[Rebecca Jones]

Diane, I am a multitasker too! And I agree, sometimes we just need to stop and focus on one area and get that done. Usually, for me, this is an important area and I can continue multitasking the other smaller areas but sometimes those bigger things get lost in the many things happening, and then quality can suffer. So I appreciate reading this from you and agree to try to not let those areas suffer from trying to do too much all at once 🙂

[Rebecca Jones]

Part I: Comments Regarding Types of Patterns

Patterns of Quality

Quality is defined as a demonstration of a concept or skill in a way that, while allowing the child to accomplish a desired task, is done in such a way that it may hinder understanding of others, the accuracy of the performance, and/or may get in the way. Examples of quality include, issues around intelligibility, application of too much or not enough force, moving too quickly or too slowly, talking too loudly or softly etc. Patterns of quality don’t automatically suggest a concern; rather, they are an important consideration if they are interfering with interactions, physical health, and/or acquisition of future concepts and skills.

Comments:
I think that patterns of quality can be largely up for interpretation based on who is performing the data collection. What one might say is quality, someone else might think not. I think this an important area to think about in ourselves if we are trying to guage the quality of things. I do think this is an area that having multiple perspectives and conversations and collaborations is very helpful for.

Patterns of Latency

Latency, as it relates to learning or development, is defined as the amount of time it takes for someone to act or “do” after a request or prompt. In other words, how quickly does a child respond? Examples of latency include issues around time to task or verbal responses to questions or prompts, and also include concerns around impulsivity. Patterns of latency may not always be a concern, however they are important to consider if they are negatively impacting learning, development, health, communication, and/or behavior.

Comments:
Latency is how long it takes for something to happen after a prompt in given. I have had many children who have a very long wait time before they will react. It is not always a problem, and needs to be recognized when it causes a problem and when it does not.

Patterns of Assistance

Assistance is when an adult, a peer/sibling, or the environment performs part of the concept or skills under consideration. Assistance alone does not warrant concern or a higher tier of instruction (i.e., assistance might be expected based on what is known about developmental expectations); however, when a pattern of needing assistance (e.g., required under predictable circumstances/situations beyond what would be expected of a novice learner, for the child’s age/present level of ability/developmental readiness, culture, and/or prior exposure) emerges, a concern is noted.

Comments:

I think it should be noted that sometimes children have learned a need of assistance that they don’t actually need. They might have learned to ask for help, instead of trying things themselves. They might be prompt dependent and that might be more of an issue for the people giving prompts than the child themselves.

Patterns of Interfering Behaviors

An interfering behavior is one that a child demonstrates instead of the desired or expected concept of skills. Not all interfering behaviors are aggressive or purposeful; however many times they are (e.g., hitting, biting, throwing). At times, behaviors can interfere given that the child (by choice or otherwise) is not able to maintain or establish attention, walks away from interactions or tasks, or even outright refusal to participate. Sometimes these are unconscious (sensory/biological); so this pattern has less to do with challenging behavior and more to do with a barrier to learning.

Comments:

I think it is so important to consider this idea of taking down a barrier to learning instead of “fixing bad behavior”. No child wants to be bad, they have learned maladaptive ways to get their needs met. And sometimes, as noted above, these needs have to do with senosory issues that are not always obvious to everyone else aroudn them.

Patterns of Unexpected Performance

Patterns of unexpected performance represent instances where the child’s performance would not have been anticipated or expected according to typical development. For example, a child was demonstrating a later skill before demonstrating an earlier skill, or was emerging across early and later skills simultaneously. This pattern may also represent situations where children have a tendency to demonstrate inconsistent performance, to the extent that they may excel or struggle on the same skill without a clear explanation for the difference in performance.

Comments:
Some people might call this splinter skills, and they can take people off guard sometimes. People might think the child is a genius in some areas and really far behind in others. I think it is so important to look at what are the barriers to learning and what is the child missing and how can we get them there, instead of comparing the child to other more typical ways of development.

Part II: Example of at Least One Pattern

(Remember, you only need to complete one, but feel free to complete as many as you like.)

