HSPMC: Training Guide-Individualizing: A Plan for Success (Module 3)

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community:
Individualizing: A Plan for Success
Module 3

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Individualizing Every Day--An Ongoing Dynamic Process

In this module, participants learn how to individualize all elements of their program's curriculum in response to children's individual characteristics.
Outcomes
As a result of completing this module, staff will be able to:

Create indoor and outdoor environments that encourage the growth and development of all children, including children with disabilities

Offer materials and equipment that reflect children's cultures, home languages, skills, needs, interests, and abilities; can be used in many different ways; and encourage growth and development through exploration, decision making, and self-expression

Plan and carry out activities that support the development of children at different skill levels and encourage children to make choices and participate in their own unique ways

Use an approach for carrying out routines that responds to the skills and needs of individual children

Tailor interactions to match each child's needs for guidance, support, and encouragement
Key Concepts

It is not necessary to provide a separate set of materials or plan one-on-one activities for each child to provide an individualized program.

Strategies for supporting each child's development can be developed during the daily and weekly planning process and arise in response to teachable moments.

To respond to each child's unique characteristics, Head Start staff and families can individualize the following elements of the curriculum:

Indoor and outdoor environments
Materials and equipment
Routines and transitions
Schedule
Activities
Interactions

Background Information
Individualizing is an integral part of implementing a developmentally appropriate curriculum. It is an approach that Head Start staff and families can use throughout the early childhood years at home, at the center, at an FCC home, and/or during group socialization sessions. All elements of the program's curriculum can be individualized. Some examples follow.
Individualized Elements of a Child Development Program
An individualized environment allows all children, including those with disabilities, to:

Move freely without bumping into objects or other people
Choose and replace materials on their own
Take part in activities that support development in all domains
Materials and equipment that support individualizing:

Respond to a range of skills and interests
Reflect and support children's cultures and home languages
Offer challenges that are not too difficult or frustrating
Encourage exploration and self-expression
Can be used in different ways by various children
Can be adapted for children with disabilities
Planned activities can support individualizing by allowing children to:

Choose which materials to use
Decide how they want to use the materials
Take part at their own skill and ability levels
Choose to participate or not to participate
Express their own ideas and feelings
A schedule can support individualizing when it:

Is flexible
Responds to teachable moments
Reflects children's needs and developmental stages
Routines and transitions can be individualized to:

Encourage all children to participate at individual levels
Support children who find routines and transitions stressful
Adult interactions with children should match each child's need for guidance, adaptations, support, and encouragement. It is important to observe children to learn when and how to interact with them in ways that foster growth and development.
Developmentally Appropriate Practices Support Individualizing
In most instances, individualizing takes place when staff and families use developmentally appropriate practices. For example, if a child seems ready to learn to ride a tricycle, staff and the family can work together to provide the tricycle and a place to ride it, offer encouragement, and build on the child's interests.
Many practices typically used by staff and families reflect an individualized approach. For example staff and families can:

Provide materials such as blocks, pots and pans, and dress-up clothes that children can use in different ways and according to their abilities, interests, and skills

Introduce new materials and activities in response to children's changing needs, interests, and skill levels

Offer outdoor play opportunities in an environment that includes a variety of equipment and activity choices

Plan small group activities that include built-in opportunities for children to decide how they want to participate

Reflect the children's cultures and home languages in play materials, songs and stories, books and tapes, activities, labels, and signs

Use a flexible approach to routines and transitions so that a child can eat when hungry or finish a painting before getting ready for the next activity

Include large blocks of time in the daily schedule when children can decide what to do, what materials and equipment to use, and with whom to play

Use positive guidance techniques that match a child's temperament and ability to use self-control

Tailor the level of encouragement and support in response to each child's ability to handle frustration and challenges
Head Start staff and families probably use many of these practices and others that respond to each child as an individual. It is important to adapt the curriculum to fit the needs of each child, rather than expect young children to change so that they will fit the curriculum.
Including Children with Disabilities
Head Start is committed to including children with disabilities in all aspects of the program. Staff work with families, the education coordinator, the disabilities services coordinator, the Local Education Agency (LEA) or early intervention program representative, specialists, and other consultants to make adjustments that allow children to learn in the least restrictive environment and to provide materials that encourage the child's development. Here are examples of accommodations to the environment, materials, and equipment that specialists such as occupational or physical therapists might recommend:

Adjust tables so that wheelchair arms fit underneath. If tables are not adjustable, raise legs by placing blocks under them, shorten legs by sawing off pieces, or exchange tables with another group. If tables are raised, provide tall stools so that other children can also sit comfortably.

