· Describe ways in which you ensure that families are kept aware of what’s happening in their child’s daily/weekly life in your classroom.

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One of the keys to a successful early learning environment is building a strong foundation with children and families. For your Final Project, you will have the opportunity to create an informational packet aimed at helping children and families make a smooth transition into your early learning environment.

To prepare for this assignment,

· Refer to the Week 5 Guidance for further tips and examples that will support your success on this assignment

· Review and download the Week 5 Exemplar TemplatePreview the document

· Read the required and recommended resources for this week.

o Remember that any applicable resource used throughout this course can support the requirement for four scholarly resources for this assignment.

· If you did not begin the development of your ePortfolio in ECE 101, read Portfolium Student GuidePreview the document to help you set up your ePortfolio.

· Choose from one of the following age ranges:

o Infancy: Birth – 12 months

o Toddler: 1 – 3 years

o Early childhood: 4 years – 8 years

Scenario: You are in the process of preparing your learning environment for a new set of children. To help families and children have a successful transition into your classroom, you have decided to put together a resource guide to give to families. This guide will serve as a resource that your families will use throughout the year to help them have a better understanding of who you are as a professional, how you will create a positive learning environment, the resources they have available to them, and why you believe a strong home-school connection is important.

Based on your chosen age range, include the following in your Family Resource Guide:

Section 1: Personal Introduction

· Complete a short personal bio that includes the following:

o Provide your name, location, and something about yourself that your families would find interesting

o Describe why you chose to become an early childhood professional and what you love about working with children in this age range (be sure you are specific about the age range).

o Explain what you believe are the most important indicators of professionalism that you possess.

Review your Planning for the Future discussion post that you finished earlier this week post to help you complete this section.

Section 2: Importance of Early Learning

· Explain the important role that high quality care can have on a child’s overall growth and development.

· Identify two key theories of child development (e.g., Gardner, Vygotsky, Piaget, Skinner, Bronfenbrenner, etc.) that resonate with you as an early childhood professional.

o Describe each theory and its connection to Developmentally Appropriate Practice within the classroom.

Review your Developmental Theory: Your Toolbox discussion post from Week 2 to help you complete this section

· Discuss at least one way in which you differentiate learning experiences based on typical development, atypical development, and culture.

Review your Typical or Atypical Development? discussion post from Week 1 to help you complete this section.

Section 3: Environment

· Include a picture of the layout of your ideal classroom. Describe how your room design reflects the way you believe children learn best.

· Using the description from your Developmentally Apprpriate Practice: The Key discussion in Week 2, create a classroom layout using the Classroom Architect (Links to an external site.) or to the Gliffy (Links to an external site.)

·  (Links to an external site.)Explain how your learning environment (for your chosen age range) nurtures the development of every child in each of the domains listed below.

Cognitive

· Describe the specific classroom practices or strategies that reflect your philosophy of how to support young children’s cognitive development.

Social/emotional

· Describe at least one of the ways you support the development of children’s positive self-concept and growing social/emotional skills.

· Reflect on your philosophy of guiding young children’s positive behaviors. How do you constructively deal with young children’s challenging behaviors?

Language

· Describe ways to promote the communication/language development among all children including dual language learners.

Physical

· Describe your specific classroom practices or strategies that reflect your philosophy of how to support young children’s physical development.

Section 4: Families

· Describe the important role that families have on the overall growth and development of children and why you value them in your classroom.

o Review your Conversations With Families discussion post from Week 4, to help you complete this section

· Describe ways in which you ensure that families are kept aware of what’s happening in their child’s daily/weekly life in your classroom.

o Review your Family Interest discussion post from Week 4 to help you complete this section.

· Explain how you ensure that you are aware of what’s happening in each child’s home life. Tell how that awareness directs your teaching practices.

· Complete a resource page for families that includes the following resources in your local area:

o The name and contact information (phone number, web site, etc.) of a local agency that provides family counseling.

o The name and contact information (phone number, web site, etc.) of a translation service for families whose home language is other than English.

o The names, contact information, and brief descriptions of at least two agencies in the community that provide resources and services for children with disabilities.

o A list of three or more websites, and brief descriptions of each, that provides current information to help families understand how young children develop and learn.

· You can use readings or resources presented throughout this class, or new ones you feel are appropriate.

Assignment Submission Requirements

· This assignment will be submitted to Waypoint, as well as added to your ePortfolio. Refer to the instructions below to submit your assignment.

