A fellow #ece {r}evolutionary had a fabulous observation after listening to Pre-K Teach & Play Podcast episode #2. She recognized that determining why children struggle is complicated by the fact that the progressions overlap. She wondered if there was an “easier” way to think about a child’s performance across the progressions.
In particular, she wondered if it would help to think about the child’s performance at different times of the day (i.e., during different activities).
Here are few of my answer & suggested next steps…
There are at least three things I suggest teaching teams consider as they aim to identify why a child or group of children are struggling…
1. Always start with clearly knowing your “WHAT”. This step makes me sound like a broken record; however, you can’t figure out why a child is struggling with doing X, Y, or Z, if you aren’t clear on what X, Y, and Z are, and ARE NOT.
2. As you talk about your concerns, make sure you look “around” the child for answers, not just “to” the child. Meaning, be sure to consider the “appropriateness” of the learning environment. Are expectations DAP vs. DIP? Are there strong relationships between the child and adults? And there other factors to consider (e.g., poverty, stress, trauma, the child is just young)?
3. Totally fine to examine the child’s performance in the context of different activities…as long as you understand you are looking for patterns and trends. For example, if you are considering a child’s performance at circle time, understand that circle time is often a whole group activity, requires extensive amounts of self-control, is full of high language and cognitive demands, and cooperation/compliance expectations are also high. This means…the pattern or trend is understanding that the child will likely struggle during other activities/events that present these same characteristics. You may also find yourself back at #2 above, and determine a change to the length, or content, or delivery of circle time is in order.
I also offer the following questions as guides for the teams, regardless of the activity/event/experience:
- Who is interacting with the child and who is not when the child struggles? Do these “others” have a strong relationship with the child? If not, then consider focusing on familiar over unfamiliar to scaffold a child’s development and learning.
- How are the child’s interests being incorporated during times when they struggle? You may find this progression (i.e., making sure things are preferred) is the key in many instances when a child struggles. By building upon a child’s interest and preferences, we are ensuring that neurons are firing, and we all know, “neurons that fire together, wire together.”
- What types of materials are present and are they a match with the child’s level/ability to interact with objects? This is a place where you might need to ensure objects that can be manipulated in simple ways (e.g., cause and effect) vs. highly symbolic or complicated ways.
- What are the demands and expectations? For example, is the child expected to do things in a very specific way and is there only a narrow set of responses that are considered correct? If so, consider “zigzagging” over to global and allow for a “best efforts/attempts” vs. 100% accuracy on demand.
- Familiar, preferred, and self progressions often “go together,” particularly for children with ASD. Meaning, their “MO” may be to do things that are predictable, of high interest/preferences, and don’t involve others. If the expectations are already multiple, abstract, and complex…know these are the progressions you start with because the child will “hold onto” familiar, preferred and self more strongly.
There are a few other things teams can do…but hopefully this helps you continue your quest to pinpoint how to support children who are struggling or when development and learning have stalled.
Be sure to also revisit podcast episode #2 as needed.
P.S. In the 2nd edition of BLENDED PRACTICES FOR TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN IN INCLUSIVE SETTINGS, I go into more detail about how to understand each of the progressions. I also train on this topic. Contact me to schedule a training for your program or district.