Early childhood special Education

1. Carla spends reading and math time with a special education teacher, but the rest of the day she is with a general education teacher.

2. Lester lives at Woodmoor House, a school for the blind. He goes home on weekends and some holidays.

3. Destiny is in an included classroom where she is getting additional services to assist her in being ready for the transition to kindergarten in a public school. These services include speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

4. Spencer spends all day in a general education classroom. Once a week, his teacher meets with a special education teacher to discuss strategies to help Spencer learn better.

5. Tyler is a two year old who receives services in his home, with his mother, father, or grandmother present and involved. He receives speech services and occupational therapy twice a week. The other days of the week, the family works on these skills at home as directed by the service providers. .

6. Marisol spends all day in a general education classroom. She has an aide who stays with her all day and takes notes for her. Her aide also makes sure she has all her materials and helps her communicate with the teacher and students if she has difficulty.

7. Marcus spends all day in a general education classroom. There are two teachers who teach. Marcus often works one-on-one or in small groups with one of the teachers while the other one teaches a whole group lesson.

8. Richard has a special education teacher for all his major subjects. His class has physical education, art, music, lunch and recess with another 2nd grade classroom of general education students. He and the other students are in a public school.

9. Devonte has been full time in a family child care program since he was 8 weeks old. Specialists come there to work with him on his language, adaptive, and motor skills. A nurse or aide also comes to check on his feeding tube and discuss how he is progressing. Soon the case worker and the rest of the special education team will be meeting with both Devonte’s parents and the family child care provider to discuss transitions, since he will be turning 3 within the next several months.

10. LaToya spends all day in a general education classroom. For reading and language arts she works with a special education teacher who comes into the classroom. Most of the time, the teacher just works with LaToya, but sometimes she has other children join LaToya for a small group lesson.

11. Brittany goes to a special education school. She has a special education teacher for her subjects and other teachers who help with physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech.

12. Sylvia spends all day in a special education classroom within a public school. She and her classmates have little to no contact with the rest of the classrooms in the school.

13. Max is in a center where all classrooms are for children with significant delays. In his classroom, he works on language, motor, adaptive (social), and self-care skills. He receives one-on-one, small group, and large group services in all these areas. The special ed team will be meeting with his family soon to discuss next steps as he moves to kindergarten.

· Developed and written by Teresa L. Bridger, Ph.D.