Special Needs and Services: Philosophy, Programs, and Practices for the Creation of Quality Service for Children
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Special Needs and Services: Philosophy, Programs, and Practices for the Creation of Quality Service for Children
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Overview
Foreword by Jeanette Watson, former Director, Early Childhood Development Division, Texas Department of Community Affairs. Contributors include Docia Zavitkovsky, Ida M Bucher, Francione Lewis, Lucille Gold, Carol Hardrove, Dollie Wolverton, Elsa Ten Broeck, Lottie Rosen, James A. Johnson, Jr., Oscar Uribe, Mila Pascual, Roderick Auyang, Daniel Safran, Patricia Siegel, Dr. Joan M. Bergstrom, Gwen Morgan and Dr. Stevanne Auerbach.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781504033725 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Open Road Distribution |
| Publication date: | 06/28/2016 |
| Series: | Child Care: A Comprehensive Guide , #4 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 255 |
| File size: | 438 KB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Special Needs and Services
Philosophy, Programs, and Practices for the Creation of Quality Service for Children
By Stevanne Auerbach
Openroad Integrated Media
Copyright © 2011 Stevanne AuerbachAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3372-5
CHAPTER 1
SCHOOL-AGE CHILD CARE
Docia Zavitkovsky Ida M. Bucher
An ever increasing number of school-age children from varied ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds need day care services that are not available to them.
In 1962, in an article in Children entitled "Public Welfare's Role in Day Care for Children," Mrs. Randolph Guggenheimer wrote:
One age group, often ignored by planners of day care programs requires more attention. A large number of mothers go to work when their children enter school, and many of these children are expected to shift for themselves after school until their mothers return from work. Known as the latch-key group because so many of them wear their doorkeys on strings around their necks, these children are expected to be self-sufficient in environments that offer a perfect banquet of danger — from matchbox on the kitchen stove to the delinquent gangs of older boys who hang around on the streets.
In 1972, in the Report of the National Council of Jewish Women, "Windows on Day Care," the point was made that while the study focused on
... the need for day care services for pre-school children, participants in almost every community found a glaring need for before and after-school care for school age children, and one about which very little, if anything, was being done.
In this 10-year span, the crucial need for school-age day care has been recognized by a few people and organizations, but the voice raised has not been strong enough to bring about action that would decrease the magnitude and gravity of the problem.
Extension of the school day to provide high-quality, comprehensive developmental services traditionally has not been seen as the province of the public school — nor for that matter as the province of any one community agency or organization. Consequently, programs have been fragmented and have tended to operate from a narrow point of view that has proliferated rather than diminished problems. From the point of view of the family, the child, and the community itself, there are advantages to considering the neighborhood elementary school as a stable base for a before-and-after school program.
When such a program is considered an essential part of the public school system, there can be a remarkable degree of articulation with the entire school district. Operating under the same organizational system as other branches of the school district program, administrative procedures relating to finance, personnel, legal requirements, attendance accounting, curriculum, health, nutrition, and social services can be coordinated with those of all other divisions of the school district. This promotes continuity between day care and elementary school, and provides the opportunity to eliminate the artificial distinction usually made between in-school and out-of-school experiences. It also facilitates greater communication and interdependence between the school and home, with the school serving as the primary resource center for services needed by families and children.
An example of such an arrangement has been in operation in California since 1943. At that time the California legislature placed Children's Centers (child care) under the administration of the State Department of Education and local school districts, in the belief that they would provide the best opportunity for meeting the children's fundamental growth and development needs, as well as being the community institution accepted by all as the logical location for children's center facilities. The legislature also believed that the school district had the administrative, budgeting, and auditing facilities to assure the most economical expenditure of funds; that the location provided convenient and suitable housing and playground space especially essential for the school-age centers; and that personnel who could assist in organization, supervision, and in-service training of teachers were available.
The Santa Monica Children's Centers include two school-age facilities, serving approximately 140 to 150 children, from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, 252 days a year. Ninety-eight percent of the children are from single-parent families, headed usually be a working mother. Broadly stated, the goals of the centers are:
1. To provide a nurturing, stimulating environment for children needing supervision before and after elementary school and all day during vacation periods;
2. To provide support and guidance for the parents in their task of bringing up children; and
3. To serve as a link between the home and the school.
The centers have a balanced program offering much in responsible freedom, independent choice, and self-direction. At the same time, the need for security, affection, and closeness with a small core of caring adults is recognized and provided for. Children are organized into small groups of approximately 18 to 20, based on age and grade in school. Each group has its own teacher and aide who are on hand for the major part of the child's day in the center.
For the school-age child away from home for most of his waking hours, the centers provide the added continuity of a setting in which the people involved in his day overlap and support each other. This environment has positive effects on affective and cognitive learning. As part of the total team, the extended day care staff knows the school's academic program and can structure out-of-school activities that enrich and supplement the in-school program.