Use bolsters, wedges, or platforms, indoors and outdoors, to increase the comfort of children with mobility impairments.

Use puzzles with knobs for children with fine motor impairments.

Use large-sized books and magnifying glasses for children with visual impairments.

Place items on the floor or ground for children who are most comfortable at this level.

Arrange the furniture and equipment so that there is sufficient space for a child to turn and maneuver a wheelchair or walk with crutches.

Provide eating utensils with special grips and edges. Offer alter-natives to water fountains (such as drinking water dispensers).

Apply masking tape to brush handles and crayons or insert handles through a slit in a small rubber ball so that children can get a firm grip.

Make a book of textured fabrics to provide tactile experiences.

Adjust easel heights to accommodate all children.

Provide a ramp leading from indoor to outdoor areas for children who use wheelchairs or who cannot easily use stairs.

Provide computer adaptations such as voice-activated programs for children who have problems with manual dexterity.

Install a visual system, such as flashing lights, that can be used to get the attention of a child who has a hearing impairment.

Use containers mounted on legs and hand-held tools for gardening so that children with mobility impairments can plant, weed, and pick crops.
Specialists might also recommend specific accommodations related to the schedule, routines and transitions, and interactions with children. Such accommodations should be tailored to address the goals in a child's Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) or Individualized Education Program (IEP).

Activity 3-1:
Individualizing Every Day, in Every Way Purpose: In this activity, participants plan strategies for individualizing all elements of a child development program.

Outcomes:
Participants create indoor and outdoor environments that encourage the growth and development of all children, including children with disabilities.
Participants offer materials and equipment that reflect children's cultures, home languages, skills, needs, interests, and abilities; can be used in many different ways; and encourage growth and development through exploration, decision making, and self-expression.
Participants plan and carry out activities that support the development of children at different skill levels and encourage them to make choices and participate in their own unique ways.
Participants use an approach to carrying out routines that responds to the skills and needs of individual children.
Participants tailor their interactions to match each child's need for guidance, support, and encouragement.
Materials:
Chart paper, markers, tape
Option A:
VCR, monitor, and videotape Individualizing in Head Start
Option B:
Handout 16: Individualizing Every Day
Option A and Option B:

Explain to participants that this activity will focus on the many ways they can individualize the program in response to children's unique characteristics.

Review the definition of individualizing presented in Module 1:
Individualizing is the ongoing process of recognizing the unique characteristics of each child and planning a curriculum that responds to these differences.
Note: The first part of this definition takes place during screening, evaluation, and ongoing assessment (Steps 1, 2, and 5 of The Individualizing Cycle). This activity focuses on the second part of the definition (Step 3 & 4), which involves using information about each child's unique characteristics to individualize all elements of the curriculum: environment, materials and equipment, routines and transitions, schedule, activities, and interactions.

Trainer Preparation Notes: There are two options for completing Step 3 & 4. For Option A, use the 15-minute videotape Individualizing in Head Start. (See the Resources section of this guide for information on ordering a free copy of this videotape.) Note: The videotape for Option A also includes Curriculum in Head Start and has an accompanying User's Guide. Option B covers the same topics and skills without using the videotape.