· Additionally, you will submit this Final Project to your ePortfolium.

o As you know, maintaining an ePortfolio can be beneficial when seeking employment. It is not uncommon for potential employers to want to see examples of your work and abilities. Additionally, for those of you who seek to continue on after Ashford and obtain your Child Development Associate (CDA), portions of this final assignment can be used to meet the Council for Professional Recognition’s portfolio requirements. To add this assignment to your ePortfolio, access Portfolium using the link along the left navigation menu, and add the document to your body of work.

For this assignment, you must submit

· A link to your electronic portfolio in Portfolium. To do this you will copy and paste the web address into the comments feature in Waypoint.

· A Word document including your completed assignment, as well as the link to your ePortfolio.

o Click on the Assignment Submission button. The Waypoint “Student Dashboard” will appear.

o Browse for your assignment.

o Click Upload.

o Confirm that your assignment was successfully submitted by viewing the appropriate week’s assignment tab in Waypoint, or clicking on Check Assignment Status within the Meet Your Instructor unit in the left navigation panel.

The Welcoming Children and Families: A Family Resource Guide project

· Must be six to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)

· Must include a separate title page with the following:

o Title of paper

o Student’s name

o Course name and number

o Instructor’s name

o Date submitted

· Must use at least four scholarly sources in addition to the course text.

o To assist you in completing the library research required for this assignment, view this Help! Need Article.  (Links to an external site.)tutorial, which can help you find a good starting place for your research.

o The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

· Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)

· Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Required Resource

Article

Wadlington, E., & Wadlington, P. (2012). Teacher dispositions: Implications for teacher education. Childhood Education, 87(5) p. 323-326. doi: 10.1080/00094056.2011.10523206

· The full-text version of this article is available through the ProQuest Central database in the Ashford University Library. In this article, the authors provide information about some of the important professional dispositions needed for those entering the education and early care fields, and will assist you in your Planning for the Future discussion this week.
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Recommended Resource

Article

Childcare Education Institute. (2008). Teacher roles and responsibilities (Links to an external site.). Teacher Enrichment Training Solutions, 3(8). Retrieved from https://www.cceionline.edu/newsletters/August_08.html

· In this article, the author provides information about the many roles and responsibilities early childhood educators have. This information may assist you in your Planning for the Future discussion this week.
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Create a 250-500 word digital brochure for families of children in preschool-kindergarten that describes services and supports for individuals with disabilities

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Early Intervention Strategies Digital Brochure

One priority for early intervention services is communication and support to families. Families are a young child’s first teacher and lifelong advocates. Parents of young children with a disability may have never had to advocate for services and are often new to navigating the system of supports in public school and other agency settings. Collaboration with parents of young children often involves informing parents of their roles, defining the role of the school, and helping parents understand and navigate the state agency supports available for young children.

Create a 250-500 word digital brochure for families of children in preschool-kindergarten that describes services and supports for individuals with disabilities. Choose one specific disability category from IDEA to complete your brochure.

Describe the following in your digital brochure, keeping in mind your chosen disability category:

  1. Role of the family in accessing early intervention services.
  2. Role of the state in providing early intervention services.
  3. Role of service providers in providing early intervention programs in public schools.
  4. Three early intervention strategies families can implement at home to promote communication skills, social skills, and literacy skills in their children affected by the chosen disability.
  5. One local organization that families could contact to learn more about the disability and community services that might be available.

The brochure should be respectful and appropriate in tone and word choice for the family audience. Support your findings with 2-3 scholarly resources.

While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success enter.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Early Intervening Services

Review “Early Intervening Services,” located on the U.S. Department of Education website.

URL:http://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/tb-early-intervent.pdf

What are you doing for professional development in terms of implementing interventions before starting the special education process at your site?

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School Psychologist and Administrator Interviews

School psychologists play a critical role in evaluation and determination of eligibility for special education services. They often consult with teachers and families about characteristics of disabilities and types of services and supports available in the school system and community.

This is a Block 1 Field Experience. In this block, your field experience must be completed before or after school, or other designated time when students are not present.

You will interview a school psychologist and an administrator for the first field experience.

Allocate at least 3 hours in the field to support this field experience.

Interview a school psychologist and an administrator, from any K-12 educational setting, about the following:

  1. What is your role in special education?
  2. What responsibilities do you have specific to meeting the needs of individuals with disabilities?
  3. Considering the students you have worked with, what disabilities have you encountered? Describe your experiences.
  4. What are the developmental milestones associated with the disabilities you have worked with that teachers should pay attention to?
  5. What is your role in the IEP process?
  6. When should teachers consult with you regarding the needs of their students?
  7. What is the role of the school in early intervention? How do you communicate that to the family, and how do you support the staff?

Additionally, ask the school psychologist the following:

  • What professional development opportunities related to special education do you feel would benefit staff in your school or district?

