Disabled Children: Intervention and Skills Teaching

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Motor delays are experienced when children fail to attain a certain stage of development within a given time. Causes of motor delays can either be genetic or environmental. There are many signs which indicate that a child is experiencing motor delays. These signs are behavioral, vision, gross motor, and hearing. Behavioral signs that may signal motor delay among children include lack of attention or focus on activity for a long time when compared to children of the same age (New & Cochran, 2006).

Violent behavior on a daily basis as well as child avoiding or rarely making eye contact with others are also behavioral signs for development delays among children. Additionally, when a child focuses on the unusual objects for a long time and seem to enjoy it more than interacting with others, this is a sign of motor delay. If the child does not seek approval or love from the parent or caregiver and gets unusually frustrated when doing a simple task, that children of the same age can do, then the child may be suffering motor delays., Furthermore, when a child shows aggressive behavior and at the same time appear to be stubborn as compared to children of the same age, this can help reveal motor delay. Finally, when a child talks to self more than to other children, this can be a sign of development delay. Information collected by occupational therapist and physical therapist during screening include neurophysiological, musculoskeletal, sensorimotor, and daily living skills of the children.

Early years of child development are a time of great growth. At the same time, negative experiences during this may make the child vulnerable to growth disorders. When children have negative experiences, their mental health is affected. This may also affect the cognition, behavior and social-emotional growth. Common factors that may affect social-emotional disabilities in young children include family income, neighborhood characteristics and mental health problem relative and non-relative caregiver (Whitted, 2011; Cooper, Masi & Vick, 2009). Furthermore, poor maternal attachment during the early years is a child development risk factor that can negatively affect children social-emotional development. Finally, substandard childcare and educational opportunities may also negatively impact on young children socially-emotional disabilities. Poor quality day care in a poor neighborhood in the context may contribute to children delayed learning about the necessary skills at the appropriate time. This can contribute to social-emotional disabilities in young children (Whitted, 2011).

Young children are screened so as to reduce the chances of childs disability. The rationale for screening is to enable early identification of childhood development disorders so as to reduce disability among young children. In children, problems related to hearing, vision and language are identified. There are several hearing and vision screening test that are done to identify childrens disorders. The key hearing tests in screening include Infant distraction test (IDT), Traditional Health Visitors distribution test (HVDT), Targeted IDT, BeST test, Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emission (TEOAE), MLS TEOAE, Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), and Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE). Key vision screening test includes checking of the appearance of the eyes, cover/uncover test for squint, single optotype or linear visual acuity test, for example, Sheridan Gardiner or Snellen. Other vision screening tests that are performed on Orthoptic screen are ocular movement, a convergence, prism test, and test of stereoacuity such as frisbee and stereotest (Salvia, Ysseldyke & Bolt, 2010).

Early intervention services are important for children with AIDS, FAS, and prenatal exposure to cocaine. The intervention services are important in reducing the exposure of children to multiple negative effects of Aids, alcohol, or cocaine on their development. Additionally, these intervention services are important to reduce the environmental risk factors that may place children at risk of developmental delays. These intervention services or rather, programs are important in improving the well-being of children together with their parents that are drug dependent or HIV positive. Early interventions are also critical in minimizing the acute, as well as long term effects of prenatal substance exposure. This is important because it ensures that children get the treatment and services early enough before the effects goes out of hand (CASA, n.d.).

Child self-help skills are important because they help the child to become independent and have a better experience with peers at home and in class. Additionally, self-help skills help a child to integrate with peers. The preschool special education teacher can play a major role in helping children with special needs to develop their self-help skills. The preschool special education teacher can do this through motivating the young children towards achieving this. The teacher can motivate the children by working and demonstrating the skills to be taught to the children. The teacher ought to make the children observe the demonstration of skill for a reasonable number of days before allowing them to practice. The teacher should choose to break down the skills into simple tasks so as to give the children a sense of accomplishment that eventually motivates them. This also involves working backward for the children to have a sense of the activity that enables them take more responsibility. The teacher should make them feel and see the tasks of the skills they learn. Then the preschool special education teacher should use every available opportunity to let the children practice the new skill over and over again and to ensure that the children use the skills. Finally, the teacher can allow the children to learn more and practice the new skills through play.

There are five major classroom areas. Each area holds its own importance. The meeting area is a very important area in the classroom. It is the point where children meet every morning for routine activities such as attendance, calendar, reading the alphabet, group instructions, weather, and sharing after independent activities. Library or language area is important for learning and development of reading culture for children. Sensory area is important for the children because it exposes children to the use of their senses. Mathematics area introduces students to mathematics materials such as counters, cubes, rulers, numbers, balances, and figures. The social studies area introduces children to maps, books, flags, display books, and well as other children work. The science is important in arousing curiosity among children to learn about soils, seeds, thermometers, plants, magnets, and others. Finally, dramatic play area offers an excellent opportunity for children to develop language and social skills. It also enables children incorporate the class teachings to the real life.

Classroom behavior management is critical in achieving positive educational results. Effective behavior management is important in the realization of such goals. Effective classroom behavior management requires structuring of the classroom, active supervision of childrens engagement, implementation of classroom rules and routines, and proper procedures to encourage appropriate behavior. Other important components of effective behavior management include behavior reduction strategies and collection of data to be used to monitor children or pupil behavior and modification classroom procedures (Oliver & Reschly, 2007).

There are various key skills that are important for a childs success in kindergarten. First, the child ought to be enthusiastic towards learning for success in the kindergarten. At the same time, the child should have solid oral-language skills, as well as having the desire to be independent. Moreover, the child should possess the ability to play well with others and have strong motor skills. On top of these, the child should have the ability to listen and have strong letter and number recognition skills (Parlapiano, n.d.). Teachers and parents can play a fundamental role in developing these kindergarten readiness skills. Parents can do this by buying reading books with children, encouraging the children to construct sentences. This can also be achieved by allowing children to do and try new things, and giving the child opportunity to have hands-on experience in doing things. Additionally, the parent can help the children to sing alphabet songs, reading nursery rhymes, clapping rhythmically, and singing songs to the children. Playing games with children and allowing them to interact with other children in the neighborhood. Parents can build comprehension skills reading stories to the children and also allowing them to retell stories as they also communicate their feelings. At the same time, parents and teacher can help children learn print awareness through recognizing environmental print, knowing the differences between letters and words, and to recognize prints occurring on different surfaces (James, 2006).

References

CASA. (N.d.). Neonatal & Newborn Substance Exposure.

Cooper, L. J., Masi, R. & Vick, J. (2009). Social-emotional Development in Early Childhood: What Every Policymaker Should Know. National Center for Children in Poverty. Web.

James, A. (2006). Kindergarten success: Everything you need to know to help your child learn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

New, R. S., & Cochran, M. (2006). Early childhood education [four volumes]: An international encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Praeger Publishers.

Oliver, M. R. & Reschly, D. J. (2007). Effective classroom management: Teacher preparation and development. National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Web.

Parlapiano, H. E. (N.d.). Ready for Kindergarten? Five teachers tell you what preschoolers really need for next year. Web.

Salvia, J., Ysseldyke, J. E., & Bolt, S. (2010). Assessment in special and inclusive education. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Whitted, S. K. (2011). Understanding How Social and Emotional Skill Deficits Contribute to School Failure. Preventing School Failure, 55 (1), 1016.

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