Option A:
Introduce the videotape Individualizing in Head Start, which was produced for Head Start. It presents the planned and spontaneous strategies that staff and families use to individualize the program for three children: five-year-old Geraldine, four-year-old Billy, and four-year-old Sabrina. Divide the participants into three groups and ask each group to focus attention on one of the children. While watching the videotape, participants can take notes about how to focus on a child's unique characteristics and how the staff and families use this information to individualize the curriculum.
Have participants form small groups with others who focused on the same child. Ask the groups to discuss their notes, then list strategies they could use to individualize their program's curriculum. Allow the group 20 minutes to complete this task. (Go to Step 5 to continue the activity.)
Option B:
Ask participants for examples of tasks related to children and families that they performed in their program during the past week. Record their responses on chart paper. The list of tasks might include:

Followed up on a home visit
Greeted children and families
Mixed paint and set up easels
Read a story to a toddler
Taught children how to do a fingerplay during group time
Comforted a crying baby
Helped toddlers put on their coats
Set up for a cooking activity
Listened while a child described her feelings
Talked to a parent about nutrition during a home visit
Have participants form small groups. Distribute Handout 16: Individualizing Every Day and review the instructions and examples. Allow the groups 20 minutes to complete this task.
Options A and B:
Write each of the following six elements of the curriculum at the top of a piece of chart paper:

Indoor and outdoor environments
Materials and equipment
Routines and transitions
Schedule
Activities
Interactions
Post the six pieces of chart paper around the room. Provide markers next to each piece of paper. Ask the groups to record their individualizing strategies under the appropriate headings.

Trainer Preparation Notes: The participants' individualizing strategies will vary according to the ages of the children with whom they work and the program option(s) implemented by their Head Start agency. Nevertheless, the key points in Step 6 apply to The Individualizing Cycle regardless of a child's age or the Head Start setting (home, center, FCC home, and/or group socialization session).

Review and discuss the individualizing strategies that participants recorded. Use the Background Information in this module to summarize. Also, cover the following key points:

You do not have to provide a separate set of materials or plan one-on-one activities for each child, including children with disabilities, to individualize the curriculum.

Staff and families can discuss strategies for individualizing during the regular daily, weekly, and monthly planning process.

Some strategies for individualizing, such as responding to a teachable moment, are spontaneous, rather than planned.

An individualized approach is appropriate throughout the early childhood years for infants, mobile infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, and especially for children with disabilities.

Ask participants to: (1) select an element of a child development program that they find difficult to individualize, and (2) choose a strategy that they think will help them improve their approach to individualizing. (They can choose one of the strategies listed on the chart for this program element.) Encourage participants to work with their colleagues to implement this strategy and assess its effectiveness.

Activity 3-2:
Daily Approaches to Individualizing Purpose: In this activity, participants use strategies for individualizing in response to children's unique characteristics.

Outcomes:
Participants create an indoor and outdoor environment that encourages the growth and development of all children, including children with disabilities.
Participants offer materials and equipment that reflect children's cultures, home languages, skills, needs, interests, and abilities; can be used in many different ways; and encourage growth and development through exploration, decision making, and self-expression.
Participants plan and carry out activities that support the development of children at different skill levels and encourage children to make choices and participate in their own unique ways.
Participants use an approach to carrying out routines that responds to the skills and needs of individual children.
Participants tailor their interactions to match each child's need for guidance, support, and encouragement.
Materials:
Chart paper, markers, tape
Option A:
VCR, monitor, and videotape Individualizing in Head Start
Handout 17: Strategies for Individualizing
Options A and B:
Handout 18: Individualizing Journal
Options A and B:

Explain to participants that this activity will focus on individualizing the curriculum in response to children's unique characteristics and on reviewing the effectiveness of individualizing strategies for a specific child.

Review the definition of individualizing discussed in Module 1:
Individualizing is the ongoing process of recognizing each child's unique characteristics and planning a curriculum that responds to these differences.
Note: The first part of this definition takes place during screening, evaluation, and ongoing assessment (Steps 1, 2, and 5 of The Individualizing Cycle). This activity focuses on the second part of the definition (Step 3 & 4), which involves using information about each child's unique characteristics to individualize all elements of the curriculum: environment, materials and equipment, routines and transitions, schedule, activities, and interactions.

Coach Preparation Notes: There are two options for completing Step 3 & 4. For Option A, use the 15-minute videotape Individualizing in Head Start. (See the Resources section of this guide for information on ordering a free copy of this videotape.) Note: The videotape for Option A also includes Curriculum in Head Start and has an accompanying User's Guide.
Option B covers the same topics and skills without using the videotape.