Patterns of Quality

List Patterns of Quality:

Pattern Considerations: What do the identified patterns mean? What does it tell you about yourself? What are the implications?
I value doing things well and if I feel like my quality of work is lagging, I do not find value in it and find myself wanting to get away from it. I do not like feeling like a failure or that I am not competent. So, when I start feeling this way, it is important for me to dig in and try to learn and not give in because this is when I am actually learning and it is not just coming naturally. I need to embrace these periods of growth and not shun them.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi Mark, I loved your comment:
In what way can a child who is eligible for special education have Tier 1 needs? Abilities in different areas (even in related areas, such reading; vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, etc). Eligible for service in 1 or more areas certainly does not mean that services for all areas are needed. I have had a number of students who have large vocabularies but read so slowly that it seems to impact their comprehension of material read. Others read quite fluently and still comprehension problems (especially true for many “autistic” students.
We cannot label a child as a Tier 1 student or a tier 2 student, but we can certainly differentiate between the child’s needs and abilities in different areas and target those areas that they are lacking in and hopefully acknowledge those areas that they are strong in as well. I appreciate that you brought out that difference. thank you!

[Rebecca Jones]

STEP 1- Answer the following questions and explain why you feel the way you do: Are all Tier 3 needs IEP worthy? No, I don’t think so. An IEP worthy need would have to be one that is interferring with the child’s progress in school. If they have a need that does not interfere with their progression in school then there would be no need for the IEP. This would have to be an area that is not affecting the child’s academic performace or ability. Usually these needs are shown to be IEP worthy but there are situations and occassions that they are not.
How would you define “the messy middle”? I think the messy middle is a term used for the difficult task of determining why a child is struggling with a certain area. This can be messy to figure out because people are so complex, as is learning and development. It is not always straightforward what the child is missing in their understanding and how to get them to a better place. The reasons behind their actions or lack of actions might also be very difficult to understand and people can often jump to conclusions that are not always true.
Can a Tier 2 (targeted) need be IEP worthy? Yes, any need that a child has that is interfering with their academic progress can be IEP worthy. If the child is showing needs in this area then that is where they need support and they can get that support in the form of an IEP or RTI or whatever the classroom teacher might have as a resource.
In what way can a child who is eligible for special education have Tier 1 needs? The student might be on consult, or might need check ins to support their work in the general education environment. They might need support in the social dynamics or understanding what is being asked and not need a specialized situation other than what the other students are doing, but they might just need some extra support in these settings.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi Christine, I like how you took the concept of learning across modalities and then said that you were going to be more intentional with your conversations surrounding change with teachers. I think this is such an important part of what we are doing, and understanding that we don’t work in our own space or vaacuum with a child, but we must share our understanding and try to learn across modalitites, if you will, with the adults around us also! I love that way of looking at it. Thanks!

[Rebecca Jones]

STEP 1:
In our district, we are actively involved in RTI and reveiwing the data presented in order to meet each student in their needs. I beleive our district really strives to meet each student’s needs and to get them the resources they need to see that happen. I think the most important part of this process is making sure that you have good meaningful data on each child, so that you can accurately know where the need is so you can target that. District policy does allow us to work with other teachers and values and promotes collaboration between teachers, although there are strong protections in place for privacy and need to know basis. However, if you are both working with a student, it is expected that you will collaborate on how best to serve that student. If a student was struggling, and I had all the time and resources, I would definately take data on every area of growth and development the student is engaged in and I would mine that data for significant info to inform us how we can change what is happening ( mode of delivery, time of day, how many people etc.) I would then collaborate with teachers and parents on the most important data we are finding and agree on the best ways to implement change for the child.
. STEP 2– Talk about when, where, and under what context you have observed any of the seven (7) learning progressions, as well as what you would do in the future to address them.
Moving from concrete to abstract is something that I see alot of in my day as a preschool teacher. Our kiddos are often in such a concrete stage that we don’t always get to see that abstract thinking until alot later in their development. One time I was asking a child to do something that they thought they were doing, but I asked again and got the same response. One of the paraprofessionals gently said, “I think she thinks she is doing it” and I realized how I had asked her and the way she interepreted the question did in fact show that she was trying to do what she thought I was asking her to do. I asked in a different way and she changed what she was doing to follow the instructions I had meant for her to do. She was doing a very literal and concrete version of what I had asked her to do and did not understand my implied meaning. Sometimes it is hard for us adults to see things from a more concrete perspective, when we have been in an abstract understanding for so long. I hope to be more mindful of the different interpretations of what I am asking a child to do, might be out there and be more willing to understand their understanding through the process.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi Sandra, I liked your point about having info in the IEP that relates to what the child is interested in or what motivates them. Sometimes this is valuable info that isn’t found out until later on in the year, if not shared early, and being able to use those motivators can be so helpful in engaging the child and making connections with them, which without those connections we are up a creek without a paddle 🙂 thank you for that comment!

