Building brains is complicated work…and certainly not for the faint of heart!
I wish I could offer a step-by-step set of instructions to ease the decisions and complexity of your work…
And until I’m able to grant that wish, I continue to offer guidance and frameworks to help.
For an overview of how to think about where to begin instruction, watch this video. Click here for the video’s transcript.
For those who already know a child is struggling, keep reading.
Why a child may struggle to learn and/or why their development and learning may have stalled can be the result of many factors. Some are certainly cause for concern, and others are things that happen regularly as part of the learning cycle.
That said, there are ways to scaffold and support children when they are struggling and/or when development and learning have stalled.
In this second video (a case example), I work through three common scenarios for when children struggle:
- Scenario 1: You are teaching a common outcome like self-regulation using universal strategies and the child needs more support in order to participate, stay in the green zone, and/or make progress.
- Scenario 2: You have decided the child is missing a foundational skill or key aspect of self-regulation that requires either specially designed instruction and an IEP, or systematic instruction delivered through embedded learning opportunities in the context of the universally designed instruction.
- Scenario 3: You can’t teach because the child’s lid is flipped (due to stressors) and their bodies have moved them into the red and/or blue zones of arousal. You must now become the “boat captain” and offer a lifeline.
This second video also shares many “how to teach” examples for each of the scenarios. It also builds upon a real life case example using a completed self-regulation rubric for a five year old.
Feel free to watch the whole case example video, or know that it goes in order of the three scenarios and you can fast forward to the situation you are facing. Click here for a transcript of the Case Example video.
Resources mentioned in the case example video
- For ECE Solutionary Members Only Q&A Two Part Video Series: Where to Start Instruction
- Parts 1 and 2 [Members only link to videos]
- Part 1 Covers how to identify and deliver tiered instruction for a common ECE literacy outcome
- Part 2 Covers how to identify and deliver tiered instruction for an individualized IEP goal
- Parts 1 and 2 [Members only link to videos]
- Self-Regulation Assessment Rubric download – pdf
- Directions for scoring and interpreting the self-regulation rubric [pdf] and video with directions
- Case example of scoring the self-regulation rubric [link]
- Stop Think Act activity sheet [pdf] [link to book review]
- Zig Zag handout [pdf]
- Universal Design for Learning handout [pdf]
- Reducing Stressors handout [pdf]
- Blog on offering lifelines [link]
- For more on teaching different outcomes see my chapters from Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children In Inclusive Settings
Scope and Sequence for Individualized Outcome (taken from the SCERTS Model)
- Based upon this scored self-regulation rubric, systematic instruction would begin with the following sequence:
- Responds to assistance offered by partners
- Soothes when comforted by partners
- Engages when alerted by partners
- Responds to bids for interaction
- Responds to changes in partners’ expression of emotions
- Attunes to changes in partners’ expression of emotion
- Makes choices when offered by partners
- Requests partners’ assistance to regulate state
- Shares negative emotion to seek comfort
- Shares positive emotion to seek interaction
- Requests help when frustrated
- Protests when distressed
- Recovers from extreme dysregulation with support from partners
- Responds to partners’ efforts to assist with recovery by moving away from activity
- Responds to patterns’ use of behavioral strategies (ie.., simple motor actions or sensory-motor strategies)
- Responds to partners’ attempts to reengage in interaction or activity
- Decreases amount of time to recover from extreme dysregulation due to support from partners
- Decreases intensity of dysregulated state due to support from partners
- Responds to assistance offered by partners
- Once the child can be consistently regulate with a partner, instruction moves to extending/widening the green zone with this second sequence:
- Demonstrates availability for learning and interaction
- Uses behavioral strategies to regulate arousal and level during familiar activities
- Regulates emotion during new and changing situations
- Once the child can co-regulate regularly and has a wider window of tolerance, instruction can move to this third sequence where they learn to recover from extreme dysregulation by themselves. Note the last two in this sequence are related to the dimensions of behavior regarding latency and intensity. If written as an IEP goal, these would be aspects of the criterion.
- Removes self from overstimulating or undesired activity
- Uses behavior strategies to recover from extreme dysregulation
- Reengages in interaction or activity after recovery from extreme dysregulation
- Decreases amount of time to recover from extreme dysregulation
- Decreases intensity of dysregulated state
Click here for “how to teach” using transactional support strategies from the SCERTS model.