Option A:
Introduce the videotape Individualizing in Head Start, which was produced for Head Start. It presents the planned and spontaneous strategies that staff and families use to individualize a program for three children: five-year-old Geraldine, four-year-old Billy, and four-year-old Sabrina. Participants can view the videotape individually or together.
Distribute Handout 17: Strategies for Individualizing and review the instructions and examples. Give participants 30 minutes to complete this task. Discuss the participants' completed handouts. (Go to Step 5 to continue the activity.)
Option B:
Ask participants to think about a typical day as you discuss the following questions. Sample responses appear under each one.

How did you adapt or rearrange the indoor or outdoor environment to respond to an individual child?
We made a crawling area out of pillows and blankets so Shantih would have a safe place to crawl.

How did you address a child's unique characteristics through materials or equipment?
I showed Bernadine's mother how to make blocks out of paper bags stuffed with newspapers.

What did you do to support a child's growth and development during a routine or transition?
I used the swaddling technique suggested by Roger's grandmother to comfort him and help him fall asleep.

How did you adjust the schedule to respond to a child?
Erin was watching a lizard outside on the playground. We extended outdoor play time so she could continue her investigation.

How did you plan and implement an activity designed to include one or more specific children?
I set up the woodworking area for the group socialization session because Antoinette and Preston have the small motor skills needed to use the tools.

How did you interact with a child to match his or her need for guidance or support?
We have observed that Carl sometimes gets frightened when he climbs too high and asks for help getting down. I stood near Carl while he climbed so I would be nearby if he needed help.

Coach Preparation Notes: Participants' responses for Step 3 & 4 (Option A or B) will vary according to the ages of the children with whom they work and the program option(s) implemented by their Head Start agency. Nevertheless, the key points discussed in Step 5 apply to The Individualizing Cycle regardless of a child's age or the Head Start setting (home, center, FCC home, and/or group socialization session).

Options A and B:
Use the Background Information in this module to discuss and summarize the many ways staff and families can individualize the curriculum. Cover the following additional key points:

You do not have to provide a separate set of materials or plan one-on-one activities for each child, including children with disabilities, to individualize the program.

Staff and families can plan strategies for individualizing during the regular daily, weekly, and monthly planning process.

Some strategies for individualizing, such as responding to a teachable moment, are spontaneous, rather than planned.

An individualized approach is appropriate throughout the early childhood years for infants, mobile infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, especially for children with disabilities.

Distribute Handout 18: Individualizing Journal and review the instructions and examples. Ask participants to complete their journals before the next coaching session.

Meet with participants to discuss the strategies they used to individualize the curriculum during the past week. Encourage them to discuss these and other individualizing strategies with children's families.

Activity 3-3:
Something for Everyone Purpose: In this activity, participants will learn how to use what they know about a child to individualize activities, indoor and outdoor environments, materials and equipment, routines and transitions, the schedule, and interactions.

Outcomes:
Participants create indoor and outdoor environments that encourage the growth and development of all children, including children with disabilities.
Participants offer materials and equipment that reflect children's cultures, home languages, skills, needs, interests, and abilities; can be used in many different ways; and encourage growth and development through exploration, decision making, and self-expression.
Participants plan and carry out activities that support the development of children at different skill levels and encourage children to make choices and participate in their own unique ways.
Participants use an approach to carrying out routines that responds to the skills and needs of individual children.
Participants tailor interactions to match each child's need for guidance, support, and encouragement.
Materials:

Chart paper, markers, tape
Assortment of art materials
Handout 19: Individualizing for Bernard

Trainer Preparation Notes: You may want to invite staff and families to this workshop so that both groups can learn about and support individualizing.

Explain to participants that this activity will focus on how to individualize activities and other elements of the curriculum.

Ask participants to form small groups. Give each group an assortment of art materials (paper in different colors and textures, scissors, crayons, markers, colored pencils, glue sticks, tape, recycled junk). Have participants share the materials while working on individual or group projects. Explain that this is an adult-choice activity (similar to child-choice). Allow participants 30 minutes to complete their projects.

Discuss how the different creations represent each person's unique characteristics. For example, one person might use two contrasting colors in a drawing, and another person might use every color. Ask the following questions to point out the similarities between the participants' experiences exploring and using materials and children's experiences:

How did you decide what materials you wanted to use?