[Rebecca Jones]

When you think about a PLAAFP, what criteria really “matters” in determining an IEP goal? In what ways can or should families priorities and concerns be a component of that criteria? To what extent should we consider a child’s perspective as part of that criteria of “what matters”? Finally, how does the ABC formula help us in getting to the bottom of what may be IEP worthy and ultimately “what matters”?

When I write an IEP, I focus on the areas that are most affecting the child and try to focus on the areas that are hindering them the most socially, as I believe social development is so incredibly important in preschool. I also look at what areas the family is most concerned about. I have to admit though when a family is most concerned about their preschool child being able to read in preschool or kindergarten, I do not place as much focus on those skills and still try to let developmentally appropriate practice lead me while still trying to respect that the family really values early reading. I will try to support these goals in developmentally appropriate ways while writing goals and objectives to address the most pressing needs of the child. If a child expresses something like “I don’t have friends” or “no one likes to play with me” etc. I think this is a very important and valuable insight into the child’s experience and is very important to heed when writing the IEP. Hopefully, this type of information would be provided through the family as they express what they hope for their child, but if not, it could be seen in the classroom or observed at other times.
The ABC formula is huge in terms of helping us understand the why of behavior and thus, being able to better address that why/need of the child. By documenting the antecedents, behavior, including the time of day, day of the week so we can see if there is something regularly repeating itself, as well as the consequences then we can better understand what the child is getting or trying to get from the behavior and thus, we will be able to pinpoint better what the child needs as replacement behavior or in teaching new skills.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi,
I really loved your intensity objective:
Charlie will ask for help using a voice loud enough to be heard with no more than 1 prompt for 4 out of 5 opportunities.
That one seemed tough for me to figure out what intensity can mean, but I love to understand it in terms of voice volume. Thank you!

[Rebecca Jones]

Frequency- Michael will respond to his name being called by looking with his eyes or with a verbal or physical response (coming to the person) on 3 out of 4 opportunities. This measures how often he is responding to his name, and any of the other options do not offer this level of information.

Accuracy- Micheal will copy a circle within 1/2 an inch from the template on 4 out of 5 trials. This could also work for endurance, is Micheal is having a hard time trying, but with this situation we are trying to focus on his fine motor skills.

Latency- When asked a question, Sarah will respond within 1 minute with a verbal response or with sign language 80 % of the time. This is not necessarily focused on her responding or not, but focusing on how long it takes her to respond. Sometimes she will respond after a person leaves and she needs multiple prompts to engage with the person asking her a question.

Duration- Sam will stay at the table during small group for a total of 10 minutes while engaging in an activity of his choice for 4 out of 5 trials. Sam can often get distracted by others and other options around the room, so we are trying to get him to stay with an activity of interest for a longer period of time.

Endurance- Peter will stay on carpet during circle time, not necessarily in his spot or sitting; but will be present on the carpet without distracting behaviors for 10 minutes 80% of the time on 2 consecutive weeks. This is focused on him staying longer than he wants to stay and working on staying on carpet when he doesnt want to.

Intensity- When upset, Sarah will refrain from screaming and will use her choice board to choose an alternate response on 3 out of 4 times over two consecutive monthly probes. This objective is trying to get Sarah’s level of intensity to be lowered when she is upset and find ways that will soothe her and offer her better responses to situations.