Individualization of the program is facilitated by the use of auxiliary personnel. In addition to the head teacher and the group teachers, who are professionals, the school-age centers have improved the adult-to-child ratio by involving work-study students from the early childhood education and recreation department of Santa Monica Community College. Interns from California State University at Northridge are often assigned to the centers for their field work. There is also a solid core of volunteers. These extra adults make it possible for the individual child to have a listening adult who is aware of the child's interests and dreams, and who can help develop them into program realities.
A TYPICAL DAY
The school age center opens at 7:00 AM. As the teacher unlocks the door, there is Phillip with his mother, a nurse's aide at the hospital. Phillip helps the teacher with opening-up chores, feeding the guinea pigs, the rabbit, the fish. As he does this he chats amicably with the teacher and his peers about his experiences at home, the TV show he watched, the homework he found too hard. The teacher listens and talks with him about his experiences. The center is, in a sense, a family — a larger family than most, but still a family in which each member cares about the other. There is a give-and-take between adults and children and between older children and younger ones.
The milkman arrives with the day's supply of dairy products. Phillip and five other children who have arrived count the left-over milk in the refrigerator, subtract it from the new order, and help the man count out the correct number needed for that day. They have learned that milk must be kept fresh, so they stack the milk in the refrigerator as they talk with each other about their visit to the dairy, where they watched the milk being pasteurized, bottled, and stamped with the date.
A few of Phillip's older friends have now arrived, and the younger children move off to their room. The teacher brings out some flash cards and suddenly the room becomes a math class with two or three sets of children drilling each other. Children thrive and work in settings like this where teachers trust children to manage their own behavior.
Out in the younger room, where the 6- and 7-year-olds are, there is a lotto game going on with the leader a 9-year-old girl who especially likes the role of teacher. One can almost hear the words and tone of her own teacher as she straightens out fights: "Tell him you don't like that, Billy. Then maybe he won't kick your chair anymore."
The teachers, released from the responsibility of direct control, are greeting parents who are bringing in their children. The centers are an extension of the home, not dropping-off places. They are the link between the home and the school, and it is only by knowing families on a personal day-to-day basis, meeting as human beings, not in defined and separate roles that the true basis of trust and interdependence can be established. The child is the beneficiary of an integrated, supportive environment.
By 8:15 AM the center is rapidly filling with children. Besides the multiplication practice, there is a group in the older children's room who are playing the game of "Life." Two children are reading quietly to themselves from books that have been borrowed from the nearby school library. A group of children are sitting talking. Three boys who are being inducted into Cub Scouts are practicing the Cub Scout Creed. Mothers of younger children poke their heads in and congratulate the Cubs and admire their uniforms. The families are close. They share each other's triumphs and joys and help each other in time of trouble. Centers, by design, offer many opportunities for these parents to develop group camaraderie and a sense of belonging.
In the younger children's room the teacher is reading a story to a group of children. Four girls are playing house in the housekeeping corner of the dramatic play area, bountifully supplied with props to support and reinforce the imagination of any elementary school thespian. Through such role playing, children learn what it's like to be a mother, and in such play acting they learn about feelings — the angry ones, the joyous ones, the human ones shared by all of us, children and adults alike.
On the floor, in a corner, the most intricate of block structures is arising, attesting to skill in understanding shape and size. "Get another big one, Joe," shouts one boy. "No, no, we only need one half that size. That's too small, silly. That's the quarter block — get the roof! Get the roof!" The lotto game is still in progress with the 9-year-old teacher still keeping order. Other children are using the headsets in the listening area.
Through all the activity, the teachers move and tell the children when it is time to clean up for school. At 3:30 AM things are back in order, and all but the kindergarten children are off to the big playground to join the children who are arriving from their homes.
There have been some exciting innovations at the kindergarten level at both school-age centers. At the Ocean Park Center, the kindergarten program for center children is conducted right in the center, with a district, credentialed kindergarten teacher from the nearby Washington Elementary School.
At the McKinley Center, the kindergarten children have a playground area of their own, and the center teacher works along with the classroom teachers and all enrolled kindergarten children before school hours. This center teacher is a credentialed kindergarten teacher who offers an enrichment program to all kindergarten children. This enrichment program takes place in the center with both center kindergarten and noncenter kindergarten children participating in mixed groups.
At 9:00 AM. when most of the children go to school, a group of first- second-, and third-graders who do not go to school until 10:00 AM are involved in a variety of activities — washing woodwork, writing stories and baking a cake. Both boys and girls are involved in this practical learning experience, mixing the batter, greasing the pans, and setting the oven. Even the baking is turned into a science experiment as they talk about liquids and solids, expanding and contracting, and the effects of heat and cold.
Some of the children write cards to one of the children who is ill. The teacher helps by sounding out words they can't spell, and sometimes a fourth-grader does the job for the younger ones. The cards finished, three children address and stamp them and mail them at the corner mailbox. The stamp is a new variety and the work study student from the community college talks to the children about his stamp collection and about the hobby of stamp collecting in general. He promises to bring his stamps when he returns from his college classes in the afternoon. There is general excitement among the three about a new idea for a collection.
