DOCUMENT RESUME ED 068 185 PS 005 949 AUTHOR Granato, Sam; Krone, Elizabeth TITLE Child Development: Day Care. 8. Serving Children with Special Needs. INSTITUTION Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (DHEW/OE), Washington, D.C.; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D.C. Secretary's Committee on Mental Retardation.; Office of Child Development (DHEW), Washington, D.C.; President's Committee on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C. REPORT NO DHEW-OCD-72-42 PUB DATE 72 NOTE 74p. AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Stock Number 1791-0176, $0.75) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS Behavioral Objectives; *Child Care Workers; *Child Development; Community Resources; *Day Care Programs; Deaf Children; Emotionally Disturbed; Financial Support; Guides; *Handicapped Children; Mentally Handicapped; Parent Participation; Physically Handicapped; Program Planning; *Special Services; Visually Handicapped ABSTRACT This handbook defines children with special needs and develops guidelines for providing services to them. It answers questions commonly raised by staff and describes staff needs, training, and resources. It discusses problems related to communicating with parents, questions parents ask, parents of special children, and communication between parents. It provides guidelines for program development including basic needs for all children, orientation activities, promoting good feelings among children, designing behavior, daily activities, dealing with difficult times in the day care day, evaluation, and follow-through. It gives techniques for dealing with special needs for visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, other physically disabled, and mentally retarded children as well as children with learning disabilities and other emotional problems. Appendices list community resources available to help provide services for children with special needs and a description of what services each gives; a description of local, state and federal funding resources, and a bibliography sectioned according to special problems dealt with in the handbook. (DG) t . -.. ILDDEI/ELOPMENT ...j. S. DEPARTMENT ..,".'150.drHEALTH. EMU( ,,:'-:;',:-:,;.., , a gm OFFICE OF EDUCATION t>.. i'!..:*;.:':::-Ih41C-'11;,:;.i:' i tr,1 HIS POPiLmENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FR 111 .ERSPX P.'12!117:71010. 0 "'"'N^T.ING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS TATE9 P ", NErESVRIIY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION .,..10SITION OR POLICY. serving children with special needs etr' ';' - serving men with speclai NMS Sam Granato Project Manager Mrs. Elizabeth Krone Assistant Project Manager 11:1 DHEW Publication No.(OCD)172-412 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 75 cents Stock Number 1791-0176 2 FOREWORD The Office of Child Development is preparing and publishing a series of handbooks on day care practices appropriate for infants, preschool and school age children. Such a series would not be com- plete without guides for serving children with special needs in a community day care center or family day care home. Special children have special needs. Caregivers need partic- ular skills and understanding. But we believe that many children will benefit from being in a program which does not isolate them in their "special-ness." An integrated day care program offers the special child an opportunity to gain confidence in his abilities and strengths, and to be accepted by other children and adults. At the same time, the other children and their families have an opportunity to understand and accept differences between children and help with the problems of children with special needs. The development of this handbook is a cooperative effort of OCD, the Office of Education's Bureau of Education for the Handi- capped, the President's Committee on Mental Retardation, and the Secretary's Committee on Mental Retardation. We hope it will be helpful to all those with responsibility for the care of children. Edward Zig ler Director Office of Child Development 3 ragrololle PREFACE This day care handbook on "Serving Children with Special Needs" is a product of a cooperative effort of four agencies withinthe De- partment of Health, Education, and Welfare. Although the Office of Child Development had responsibility for managing the develop- ment of the handbook, the Project Managerwas ably assisted by an interagency group which .made all major decisions regarding the focus, content and style of the document. The interagencygroup was composed of: Elizabeth Krone, OCD Jane DeWeerd, BEH Gerald Boyd, BEH Richard Lippke, SCMR Mary K. Walsh, PCMR Many experts, parents of children with special needs, and operators of programs serving children with special needs assisted in drafting and critiquing the