Independence- Thomas will pour his own water into his cup with minimal spillage 80% of the time on 2 consecutive weekly observations. We are measuring his independence and how long it takes, or how strong he feels, etc. are not what is being measured by this objective.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi Melinda,
I appreciated your honesty and desire to learn! I feel the same way. I kind of wish people would read all my goals and objectives and give me feedback 🙂 I have struggled with the same struggle feeling like it is not fair to not prepare the kids for kindergarten when the expectations are SO different but my program has firmly stayed with the idea that we are in preschool and allow the kids to be in preschool while they still can and the kindergarten team can write goals to help the child work on those skills. After saying that, I don’t believe it would be harmful to the child to learn these skills though and 15 minutes at a time seems reasonable especially if followed by reinforcers. So I would say that would be something your team should decide as a philosophy if you would like to prepare for kinder or allow time to be in preschool 🙂

[Rebecca Jones]

Provide an example of a situation where measuring qualitatively would seem to be the best approach, as well as an example of a situation where measuring quantitatively would seem to be the best approach. Be sure to explain your reasoning.

Qualitatively- I think qualitative situations revolve around something that can often be observed but not necessarily counted. I always want to be careful about being subjective with qualitiative observation and make sure to use wording that is measurable by everyone and not just subjective to the person deciding it. A situation like how extreme a behavior (an intense reaction) was and how long it lasted (it lasted a long time) are affected by someone’s expectations and can be subjective. So for me, the difference has to do with how you gain the data- through observation or through observation with a counting/number assigned to it. This is usually used best used when observing social settings and abilities. For example, a child is able to pour his own water into his glass successfully 80% of the time. You can keep track of how many times the child does it succesfully and then calculate how the percentage by the end of the time period given. Successfully could be a subjective term though, so I would want to add in something about not spilling or with minimal spills to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Quantitatively- These situations seem to revolve around academic abilities, PT abilities and speech/language abilities although they can also encompass social skills (greets someone new 3 times a day etc.) An example would be gaining data on how many words a child reads in a set amount of time. There is not as much subjectivity to worry about in this one as it is raw data usually.

[Rebecca Jones]

Naomi, I love this idea of using data collection to show the good as well as the needs in a documented form. I can sometimes see the stress on a parent’s face as we go through the PLAAFP and the child’s needs and I have had some even say things like “But he really is a good boy” and it just breaks my heart. I have consciously started to include more positives in the strengths area of the document and since there is so much data to support the needs, I would love to be able to incorporate the strengths and the growth that we have seen in the student as well and allow that to be a positive influence in the IEP meeting and on the parent/teacher relationship so it doesn’t come off as feeling so negative and needs-based. Thank you for that persepctive!

[Rebecca Jones]

To what extent have you or the IEP teams you have been on engaged in the DDDM process?
Because I work in preschool, we often have limited data during the referal process that has to center around parent interviews, sometimes an IFSP, and ratings scores from the school psych. If the student has been with us in preschool for a while, then we have much more information on the data we take daily that drives our understanding of the student’s abilities. I have not been able to work much in the older grades and with the RTI process, but recognize the importance of having actual data and numbers to support the recommendations for the child that are not based on someone’s subjective opinion.
If you have, do you or your team engage in DDDM in a continuous manner?
The continuous data collection and decisions we use are usually based on observation and daily data collection in the preschool classroom. This can be very difficult to get a super accurate picture of the child’s abilities sometimes because our program is so short ( only 2 1/2 hours a day). It is a growing program and we hope that with the addition of more teachers and classrooms, we can eventually grow to having longer days and more influence in the student’s lives. We go through our daily data every trimester and report the baseline of the child and hope to show growth in the areas targeted.

What steps of the process have you or your team struggled the most with and which step is a strength? Sometimes our baseline can be a struggle, especially if we havent gotten to see much of the student before they start preschool and becasue the information is often limited to one environment (home) so we don’t often know as much as we would like to when placing a child in a classroom. After we place a child in a classroom, then the real daily data collection begins and we are able to make better understanding of the child’s needs but this data is only usually related to the IEPs objectives and it would probably be helpful to take more data on more areas of the child’s abilities so we can make sure we create a reasonably accurate IEP for the child in the areas they need and not just focus on the areas we have already identified.

[Rebecca Jones]

Hi Daniel, I really appreciate what you said about Spencer’s academic ability and his needs revolving more around his emotional stability than his academic goals. Once his emotional stability has been supported, then we would hope to see his grades rise again, and if not, then at that point it would become the priority to focus on but until the team can get him comfortable and find out what the issues and triggers are for him, then working on his grades is going to be a loosing battle. Understanding his asthma is also a need, as that is a safety issue and one that needs to have high priority, I agree totally.

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