DemographicsI work as a special education preschool teacher in a suburban school district. There are 382 students enrolled in my building. There are currently three inclusive preschool classrooms in my building. The preschool is designed to provide support and instruction to students with and without disabilities in an inclusive environment. In those three classrooms there are 75 students, 42 of which are on Individualized Education Plans. This means the students receive individualized, direct instruction in one or more areas of development: cognitive, social skills, and communication. I serve 14 of the 42 students on an Individualized Education Plan. These 14 students need the most support in the classroom and are often also served by a speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, and a physical therapist. 3 of the students that I serve have an educational verification of Autism Spectrum Disorder, 2 students have an educational verification of Orthopedic Impairment, and 9 students have an educational verification of Developmental Delay. In my study out of the four students that participated 2 had an educational verification of Autism Spectrum Disorder and 2 have an educational verification of Developmental Delay.
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Need
For my capstone project I focused on increasing four students' independence in the classroom by using visuals to enhance their understanding and ability to follow classroom expectations and routines. Both qualitative and quantitative data shows need in this area. Based on anecdotal evidence, I noticed the four students that participated in my study struggled to follow the classroom routine and procedures independently. One of my students displayed aggressive behaviors during transitions such as hitting and biting. Another student wandered around the room until an adult held her hand to guide her to the next activity. Based on conversations with members of my students team including speech language pathologists, classroom teachers, and paraprofessionals it was evident that these four students struggled with independence in the classroom. It was reported that classroom teachers and paraprofessionals were stressed because of the amount of one on one time these students needed throughout the day. One paraprofessional indicated that she was feeling burnt out and overwhelmed due to the amount of constant support these students needed.
On the first teaching strategies GOLD assessment, all four students scored below average in the categories of regulating emotions, participating in groups, and following directions. On the first quarter report cards, two students scored in the "not yet" category for all areas of social-emotional development. These areas included works well independently, manages emotions, follows directions, and sustains attention. The other two students scored in the category of "not yet" in the areas of working independently and managing emotions. All four of these students have Individualized Education Plan goals that relate directly to independence. That includes following directions, participating in whole and small group, transitioning between activities, and managing emotions. The first quarter progress report showed me that all four of my students had made progress but goals that included independence skills showed little to no growth. These students either received a 1 out of 4 or a 2 out of 4 on their Individualized Education Plan goals related to independence on their quarter 2 progress reports. This means they either needed heavy adult support and did not met their goal or they met their goal but with heavy adult support.
On the first teaching strategies GOLD assessment, all four students scored below average in the categories of regulating emotions, participating in groups, and following directions. On the first quarter report cards, two students scored in the "not yet" category for all areas of social-emotional development. These areas included works well independently, manages emotions, follows directions, and sustains attention. The other two students scored in the category of "not yet" in the areas of working independently and managing emotions. All four of these students have Individualized Education Plan goals that relate directly to independence. That includes following directions, participating in whole and small group, transitioning between activities, and managing emotions. The first quarter progress report showed me that all four of my students had made progress but goals that included independence skills showed little to no growth. These students either received a 1 out of 4 or a 2 out of 4 on their Individualized Education Plan goals related to independence on their quarter 2 progress reports. This means they either needed heavy adult support and did not met their goal or they met their goal but with heavy adult support.
Importance
The importance of this study is to help increase independence in preschool students on an Individualized Education Plan so that they are able to fully participate in preschool activities throughout the day. The information I learned will inform my instruction on how to best use visuals to increase independence. This study helped me meet the varying needs of my students, while providing them with multiple opportunities to practice being independent. This will later impact them in Kindergarten and up by providing them strategies to help make them successful. Independence is also an important life skill that will impact them for the rest of their life. It is important to give my students a solid foundation of skills so they don’t fall behind their peers in Kindergarten.
Literature Review
Millions of children are currently exhibiting challenging behaviors that will impact their ability to access the general education curriculum and develop strong relationships with peers. It is critical that preschool teachers discover research-based interventions to address these challenging behaviors before students transition into kindergarten. Students who do not receive interventions for these challenging behaviors in preschool are at risk for continuing these behaviors throughout their school aged years which will greatly impact their ability to access the curriculum (Zimmerman et al., 2017). Students with developmental delay (DD) and Autism (ASD) require higher levels of support in the classroom to generalize new skills and complete tasks independently (Goldman et al., 2017). These students struggle when transitioning to the kindergarten classroom because there are not enough teachers or support staff to provide one on one support throughout the day (Goldman et al., 2017). This is why it is extremely important for preschool teachers to discover interventions that increase students’ independence so that less adult support is needed to access the curriculum (Macdonald et al., 2018).
A visual schedule is an intervention that is used to increase students' independence in the classroom by providing a visual cue to signal when an activity starts and ends as well as when another activity begins (Cohen & Demchak, 2018). The purpose of this study is to determine if the use of visual activity schedules will improve students' independence in the general education classroom throughout the school day . This literature review will discuss what independence in the classroom looks like and why it is important, what visual schedules are, benefits of a visual schedule, limitations, and how to implement visual schedules in the preschool classroom.
A visual schedule is an intervention that is used to increase students' independence in the classroom by providing a visual cue to signal when an activity starts and ends as well as when another activity begins (Cohen & Demchak, 2018). The purpose of this study is to determine if the use of visual activity schedules will improve students' independence in the general education classroom throughout the school day . This literature review will discuss what independence in the classroom looks like and why it is important, what visual schedules are, benefits of a visual schedule, limitations, and how to implement visual schedules in the preschool classroom.
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