Disabilities in the early childhood classroom are one of the biggest pieces of diversity that I see daily. As an integrated preschool teacher I am learning every day different ways to work with children who have disabilities. Prior to working in the integrated program my experience with children who have special needs was very limited. In college I learned about all the various ways to differentiate learning for all typically developing children but was not made aware of many strategies to support special education, especially support the needs of children who have significant delays or disabilities.
In my first year teaching I taught at a school that was not integrated. Then in my second school I had an integrated program with children who had delays and needed 30 minutes-1 hour of specially designed instruction a day. Now, teaching in my current integrated program the needs of not only the typically developing children are very diverse but the children with special needs have significantly diverse needs, supports, diagnoses, therapies, and services. Working with such diverse needs has made me take each day a day at a time and to be open to constantly learning new strategies, techniques, and collaborating with a vast amount of therapists, social workers, teachers, early access personnel, etc. Working with children who have disabilities in the early childhood classroom has helped me to truly view each child as individual who needs specific things tailored to their needs.
In my first year teaching I taught at a school that was not integrated. Then in my second school I had an integrated program with children who had delays and needed 30 minutes-1 hour of specially designed instruction a day. Now, teaching in my current integrated program the needs of not only the typically developing children are very diverse but the children with special needs have significantly diverse needs, supports, diagnoses, therapies, and services. Working with such diverse needs has made me take each day a day at a time and to be open to constantly learning new strategies, techniques, and collaborating with a vast amount of therapists, social workers, teachers, early access personnel, etc. Working with children who have disabilities in the early childhood classroom has helped me to truly view each child as individual who needs specific things tailored to their needs.