traditional" theoretical approach, and related concepts and terminology in special education. The video presentation is outstanding. It is not only succinct and well-structured for training purposes, but more importantly, depicts cultural diversity effectively. Varying cultural and linguistic groups are fairly represented in the powerful role of service providers, as well as service recipients. The pictures are the message that this material can indeed be used with any ethnic groups. In fact, SPIES can be excellent multicultural education for dominant cultural groups in any fields because the graphic representation carries a strong though subtle message of inclusion for ethnicity, SES, gender, and disabilities. The material reflects recommended practice from the "traditional" special education perspective, i.e., teacher directed, diagnostic-prescriptive, and behavioral approach.
Limitations of the Material:
The English version of the material may not be readily comprehensible or usable by trainees and trainers who do not have a reasonable command of English, especially the terminology and the concepts embedded in the terminology. However, this reviewer feels that the developers did conscientiously choose simple sentence structure and vocabulary for the technical terms (such as intervention strategies), to enable a wider population to benefit from this excellent training material. The material, because of its behavioral orientation, does not present techniques or approaches based on other theoretic models (e.g., self-discovery, neuro-educational). This is both its strength and limitation-- the former, because it is more focused; the latter, because the uninformed audience may not be aware of other approaches, if they do not have background in other strategies and thus can make intelligent choices for young children who need intervention and/or service. The material is focused on intervention, thus may not be so useful for early childhood education and related fields if children do not have specific, identified, behavioral needs.
Adaptations:
No adaptation is needed to make the material culturally relevant. The glossary is helpful when the users have the command of this level of English. It would be helpful if trainers supplemented the manual with oral explanation and real-life examples. For other language groups who cannot benefit from the Spanish version, interpreters and translators might be appropriate.
Generalizability:
This could be used as reference or resource materials, or material for self-study. For example, families can use this to learn skills to work with their young children in need of intervention; students can use this to expand their skill repertoire and develop action research, and practitioners can use this to expand professional development. The principles presented in this material can be embedded or adopted in many other cultural contexts for training in early intervention. This would be especially applicable when mentors well-versed in the behavioral approach are available for mentorship and consultation.
Recommendations:
Highly recommended. The material is invaluable as part of preservice curriculum and inservice training.
Producer's Response:
We appreciate the suggestions that the reviewers have provided. Their comments highlight the use that families might make of the SPIES curriculum. It is our intent to create a version specifically for families. We will incorporate the suggestion that we specifically discuss multicultural issues in this adaptation, rather than simply relying on the video examples that show cultural diversity. We will also increase the number of families who are portrayed in video examples.
As we revise the current materials we will keep in mind the needs of early childhood personnel. Our intent is to emphasize adult-child interactions that support children’s development. We will develop graphic representations to illustrate how the strategies apply in a broad conceptual framework and add suggested activities that focus on early childhood educators.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer has worked in the field of early intervention for the past nine
years providing training and technical assistance to families and
professionals. As an African American parent of a child with special
needs and privileged to work with African American families (young,
old, rural, urban, poor, middle class, etc.), the reviewer brings
a unique perspective to the service delivery process in early
intervention.
Audience:
This material is an excellent resource for its intended audience, particularly those individuals who are responsible for personnel development in Part C programs when transitioning children to preschool settings. However, this reviewer believes the videos would be most helpful to families. Because families are invaluable resources for each other, the "buy-in" would be the fact that other parents, children, and family members participated in the development of this useful product.
Strengths of the Material:
Although this material was developed for English and Spanish-speaking audiences and the individuals depicted in the vignettes are of various ethnic origins, it does not specifically address culture or linguistic differences. It is, however, this reviewer’s opinion that the material meets its objective. It provides positive intervention strategies with explanations of outcomes for supporting children in their natural environments.
Because a large number of adults are visual learners, this material adequately aids in increasing the knowledge and skills of professionals working with children and families. One most noticeable strength is the involvement of the family in their child’s intervention program. This practice encourages parent-professional partnerships, which ultimately produce optimal outcomes for children.
This material is of excellent quality. Its presentation is clear, easy to understand, and well organized. This reviewer is quite impressed with the quality of the total product. The facilitators guide and transparencies are invaluable tools for trainers.
Limitations of the Material:
As previously stated, this material does not specifically address culture or linguistic differences. The most obvious limitation to this material is that the same families are depicted in the vignettes rather than different ones.
Adaptations:
This material very easily lends itself to individualized self-paced study for new early childhood or early intervention professionals. It could also be adapted to provide training in intervals over several weeks, allowing flexibility for students to practice hands-on activities with children while recording their experiences in a daily log to chart their progress. I also see no reason why it could not be used at the pre-service level.
Generalizability:
This material is very useful for its intended audience. It provides an excellent opportunity for faculty/trainers to prepare their students for working with children and their families in natural environments.
Recommendations:
I highly recommend this material. If this product is produced in a second edition, I would recommend vignettes from more culturally diverse families.
Producer's Response:
We appreciate the suggestions that the reviewers have provided. Their comments highlight the use that families might make of the SPIES curriculum. It is our intent to create a version specifically for families. We will incorporate the suggestion that we specifically discuss multicultural issues in this adaptation, rather than simply relying on the video examples that show cultural diversity. We will also increase the number of families who are portrayed in video examples.
As we revise the current materials we will keep in mind the needs of early childhood personnel. Our intent is to emphasize adult-child interactions that support children’s development. We will develop graphic representations to illustrate how the strategies apply in a broad conceptual framework and add suggested activities that focus on early childhood educators.
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