As an educator and a mom, I believe early
intervention is very important and beneficial to the child as a whole. When speaking early intervention in relation
to younger children; toddler to pre-school aged kids, giving these students the
opportunity to develop socially to me is very important. Children need to learn social skills even at
a young age and children need to be exposed to other children at their age to
learn those social skills. I know many
moms that rather not put their kids into day care or preschool but I have first-hand
seen a different within my own personal experience as well with my students I
teach. When my twins were 18 months old
they were diagnosed with being language delayed and had a full ‘Help Me Grow’
evaluations. Although they did not
qualify for services I was provided with things to do to help them and one was
putting them into more social interactions with children their own age. With them already going to day care one day a
week I increased the time and worked as a team with their day care teachers on
the strategies to encourage them to communicate with their words and not just
sign language (that they learned in music class). After just three weeks of an increased amount of
time socializing with their peers I saw a huge difference in not only their speech
and communication but as a ‘whole child’.
Having past experience with children in kindergarten, and based on
observation the first weeks of school it was very noticeable which students
attended pre-school. Not only did some
have a lack of academics but mainly struggled socially. They struggled with following structure,
directions and had a hard time playing with other children in the room.
As
far as children in elementary and middle school teachers need to approach every
student with the belief they can learn and will achieve within their
classroom. Children need to be treated
equal and that is what IDEA 2004 enforced to get all students on the same
playing level and fare chance. When RTI
was developed, the hope was to decrease the identifications by implementing
this three tiered research-based intervention plan in the regular education
classroom. As Dr. Dove stated in power point,
“Unlike the discrepancy model, RTI allows for early and intensive interventions
in the regular education setting based on a student's learning characteristics
before any referral to special education.”
In
high school early intervention for post graduate to me would be a beneficial
intervention. I remember from my own
personal experience, that I had the opportunity to take classes to prepare me
for life after graduation. The course
that were offered in my high school finance (balancing check book), cooking,
parenting, and applying for jobs.
Looking back on taking these courses, prepared me in many areas of life
after graduation. Students with or
without intellectual disabilities need to learn these life skills and responsibilities,
and taking high school courses is a great early intervention for learning such
skills.
As a new mom I too was introduced to the Help Me Grow program and had never heard of it prior to being introduced to it in the hospital after having my first child. They supplied me with tips for new parents and even made a home visit. I thought it was great but was saddened that I had never know about the program prior when I had young students who were having children. I felt like I could have helped them more if I had know about the services they provided. I think knowing what is out there and can help is a key issue.
ReplyDeleteAs a veteran mom (and a new mom again) I stumbled upon the WIC program when I got pregnant with #3. It is a wonderful program that helped to provide some of the necessary staple items for the kitchen. After I had my son it saved us several hundreds of dollars on formula and food. It was a blessing to our growing family. However, once I returned to work full time I made about $800 too much per year to continue to be eligible. Sometimes I feel like the system does a disservice to working families that try their best and still come up short. I often feel that low income families actually have access to more free or low cost opportunities than middle class working families do. Some take advantage of the free art, piano & music lessons, while others get to attend Camp Fitch for free. My children never had these opportunities because according to the government we make too much money. I only wish that I could afford summer camp or musical lessons for my kids, it was just never feasible without causing a hardship.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christina. I have actually told my wife that if we both quit our jobs we also could take advantage of the government but since we both work yet still struggle, may as well let the free loaders get the money. we cant get WIC because of our financial status, yet makes me sick to see that I work to support people that go through the check out at walmart with two or three buggies full and a five or seven hundred dollar bill. a quick swipe of a card and they get it all paid for. Help me Grow was introduced to us at the hospital when our son was born. we didn't look into it though because my wife wasn't sure what it was. I didn't want someone at our house judging how I take care of my son.
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