document. Their involvementhas made the handbook a useful and realistic guide. Sam Granato Project Manager 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The efforts of many individuals and the advice from the staff of many day care programs contributed to the development of this handbook. We would like to thank the following specialists in the fields of day care, early childhood education and special education for their invaluable assistance in helping to shape and review the contents of this manual: Nicholas Anastasiow, Indiana University, Department of Early Childhood Education; Gunnar and Rosemary Dybwad, Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies in Social Wel- fare, Brandeis University; Cynthia Gilles, New England In- structionalMaterials Center,BostonUniversity;Helen Gordon, Metropolitan 4-C Council, Portland, Oregon; Jane Greenspan, Judge Baker Child Guidance Clinic, Boston, Massachusetts; Lars arid Ginny Guldager, New England Re- gional Center for Deaf-Blind Children, Watertown, Massa- chusetts; Violet Sieder, Florence Heller School for Advanced Studies inSocial Welfare, Brandeis University; Howard Spicker, Indiana University, Department of Special Educa- tion; Kate Summey, Associated Day Care Services, Boston, Massachusetts; Jo-Anne Williams, Grace Church Nursery School, Newton, Massachusetts. Special appreciation is extended to the following programs which we visited. The staff at these centers were most cooperative in sharing with us their ideas and experiences in helping children with special needs. Special thanks go to their directors and staff: John Ora, Regional Intervention Project, Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee; Margaret Brewster, The Dimock Pre- 0) School,Boston, Massachusetts; DianeBricker, Toddler Project, Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee; Barbara Buttrick, Merrimack Valley Day Care Center, Concord, New Hampshire; Sally Curtis, Springfield Day Nursery, Spring- 0.) field,Massachusetts; Maggie Joy,LowellDay Nursery, Lowell, Massachusetts; K. King, Center for Developmental 11-0 and Learning Disorders, Birmingham, Alabama; Edward Cs)LaCrosse, Meyer Children's Rehabilitation Institute, Omaha, Nebraska; Richard Whelan, Children's Rehabilitation Center, CZKansasCity,Kansas; Jo-Anne Williams, Grace Church Nursery School, Newton, Massachusetts. pp C) F' Nancy Fering Ruth Freedman 5 C. 7 16 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: WHO ARE CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS? 8 CHAPTER ONE: STAFF IN YOUR PROGRAM Questions From Staff 11 Staff Needs 13 Staff Training 14 Staff Resources 15 CHAPTER TWO: PARENTS IN YOUR PROGRAM Communicating With Parents 17 Questions Parents Ask 17 Parents of Special Children 20 Communication Between Parents 21 CHAPTER THREE: GUIDELINES FOR YOUR PROGRAM A Good Program For All Children 24 Getting to Know You 26 Promoting Good Feelings Among Children 27 Guiding Behavior 28 Structure or Not? 29 Activities of the Day Care Day 30 Difficult Times of the Day Care Day 32 How Good a Job Are You Doing? 34 When a Child Leaves: The Follow-Through 37 CHAPTER FOUR: WAYS TO HELP CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS Helping Visually-Impaired and Blind Children 39 Helping Hearing-Impaired and Deaf Children 43 Helping Children with Other Physical Disabilities 45 Helping Mentally Retarded Children 49 Helping Children with Learning Disabilities 53 Helping Children with Emotional Problems 55 APPENDIX A: COMMUNITY RESOURCES 58 APPENDIX B: FUNDING ".5:ZFRIRCES 65 APPENDIX C: BIBLIOGRAPHY 66 8 7 INTRODUCTION "Why can't he talk? Does he have a cold?" This manual is intended as a guidebook Joan age 4, was asking her teacher about Joey. for directors and staff of day care programs who Although Joey was 5, he did not talk. He was also are or might consider including some children slower than other kids his age in learning to with special needs in their program. We hope walk, dress himself, play with toys. A doctor had you'lluse it in conjunction with other resources diagnosed Joey as mentally retarded. When the and training programs. Although it provides gen- teacher explained that Joey had not yet learned to eral guidelines for integrated day care, you'll have say words, Joan's comment, after a brief pause, to apply and adapt this information to the spe- was, "I'll help him." "How?" her teacher asked. cifics of your own situationto your program, "I'll talk to him lots." staff, and the particular needs of the children Joancouldn'thaveprescribedbetter and parents you serve. medicine for Joey had she been a specialist or a Finally, we hope you'll use not only the teacher of mentally retarded children. Talking materials and guidelines suggested in the body to Joey lots was exactly what he needed. In fact, of the manual, but also the Appendices about after a year in this day