Ask the school administrator the following questions:

  • What are you doing for professional development in terms of implementing interventions before starting the special education process at your site?

In 500-750 words, identify the school setting, summarize, and reflect upon your interviews and explain how you will use your findings in your future professional practice.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Document the locations and hours you spend in the field on your Clinical Field Experience Verification Form.

Submit the Clinical Field Experience Verification Form to the LMS in the last topic. Directions for submitting can be found on the College of Education site in the Student Success Center.

Provide examples of effective nonverbal communication techniques (either by those you observed/watched or from those in the text) that you could use as a professional in a health and human services setting. How and why would you use them?

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Typically, we think of verbal communication as the words that we use to convey messages. The reading for this week helps us see that other things may be communicated through our verbal messages beyond the actual words used. Our choice of words and how they are conveyed can have a tremendous impact on our interactions with others, including clients and colleagues in human services settings. In this first discussion forum for the week, you will review a fictional case study in which you will be asked to provide examples of effective verbal communication techniques in a human services setting.

Read Chapter 4 of The Interpersonal Communication Book and review the summary information found on page 107. Last week we discussed how a cultural framework might shape the meaning or understanding of communication. What other factors may determine the message conveyed through verbal messages? Consider some principles of verbal messages that would be important for working with clients in human services settings. Would these principles also apply to working with colleagues or community members? Think about some guidelines that could help us communicate more effectively with others.

Case Study: You have a new job as a case manager in an assisted living facility for individuals over the age of 65. Part of your job is to help new residents get settled in to the facility, including explaining activities that are available to them. You also try to help new residents become part of the community at the residence. John is a 70-year-old man who has recently moved into your facility. You discover that John has a slight hearing impairment which affects his ability to both communicate as well as participate in group activities, and you must consider this when interacting with him. Up until now, he has only lived in his own home. Using this case as your example, please address the following:

  • Discuss two factors that are a part of verbal communication, beyond the actual words themselves that might be important in your first meeting with John.
  • Using information found in Table 4.1 (page 94) of your text, provide two or three examples of effective verbal communication techniques that you could use to engage with John within this particular setting. Describe one communication theory that can be applied to your interaction (e.g., how you verbally communicate, how you perceive John’s verbal communication, etc.).
  • Describe one communication theory from Week One’s required website reading (i.e., constructivist, attachment, communication accommodation, attribution) that can be applied to your interaction (e.g., how you verbally communicate, how you perceive John’s verbal communication, etc.).
  • What do you think may make it more personally difficult for you to communicate effectively with John? Why do you believe this to be the case?

Initial Post: Prepare a 300-word minimum reply that sufficiently addresses each of the items above. Don’t forget that it is critical to cite your sources of information, including the textbook, in APA format.

 It’s Not All About the Words

While verbal communication is just one way of articulating messages to others, it’s not the only skill that human service professionals need to utilize when working with clients. Nonverbal communication carries significant weight when it comes to conveying messages of all sorts. In this discussion forum, you will have an opportunity to provide examples of effective nonverbal communication techniques appropriate to a human services setting.

Read Chapter 5 from The Interpersonal Communication Book and watch the following video, People Skills:Communicating without Words (Links to an external site.) retrieved from the Films On Demand database.

Reflect on your own experience regarding nonverbal messages. Have there been situations in your life when the nonverbal messages were much clearer than the verbal messages? What about times when the words that were spoken did not match the nonverbal cues? How is online communication different in terms of nonverbal messages? What kinds of messages do you send nonverbally via your style of dressing or mannerisms? How would nonverbal messages affect your communication with clients or colleagues?

Spend approximately ten minutes observing two or more individuals in conversation at a coffee shop, store, or work environment. It is best if you observe individuals that you do not know. Please be respectful and unobtrusive in your observation. As an alternative, you can observe the interactions between characters on a television show. Following your observation and using your textbook as a guide, please respond to the questions below for your discussion post. If you are basing your post on television characters, please identify the show.

Initial Post: Prepare a 300-word minimum reply that sufficiently addresses each of the items below. Don’t forget that it is critical to cite your sources of information, including the textbook, using APA formatting:

What nonverbal messages did you observe?

  • How did the nonverbal messages or cues aid in communicating effectively?
  • What consistencies or inconsistencies between verbal and nonverbal messages did you observe?
  • Provide examples of effective nonverbal communication techniques (either by those you observed/watched or from those in the text) that you could use as a professional in a health and human services setting. How and why would you use them?

Required Text

DeVito, J. A. (2016). The interpersonal communication book (14th ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu