Chapter 22 Early Childhood Adapted Physical Education 22 Early Childhood Adapted Physical Education Lauriece L. Zittel C H A P T E R

Federal Legislation and Young Children Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (PL , 2004) Consider age group (3-9 years), noncategorical approach, multiage and multiability classrooms, and multidimensional assessment.

Early Childhood Movement Programs Selected, designed, sequenced, and modified to maximize learning and active participation for young children in preschool- and primary-aged programs.

Testing Young Children Identify a gross motor developmental level compared with children of the same age. –What instruments do you use? Identify specific skill delays for program planning and instruction. –What instruments do you use?

Assessing Developmental Delay Norm-referenced instrument Standardized testing Formal setting (continued)

Assessing Developmental Delay (continued) Instruments: –Brigance Inventory of Early Development (Brigance, 1991) –Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (Folio & Fewell, 2000) –Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 2000)

Planning for Instruction Criterion referenced Curriculum-based assessment Formal and informal testing Instruments: –Smart Start (Wessel & Zittel, 1995) –I CAN K-3 (Wessel & Zittel, 1998) –Carolina Curriculum (Johnson-Martin, Attermeier, & Hacker, 1990)

Why Use Rubrics to Assess? Individualized for each ability Benefit children with severe disabilities Assist with designing instructional environments

Standards in Physical Education National physical education standards Assessing standard 1 Early learning standards

Primary Objectives for Early Childhood Programs 1.Young children experiencing delays in their motor development should receive opportunities and instruction that are designed to parallel what their same-aged peers receive but are modified to address individual challenges. (continued)

Primary Objectives for Early Childhood Programs (continued) 2.Activity environments should be designed according to assessment information and individualized. Arbitrarily selecting games and activities because they are fun is not in line with good practice.

Early Childhood Instructors: Considerations Developmental differences between preschool age and primary age Developmental differences between children of the same age with differing diagnoses

Facilitating Communication Use both verbal and nonverbal: Recognize similarities and differences. Collaborate with all team members. Consider strategies to prompt speech or other communication.

Alternative Systems for Communication Sign language Picture systems Visual schedules Voice output systems Acting out stories and songs

Three Cs of Curriculum Design (Wessel & Zittel, 1995, 1998) Content Construction Contact

Content Differences between preschool and primary ages depend on how well the teacher has examined the assessment information and understands the developmental differences.

Construction How the teacher constructs the activity environment and how the activities are introduced differ for preschool- and primary-aged children.

Contact Critical to instructional planning is the thought given to the strategies that maximize engagement with equipment and peers versus time with adults.

Curriculum Organization Instructional units might be organized around the following: Fundamental skill units (e.g., locomotor skills, play skills) Themes –Schoolwide –From classroom themes (e.g., colors, numbers, events)

Teaching Approaches Exploration: The teacher selects the instructional materials to be used and designates the area to be explored (Pangrazi, 2007). Children explore the many possible ways of using equipment.

Guided Discovery Children are presented with a variety of methods to perform a task and then asked to choose the method that is most efficient or that works best for them.

Movement Environments Preschool-aged principles of design: 1.Child-directed learning 2.Opportunity for choice 3.Self-initiated exploration 4.Mix of novel and familiar equipment 5.Opportunity to view peer models (continued)

Movement Environments (continued) Primary-aged principles of design: 1.Use of a variety of learning styles 2.Equipment options available for practice 3.Task-rule flexibility 4.Use of a variety of classroom designs 5.Opportunity for peer observation