Setting the Pace: Model Inclusive Child Care Centers Serving Families of Children with Emotional Or Behavioral Challenges
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Table of Contents Preface...................................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................................vi Executive Summary..............................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Introduction and Literature Review...............................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Methods............................................................................................................................................21 Chapter 3: Profiles of the Model Centers.......................................................................................................25 Chapter 4: Directors’ Perspectives...................................................................................................................35 Chapter 5: Staff Perspectives............................................................................................................................53 Chapter 6: Family Members’ Perspectives......................................................................................................83 Chapter 7: An Observational Study of Children and Staff: “You’re My Best Buddy.” with Lynwood J. Gordon.................................................................................................................................................................95 Chapter 8: Discussion......................................................................................................................................101 Chapter 9: Recommendations to Promote Inclusion .................................................................................109 References..........................................................................................................................................................115 List Of Selected Online Resources ................................................................................................................123 i The recommended citation for this publication is: Brennan, E. M., Bradley, J. R., Ama, S. M., & Cawood, N. (2003). Setting the pace: Model inclusive child care centers serving families of children with emotional or behavioral challenges. Portland, OR: Portland State University, Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children’s Mental Health. The Research and Training Center makes its products accessible to diverse audiences. If you need a publication or product in an alternative format, please contact the Publications Coordinator: 503.725.4175, [email protected]. This publication was developed with funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, United States Department of Education, and the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (NIDRR grant H133B990025). The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the funding agencies. Portland State University supports equal opportunity in admissions, education, employment, and the use of facilities by prohibiting discrimination in those areas based on race, color, creed or religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or veteran status. This policy implements state and federal law (including Title IX). Research Sponsors Research and Training Center on Federation of Families Family Support and Children’s Mental For Children’s Mental Health Health, Portland State University Center for Mental Health Services, National Institute on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disability and Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Department of Research, U.S. Department of Education Health and Human Services ii Preface This study shines a bright light on nine child care centers that also take some children with a special need for extra attention, often due to emotional or behavioral challenges. The sample of centers from across the country had been nominated as noteworthy for their inclusiveness and for the quality of their program. What was it that set them apart, and might they represent a significant emerging resource for families? The evaluative nominations were perceptive, but beneath the abstract concepts and lofty phrases, we hear the empirical reality of inclusion. This is an inside story observed and gleaned from center directors, staff, parents, and children. We learn how they do it and why. We learn of their philosophy and commitment, of core attitudes and ideas, of skills and thoughtful strategies, and of essential adaptive interactions among all participants. Let me point out some center characteristics most illuminating to me. Inclusion. These centers weren’t hung up on eligibility or gate- keeping. They weren’t categorical about it. The burden of proof wasn’t on the child to fit in or fail. These centers believed in taking any child and in doing what was needed. “We can do it!” Said with pride; done with a sense of mission. And these were not specialized centers created exclusively to serve children with challenging emotional conditions or behavior. What was learned has implications for any child care center down the street. Dealing with fear. Fear is a barrier to inclusion. Fear of difference and the unknown. Fears about safety. “Will my child be safe with those children?” is a question for either parent, as is “Will my child receive enough individual attention?” “Will I be able to deal with the child’s behavior?” is a question for the caregiver as well as for the parent. Children too have their fears, but not of each other. Fears fade with familiarity, but in these centers they disappeared for a different reason. These centers really dealt with the fears. Do parents not ever worry about safety as they leave their child and head to work? One parent said, “I know she’s safe,” because she knew how well staff could deal with problems and would. A parent’s sense that “my child is safe in care” was an achievement. They transformed those fears into acceptance, trust, and a feeling of safety. Knowing their child would not be kicked out, parents could be more open. In a trusting relationship they could stop withholding bad news and get the help they needed. In that trusting environment staff too are spared the fear of making mistakes. They could try something new with a child or get help from a colleague without fear of failure. iii Fear was replaced by the joy of helping and by a collective A learning environment with expert community support. The pride of accomplishment. “Disability” was not a word that investigators present their interviews and observational appeared in their lexicon of ordinary speech, but the findings in chapters arranged by source of data from challenges of individuals became an appreciated bond among directors, staff, parents, and children. What emerges, children. Somehow, in a partnership in which all are learning however, is the center as an organic, interactive organization from one another, the challenge of the few makes centers in which everyone is learning from everyone else. I was grow better at dealing with all the children. reminded of a parent item that worked well in measuring quality of child care: “My caregiver is open to new Professional skills in a family-like atmosphere. To call something “a information and learning.” These centers would have scored challenge” sounds a little like a euphemism for “difficult,” high on that item because directors and staff listened to and that might scare you off. Well, I’d say this work was parents with respect and learned from them. Together they difficult, but these center staff, who had a modest mix of learned what worked or didn’t work with this child at home educational backgrounds, ten years experience in child care and in the center. Parents learned from staff and from other on average and four years at this center, don’t scare off parents, and they all learned from the children. The children easily. They accept the challenge, thrive on it, have fun at it, learned from one another. The concept of inclusion is not take satisfaction in it, and got good at it. And so can others. about a one-way relationship but about an interaction. How do they do it? Readers of this study will appreciate the This report is a casebook on quality of care, showing how a level of skill and thoughtful strategies that were pursued. ratio or three or four adults to ten children makes possible all These have been detailed in a useful classification of issues of the above. Without that staffing, the programs would not faced. Some of these strategies are carried out directly with be possible. But the center is not an island. Another prime the children, some within the peer group of children, and characteristic of these centers was the way they used mental some by modifying the center as an environment. Some health consultants, seeking expert behavioral advice about a involve responding to difficult behavior, others to preventing child or even incorporating them into center life as needed. it. Experienced caregivers develop their bag of tricks, but This kind of support was seen as critical for the success and don’t look for a pat set of tricks. You don’t need a cookie survival of this kind of program. cutter if you’re not making