How did you decide whether to work alone or with others?

How did you choose the person(s) with whom you worked? Did someone choose you?

How did the materials reflect and support your skills and interests? What materials would you have liked to have that were not available?

Did anyone choose not to participate? Why did you make this choice?

What practices were modeled in this activity that could be used to individualize for children? For example:

We could choose the materials we wanted to use.
We could choose not to participate.
There was a wide variety of materials.
We could choose who we wanted to work with.
We could decide how we wanted to use the materials.
We could apply our skills in different ways.

Briefly review the following curriculum elements as discussed in Activity 3-1:

Indoor and outdoor environments
Materials and equipment
Routines and transitions
Schedule
Interactions
Activities (discussed in Step 3)
Ask participants to form six small groups based on their interest in one of the curriculum elements. Distribute Handout 19: Individualizing for Bernard and review the instructions and examples. Give participants 30 minutes to complete this assignment.

Ask each small group to present its plans for Bernard. Discuss the characteristics each group addressed and how the planned strategies can encourage Bernard's growth and development.
Arrange to copy the plans so that each participant has a complete set of the individualizing plans for Bernard.

Ask participants to share one thing they learned in the workshop that they can use immediately to improve their approach to individualizing.

Activity 3-4:
Can You Make It Fit? Purpose: In this activity, participants learn how to adapt an area of the environment in response to children's unique characteristics.

Outcomes:
Participants create indoor and outdoor environments that encourage the growth and development of all children, including children with disabilities.
Participants offer materials and equipment that reflect children's cultures, home languages, skills, needs, interests, and abilities; can be used in many different ways; and encourage growth and development through exploration, decision making, and self-expression.
Participants plan and carry out activities that support the development of children at different skill levels and encourage children to make choices and participate in their own unique ways.
Participants use an approach to carrying out routines that responds to the skills and needs of individual children.
Materials:

Handout 20: Is This Individualizing?
Handout 21: Is This Individualizing?--Possible Responses
Handout 22: Two Unique Individuals
Handout 23: Making the Environment Fit

Explain to participants that this activity will focus on what staff can do to individualize the environment in response to the unique characteristics of two children.

Ask participants to read the vignette on Handout 20: Is This Individualizing? Work with them to list the many reasons why the staff in this infant room are not offering an individualized program.
You can distribute and discuss Handout 21: Is This Individualizing?--Possible Responses if participants have difficulty responding to the story.

Distribute Handout 22: Two Unique Individuals and review the instructions. Have participants complete this assignment before the next coaching session.

Discuss participants' descriptions of two unique individuals. Distribute Handout 23: Making the Environment Fit and review the instructions and examples in Part I. Give participants 30 minutes to complete Part I.

Review the instructions for Part II of Handout 23: Making the Environment Fit. Explain to participants that they will use their summaries of the two children on Handout 22: Two Unique Individuals as they assess how well the area responds to each child's unique characteristics. Have participants complete this assignment before the next coaching session.

Meet with participants to compare and contrast how the selected area of the environment responds to the two children's unique characteristics and supports their development. Review participants' strategies for improving the area. Ask them to select several strategies to implement with the help of other Head Start staff and families.

Next Steps:
Ideas to Extend Practice Participants can build on the skills developed through this guide by completing the following activities, independently or with other staff. Some of these activities can contribute to the participants' professional portfolios.

Plan for Routines and Transitions
Review the approach currently used for a routine or transition. For example, you might focus on what happens at naptime or departure. If this approach is not already a part of your written plan, include it in writing. Next, review the approach to see if and how it can be adapted to support individual children. For example, at naptime each child's cot could be set up in the same spot every day so that children gain a sense of security.
Possible Portfolio Entry: Plan for a routine or transition, showing how it supports individual children

Present Workshop on Understanding Temperament Offer a workshop for staff and families on understanding children's temperament-the inborn characteristics that influence how they respond to the world. You can use Module 2 in the Head Start training guide Promoting Mental Health.
Possible Portfolio Entry: Ongoing observation recordings of children that focus on characteristics related to temperament
Handouts

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