Allen Chapter 11

Allen and Cowdery, The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education, Ninth Edition. © 2022 Cengage. All
Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Characteristics of Effective Teachers in Inclusive
Programs
Chapter 11

Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
11-1 discuss the role of the early childhood teacher as a member of a team.
11-2 highlight the applied developmental approaches and discuss
developmental principles.
11-3 list eight or more characteristics found among effective teachers of
young children in inclusive programs.

Teachers as Members of a Team (1 of 2)
Team members may include the parents, a speech pathologist, an early
childhood special educator, an occupational therapist, an applied behavior
analyst, a psychologist, and an inclusion specialist.

Teachers as Members of a Team (2 of 2)
• Teacher training in child development is a must.
• Understand the similarities among all children.
• Respect the ethnic, racial, linguistic, and cultural diversity of the community.
• Create learning experiences that are culturally sensitive.
• Create a classroom environment that is motivating, safe, interesting,
responsive, and supportive for every child.

Teachers’ Concerns
• Teachers feel unprepared to work with children who have disabilities.
• Supports are available to help teachers.
• Teachers need to want to seek out information to help them help the child
with disabilities.
• The more informed the teacher is, the better prepared that teacher will be
for the classroom.

Supplemental Professional Development
• Teachers need additional knowledge about specific disabilities as each child
is enrolled.
• On-the-job experience is also necessary.
• State support agencies have resources available to help teachers learn
about the different disabilities.

Teacher and Program Self-Evaluation
Teachers and program staff must be willing to examine their own program and
evaluate where changes might need to be made.
• Physical environment
• Communication with family
• Assessment and curriculum
• Strategies for promoting positive behavior

Knowledge Check Activity 1
How does the early childhood educator’s expertise specifically enhance
teamwork?
a. Brings special knowledge of the child
b. Provides systematic instruction
c. Brings to the team the ability to create a classroom environment and learning activities
that are fun, motivating, safe, interesting, responsive, and supportive for every child
d. Has a direct relationship with the parents

Knowledge Check Activity 1 Answer
How does the early childhood educator’s expertise specifically enhance
teamwork?
Answer: c. Brings to the team the ability to create a classroom environment and
learning activities that are fun, motivating, safe, interesting, responsive, and supportive
for every child.

The Applied Developmental Approach
A Child Is a Child
• Teachers need to view each child as a child.
• Blaming a behavior on a disability is unfounded.
• Children are children first and need to be treated as such.

Review of Developmental Principles (1 of 3)
Developmental sequences
• Understanding that a child moves through skill sequences is more important than knowing
how far a child is behind or ahead.
Interrelationships among developmental domains
• Recognize that the whole child needs to be taught, not just one developmental domain.

Developmental inconsistencies
• This is when a child seems to be progressing then begins to slow or regress.
The transactional process
• Learning goes on directly and indirectly.
• Teachers need to examine the environment to see the full effect of their teaching.

Contingent stimulation
• The more a child is rewarded for communicating, the more the child will communicate.
• Self-esteem develops, attachments are more secure, development is smoother
Readiness to learn
• The opportunity to learn in a quality environment will give the child skills needed to be
ready for school.

Teachable Moments
Those naturally occurring opportunities when a child is most likely to learn
something new.
• A two-year-old tries to put on a shoe, heel-to-toe.
• A three-year-old struggles to make an upside-down coat stay on the hook.
• A four-year-old asks, “Where did the ice go?”
• A five-year-old tries to balance a teetering block structure.
• A six-year-old wants to write their own “book.”
• An eight-year-old wants to make the cupcakes for their birthday.

Milieu Teaching
• The child initiates a learning activity by asking a teacher for help, materials,
or information.
• It represents the systematic application of principles compatible with both a
developmental and a behavioral approach to early learning
• It also exemplifies quality teaching practices that include
• meeting a child where his or her interests lie;
• responding in a way that matches the child’s skill level;
• introducing the element of novelty that provides a challenge for the child;
• providing desired materials as a natural consequence to the child’s response.

Characteristics of Effective Teachers

Case Study
A four-year-old boy with Down syndrome enrolled in a program accompanied by an
aide. With the exception of a few biting incidents, he thrived in the setting. Once he was
acclimated and comfortable with the routine, he began attending independently. He
participated in everything with the typical zest of a four-year-old and was in every way
an integral member of the class.
Although there were concerns about how to deal with students’ questions, students
quickly demonstrated their ability to accept differences between themselves and other
children. As long as answers were truthful and simple, it seemed to be enough for them.
This experience was not without challenges. The greatest concern was teachers did not
have backgrounds in special education and often felt ill-equipped to handle tantrums.
When moments felt too disruptive, the teacher enlisted the help of his parent or another
member of his team for support and information.

Case Study Debrief
• What aspects of this teacher’s experience relate to the characteristics of an
effective teacher?
• What did this teacher do to meet the challenges she faced?
• What else could she have done?

The Teacher as Mediator (1 of 2)
• The teacher is the mediator between the child and the environment.
• The teacher decreases support as the child is ready for more independent
learning.
• Also known as scaffolding.

The Teacher as Mediator (2 of 2)
Teachers who practice mediated teaching create an environment that is
conducive to learning by:
• thinking through the purpose of an activity;
• assessing the current skill levels of each child;
• providing support and placing demands that reflect the appropriate developmental goals for
a child;
• demonstrating intentionality; that is, organizing the experience in ways that clearly
communicate what is to be learned;
• helping children generalize new learning to situations beyond the immediate setting;
• taking cues from children’s interest and responding to child-initiated learning situations;
• providing activities that have meaning or function in the everyday life of the child.

Role-play Activity
1. Break into small groups
2. Role-play each of the following classroom situations:
a. A teacher being consistent about a rule
b. A teacher being flexible about a routine
c. A teacher being both consistent and flexible about the same rule or routine

Summary
Now that the lesson has ended, you should have learned how to:
• discuss the role of the early childhood teacher as a member of a team.
• highlight the applied developmental approaches and discuss developmental principles.
• list eight or more characteristics found among effective teachers of young children in
inclusive programs.

Allen Chapter 11

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