Evaluating Quality in Inclusive Infant-Toddler Care O’Brien-Chapter 12

Feedback from families Families provide the best feedback about the day-to-day operation of the facility. Some parents/families are hesitant about discussing comments, positive or negative. Anonymous surveys should be available. O’Brien suggests 2x/year to send home (for confidentiality) a parent satisfaction survey. Can be a few general, open-ended questions or more detailed with specific questions about particular aspects of the program Consider having families fill out an exit survey when child has moved to another school or transitioned to kindergarten, parents will be less concerned with the effect of negative comments. Read the example of the survey on pg. 244.

Feedback from teachers Teachers should receive regular feedback from their supervisors about their teaching effectiveness. teachers should also have the opportunity to give feedback about the quality of the childcare program and the supervisor’s effectiveness. Can be accomplished by staff meeting, evaluations and surveys. Teachers should be encouraged to raise questions & To help solve problems at staff meetings. Bring concerns or questions to supervisor at any time. Questionnaires that are anonymous may help teachers assert themselves as professionals.

Curriculum evaluations Another way to evaluate the quality of a childcare program is to assess the curriculum. This can be done 3 ways: 1. Measuring the level of children’s involvement in the activities 2. Tracking the children’s developmental progress 3. Examining the extent to which the outcomes desired for children with special needs with IEP’s are being addressed/incorporated into the activities in the classroom

Curriculum evaluations-children’s involvement Children’s involvement=the frequency in which children are actively & positively involved with the activities & materials provided. As the # of children involved decreases, the # of upsets and aggressive episodes increases. Children involvement can be measured by how many aggressive episodes you may have within a period of time. Lead teaches should be encourages to conduct regular involvement checks at frequent intervals. High-quality if all children or all but one child are involved in an activity Consider this question: If you have nine toddlers and seven are having behavior issues; what or whom do you think the problem can be…? -could it be the nature of the activity? -the enthusiasm of the teacher? -the lack of planning? -the child-teacher ratio? It is often during transitions to outdoors, late in the afternoon, or when lunch is being prepared that children’s involvement drops & problems arise

Curriculum evaluations-developmental progress A Standard skill checklist can be used as a baseline to tell if a child is developing appropriately. The purpose of these checklists are to make sure the child is developing and moving forward in the six developmental domains These domains include cognitive, gross and fine motor, language: receptive and expressive, social, emotional and self-help or adaptive skills Although all children reach developmental milestones at different ages, all children enrolled in an infant or toddler program should be making some progress in some area and on a regular basis. It may be possible when a child who has special needs may not show rapid progress in one or more developmental domains. In that case, a more specific skill checklist that breaks down the developmental domain in to smaller steps should be used The developmental checklist should be done a few weeks after the child enters the program. Thereafter, Every 6 weeks for infants and Every 3 months for toddlers The information should be shared with the parents/families. This can be accomplished through a written report or scheduled conference * Brochure-Watch Me Grow

Curriculum evaluations-IFSP Outcomes It is important that the outcomes desired by families & other members of the intervention team be addressed as part of the classroom activities on a regular basis. The frequency with which the outcomes are being addressed can be measured. Teachers can help evaluate by completing forms use din daily living activities. Teachers who address specific outcomes can also make a note of their efforts in a child’s logbook or communication book. * Insert-Watch Me Grow (Question-How can these resources support IFSP outcomes)?

External evaluations Every licensed child care program will be visited by DHS on a yearly (or more) basis & will be expected to meet State standards of environmental organization, health & safety, and quality of care. Some programs have earned & achieved the highest standard of accreditation by NAEYC. When children with special needs are enrolled, the state agency responsible for Part H of individuals with disabilities education act (IDEA) may also carry out their own external evaluation.

Scenario: You are assessing a young nine-month child who was born prematurely. The mother’s major concern is the child is not rolling over or sitting up. She also expresses concern about her child’s lack of babbling. Questions: What assessment tools could be used? Which developmental areas would you expect this child to have delays? Why? How can you help the family to assist the child’s progress at home?

Other evaluations Handouts-TPOT & TPITOS reinforces high-quality practices that support children’s social-emotional development and behavior results can be used to: reinforce interactions that promote social-emotional competence in young children implement strategies to prevent and address challenging behavior compare implementation across early childhood classrooms, teachers, and programs guide training and coaching for teachers CSEFEL-Inventory of Practices for Promoting Social Emotional Competence is designed to be used by individuals and/or teams to identify training needs and plan a course of action to address those needs related to 4 general areas: (a) building positive relationships (b) creating supportive environment (c) social emotional teaching strategies (d) individualized intensive interventions The Inventory encourages individual self-reflection, opportunities for teaming between classroom teachers, mentor coaches, supervisors, site directors, and other administrators, and promotes effective practices for direct service staff. * Refer to Handouts: Teaching Pyramid Practices-Relationships, Environments, Social Emotional, Intensive Interventions (Summers, Chapter 6)

Ethical conduct Handout-Reflecting Ethical Conduct (Better Kid Care) Review of NAEYC Code of Ethics (Program Manual pg 223) and CEC Code of Ethics (Program Manual pg 237) The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct offers guidelines for responsible behavior and sets forth a common basis for resolving the principal ethical dilemmas encountered in early childhood care and education. Activity-NAEYC Code of Ethics Scenario