Often, just such ideas are the start of a real group project as was the foreign lands collection which the "10 o'clockers" worked on. A large map of the world was put up on the wall. Ribbons led to items below to indicate the source country. Signs with information about the country and the item were made by the children. The whole display was turned into a show in which the group members wore costumes from different lands and told about their collection to the rest of the children in the center. Foreign foods were served at snack time. Not only was this project a geography lesson, but there was all the spelling and writing involved in the sign making, the reading practice in the resource books, and the creativity involved in making up speeches for the demonstration. Above all, there was the feeling of self-worth developed by participating in, planning, and carrying out a successful performance.
It's 9:45 AM and almost time for the "10 o'clockers" to go to the elementary school. First there will be a nourishing snack prepared by two of the children. Because most of the children arrived between 7 and 7:30 AM. it has been three and a half hours since breakfast.
The center now turns into a kindergarten annex. Ten or 12 children from the kindergarten classroom, different ones each morning, come to the center for a potpourri of exciting activities. The teacher's forte is language and dramatic play, and this morning she has all manner and shapes of hoses, firehats, and books about fire stations and firemen. The large blocks become a fire engine with a fire chief, hosemen, and all parts assigned. The work study student, or a participating community college student, assists her. There is hammering and sawing as some children try to build their own fire engine out of wood. There is measuring of doweling and figuring out how many wheel pieces each one needs. The hour flies by. When this particular group is back working with their kindergarten class in a more structured way, these concrete experiences give them insight into more abstract symbolic work. The kindergarten enrichment experience is now in its fourth year at this center and is approved and supported by all concerned.
At 11:30 AM the early morning kindergarten teacher is replaced by another teacher who picks up the center kindergarten children at the school and brings them back to the center for a brief outdoor play period. After a hot lunch in the school cafeteria, they return to the center for a quiet time. Some children fall asleep. Others rest quietly on their cots and look at books. The center is quiet until 2:00 PM — the first time since 7:00 AM!
At 2:00 PM the older children, including Phillip, come over from school. Some children, especially in the older group, use this time to do their homework because they can get help from the center teacher.
At 3:00 PM all 65 children are in the center. Another teacher and the center's head teacher have joined the group, so there are four teachers and three assistants now that the total center population is on hand. There is a birthday celebration and the birthday child visits each room and is sung to in each! Birthdays are happy occasions for elementary school children, and it's having friends to share and celebrate it with that matters more than receiving gifts. The sense of belonging to a group, and of being important to it, build into one a feeling of self-worth.
After the snack is cleared away a variety of materials are set out for the children. Indoors there are art experiences such as painting, clay modeling, and puppet making. There are collage materials of all types, plus records, singing, dancing, movement, and instruments. Some children are involved in crafts, such as making belts, pocketbooks, bracelets and even articles of clothing. Other activities are knitting, crocheting, woodworking, soap carving, and model making. In all of these activities there is free choice, and over the year children tend to try their hand at all the different activities. Success in these areas not only gives children good feelings of accomplishment, but also improves motor coordination and artistic skill, and generally involves problem-solving situations which the teachers use effectively to guide growth in decision making.
In addition to these activities, there is always school play, doll play, block building, reading alone or in groups, and games like "Sorry," "Monopoly" and "Scrabble" — all of which involve reading and thinking, giving and taking, winning and losing.
Out on the playground there is the same stimulating, planned environment that we find indoors. There are wheel toys of all sizes, sandboxes, punching bags, skates, baseball, football, and volleyball equipment, jump ropes, hopscotch, and climbing equipment. These outdoor games help develop good motor skills, coordination, and the all important skills of social living. In addition, keeping score demands math competency and motivates children toward accuracy in formal operations. At both centers there are gardens, an especially large one at the Ocean Park Center, where corn, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots are growing.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Special Needs and Services by Stevanne Auerbach. Copyright © 2011 Stevanne Auerbach. Excerpted by permission of Openroad Integrated Media.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to Volume IV STEVANNE AUERBACH,Foreword JEANNETTE WATSON,
Introduction STEVANNE AUERBACH,
Contributors to Volume IV,
1. School-Age Child Care DOCIA ZAVITKOVSKY and IDA M. BUCHER,
2. Training High School Students FRANCIONE LEWIS,
3. Training Child Care Personnel LUCILLE GOLD,
4. Play in the Child Care Center CAROL HARDGROVE,
5. Education for Parenthood DOLLIE WOLVERTON,
6. The Battered Child ELSA TEN BROECK,
7. The Disabled Child LOTTIE ROSEN,
8. The Black Child JAMES A. JOHNSON JR.,
9. The Chicano Child OSCAR URIBE,
10. The Filipino Child MILA PASCUAL,
11. The Chinese Child RODERICK AUYANG,
12. Involving Parents DANIEL SAFRAN,
13. Child Care Switchboard PATRICIA SIEGEL,
14. Issues in Delivery of Services JOAN M. BERGSTROM and GWEN MORGAN,
15. Child Care: Where Do We Go From Here? STEVANNE AUERBACH,
Appendix A: Supplemental Material for Chapter 3,
Appendix B: Sources of Information About Child Care and Programs for Children,
Bibliography,