195
Posters Advancing Comprehensive Early Childhood Intervention ECI INFRASTRUCTURE Topic - Professional Development
Session 5
p5.26 Teaching Concept Strategies to Young Children With Visual Impairment Presenting Author: Catherine Smyth (USA) Affiliation: University of Utah Co-Author: Hong Phangia Dewald
This poster will bring together two professionals using different perspectives on how basic concept development is being taught and assessed by sixteen experienced Teachers of Students with Visual Impairment (TSVIs) and Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialists (COMSs) of young children working in inclusive and specialized preschool settings in the United States. Although concept development is recognized as a critical area of instruction in the field of visual impairment and in the broader field of early childhood education, very little is documented on how basic concepts are taught in the classroom. Students with blindness and low vision who do not have a thorough understanding of basic concepts early in life can find themselves unable to “infer, predict, comprehend and create during learning activities” (Bardin & Lewis, 2007, p. 474). The presenters wished to engage these knowledgeable TSVIs/COMSs in a conversation through participatory action research, in which all of us learn from each other. Data collection included creating a ranked list of age-expected concepts and conversational interviews to provide an in-depth account of the successful strategies of the educators who work with these students. Results included some surprises, such as the different perspectives TSVIs and COMSs used to approach the instruction of basic directional concepts and how educational settings affect teaching strategies. Reflective transcriptions of actual concept instruction, material use, and assessment were used to construct a content analysis of seven thematic categories that can be shared to understand current teaching strategies and areas of potential research to establish evidence- based practices.
p5.27 Training of Trainers for the Development of an Early Care System in the Province of Tucumán, Argentina Presenting Author: Maria Laura Odero (Argentina) Affiliation: CEPANI Co-Authors: Virginia Ayuso, Margarita Cañada Perez, Juan Pablo Molina, Mireya Vicente Vilas
CEPANI is the Provincial Child Neurodevelopment Care Center in Tucumán, Argentina. It serves children with developmental disorders from 0 to 16 years old, with professionals from different disciplines working in a transdisciplinary manner. In 2024, considering the need to provide quality Treatment, we decided to implement an international collaboration project between professionals from Spain and Argentina to achieve this objective. The project included training the team of professionals in recommended practices in early care and in the EBR model to assist and accompany families. The training was carried out virtually and in person, for 6 months, by the team from the Early Care Center of La Alquería, Valencia and ARITA. After our training, the approach with families began, supervised by Spanish professionals. Currently, 25 families are in treatment, and we also act as a training center for professionals who work in other care centers.
ECI INFRASTRUCTURE Topic - Serving Diverse Populations
p5.28 The Collaborative Roles of Racially Underrepresented School-Based SLPs on Early Childhood Special Education Teams
Presenting Author: Imani Evans (USA) Affiliation: Thomas Jefferson University Co-Author: Christine Spence
In the U.S., early childhood special education teams are tasked with providing high-quality, effective services to an increasingly diverse student population. Speech-language services are commonly provided during early childhood, making speech- language pathologists vital members of special education teams. However, currently, there is a shortage of school- based SLPs, particularly those from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds. Therefore, this qualitative focus group research study sought to explore how Black or African American school-based SLPs described the influence of their sociocultural identity on their professional identity when collaborating on special education teams to meet the needs of students from diverse, underserved backgrounds. The participants highlighted nuanced roles that school-based SLPs from racially minoritized backgrounds may play on special education teams and described these roles as integral to their professional identity, including advocacy, relationship-building, cultural responsiveness, and cultural breaking to appropriately serve students and families from all backgrounds. p5.29 Cultural Adaptation of Korean Autism-Focused Intervention Resources and Modules: Report of Child Characteristics, Social Validity, and Vineland Scores Presenting Author: Veronica Kang , Melody Mann (USA) Affiliation: University of Maryland Co-Authors: Shehzad Awasi, Jason Chow, Sean Joo, Daniel Kwak, James Lee, Ann Sam Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules (AFIRM) was developed by the University of North Carolina Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (Sam et al., 2020) for practitioners in the US. We adapted the module for Korean parents of autistic children to support their implementation of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention by adding a virtual coaching component. Three parents of 5- to 7-year-old children participated in a single case design study. We will report (1) children’s characteristics using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Schopler et al., 1980) scores at baseline; (2) pre-and post- scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (Sparrow & Cicchetti, 1989); and (3) parents’ report of the social validity of the module plus coaching package using the Usage Rating Profile (Chafouleas et al., 2011) scores. We will also present implications for future research and clinical practice of early intervention in global contexts.
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online