Transcript Assessing Children’s Environments

SPE 3273
Assessing Children’s
Environments
Behavior and development cannot be separated
from the context in which they occur.
Week 4
Settings can be adjusted to increase
child’s development
• What are the best approaches to parenting?
• How can we arrange a preschool environment to
maximize learning?
• Can environments be adjusted to increase the level of
independence for a four year old?
• How do we stimulate the thinking skills of
three year olds through environmental arrangements?
Key Ideas
• Settings influenced by
environmental forces
outside of that setting.
• Quality of environments
influence learning and
development.
• Home and classroom
environments are assessed
to identify hazards and
adult use of safe practices.
• Environments can be
assessed to identify goals for
intervention and practice.
• Assessing environment can
promote higher quality.
Settings influenced by environmental
forces outside of that setting
Child
Home-Childcare
Parent professional Relationship
Neighborhood, Social Groups, Church
Societal Attitudes, Values Ethics
Why Assess Environments?
• Meet national and state licensing requirements
• Meet professional accreditation requirements
• Meet local, state, and federal mandates and accountability
requirements
• Analyze curriculum content and teaching strategies and make
needed adjustment to assure student success.
• Assess health and safety considerations
• Assess children’s actual experiences and interactions with adults
and peers, their participation in activities and use of materials.
• Assess group size, adult-child ratios and caregiver education and
specialized training.
Support for assessing environments?
• Enormous body of research has demonstrated
that the quality of child-care and early childhood
programs is significantly
associated with positive
or negative outcomes
for children.
Licensing
• Required
• Minimum standards
• Regulated at state or local
level
• Consequences for
noncompliance
• Inspections,
investigations and
technical assistance.
Accreditation
• Voluntary
• Highest standards/
exemplary requirements
• Promoted/ sponsored by
professional groups
• Recognition/reputation
for high quality
• Self-studies,
validation and
verification
visits
High Quality Programs
• Positive effects on children’s cognitive, language, and
pre-academic skills development and is associated with
later academic success in reading and math.
• Higher levels of formal education and specialized
training of child caregivers are associated with:
 more positive adult-child interactions,
less authoritarian approaches,
 higher levels of encouragement
higher scores on standardized measures of process quality
Programs
• High quality child care is associated with positive
emotional and social development outcomes,
fewer behavior problems, and high levels of
sociability, cooperation, social problem solving
and engaged play behaviors
• Lower quality child care has been associated with
poor emotional and social development outcomes,
including increased anger, defiance and aggressive
behaviors and delayed language development and
reading and math skills.
Characteristics of quality early care
and education?
• Well trained, knowledgeable adults
• Safe, sanitary, healthy, appealing child and family friendly physical
environments
• Low teacher and adult to child ratios
• Health-promoting, appropriately configured daily routines that include
both active and quiet periods, rest times, and nutritious meals, snacks
and beverages
• Age, individually, and culturally appropriate expectations and
interactions
• Cognitively and linguistically enriching, socially simulating, emotionally
supportive interactions, curricula and instructional practices
• Sensitive, appropriate, anit-bias interactions, curricula, and teaching
materials
• Daily balance of teacher-directed and child-initiated activities
• Parent involvement and participation opportunities
• Licensed and accredited
Symptomatic Behavior Patterns
• Low levels of child engagement: match between child
preferences and available toys and activities
• Nature and extent of behavior problems is broad: cause
likely the environment rather than child-based
• Behavior problems: poorly managed transition times
that leave children waiting for extended
periods of time
• Environment caused behavior problems:
specific to individual children
Environmental Rating Scales
www.fpg.unc.edu
• Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale - Revised
(FCCRS-R) - Family day-care settings from infancy
through kindergarten
• Infant Toddler Environmental Rating Scale – Revised
(ITERS-R) - quality of environment 2.5 yrs or younger
• Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale – Revised
(ECERS-R) quality of classes age 2.5 through 5 yrs
FCCRS-R:
37 items organized into seven subscales
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Space and Furnishings
Personal Care Routines
Listening and Talking
Activities
Interaction
Program Structure
Parents and Provider
ITERS-R:
39 items organized into 7 subscales
•
•
•
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•
•
•
Space and Furnishings
Personal Care Routines
Listening and Talking
Activities
Interaction
Program Structure
Parents and Staff
ECERS-R:
43 items organized into seven subscales
• Space and furnishings
• Personal Care Routines
• Language-Reasoning
• Activities
• Interaction
• Program Structure
• Parents and Staff
Types of Programs -Home-Based
• Focus is usually on assisting families who need specific information
on how to manage aspects of an infant's care in the home
• Arrangement and planning of the physical and social environment
fosters positive interactions between children and their environment
• Caregivers may need knowledge and skills for making decisions about
appropriate ways to help children develop pro-social behaviors
Example: Kayla is two years old and loves to push
buttons on the VCR. Her mother gets frustrated
and unhappy when Kayla doesn't listen to her and
touches the machine. The B-K Specialist suggests
moving it to a higher shelf until Kayla is older and
can understand that the VCR is not a toy.
Types of Programs - Center-Based
• Physical and social and programmatic variables
that influence how a child behaves.
▫ Physical –social-programmatic
Example: program with wide open spaces?
Types of Programs - Inclusive
• Head Start
• Preschool special education combined with early
child hood programs
• Itinerant support for children with IEPs
Communicating Results of Environmental
Assessments
• Set the tone
• Comment on positive aspects of home or preschool
environments that foster physical and social independence
• Raise issues/concerns in sensitive manner
• Use reflective/active listening:
paraphrasing and perception checking
Questions??
• It has been a pleasure getting to know each of
you!