1. Embedding Learning Opportunities in
12th Biennial National Conference Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …
Embedding Learning Opportunities in
Early Childhood Education and Care Environments
Kerry Bull
Senior Manager, Noah’s Ark Inc. ©
7-9 September, Melbourne, Australia

2. Embedding learning opportunities within and across routines, activities, and environments to provide contextually relevant learning opportunities.
Inclusive practices
Consultation and coaching with Early Childhood Educators
Individualised interventions
This presentation will discuss the challenges and opportunities that ECI professionals have in in embedding learning opportunities within and across routines, activities, and environments.
With our understanding that children learn best through every day experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar contexts, there are implications for the way in which ECI professionals help children participate more successfully in daily activities within ECEC settings through collaborative consultation with educators
This is particularly important to highlight at this time as it’s tempting to just focus on the NDIS.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

3. Garden for the children - “A place where children can grow in a natural way”
By way of introduction:
Here I am… It was a child’s garden.
It was Friedrich Froebel, one of the influential founders of preschools, who coined the term ‘kindergarten’ in the 1800’s. Kindergarten literally means “a children's garden” or a “A place where children can grow in a natural way”
In my adult years I became and EC educator and moved into the field of Special Education and Early Intervention early in my career.
Understanding the way young children grow, develop and learn is very important to me
Inclusion is also very important to me.
When I look back at this photo I am reminded that the 60’s were a time of segregated settings and institutionalisation. It wasn’t until the mid 70’s that parents of a child with a disability were beginning to be encouraged to enrol their child into ECEC settings. And not until the ‘80s, with the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation, that this societal shift really took on some momentum.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

4. 1. Inclusive Practices
Every child regardless of their needs has the right to participate fully in their community and have the same choices, opportunities and experiences as other children (ECIA, 2015). Inclusion in mainstream services is now recognised both as a right and as an intervention strategy.
Now, in 2016, Inclusion is firmly placed on the social justice agenda.
We understand that “Every child …” More recently, we have come to recognise that inclusion is a right AND an intervention strategy.
Preschool inclusion is based on strong empirical foundations that may have longitudinal benefits in setting up a momentum that results in future participation in mainstream school for children with disabilities and delays. Inclusive practices promote: membership and a sense of belonging, positive social relationships, and learning and development that leads children to reaching their full potential.
When I reflect on this, I wonder whether there is any tension between:
1. The traditional kindergarten program, or ‘garden’ where children learn in a natural way that was founded during the era of segregation and institutionalisation, and
2. Our current understanding of inclusion and participation in terms of designing and implementing individualised instructional approaches and embedding learning to enhance active engagement in play and learning, or whether they complement each other, providing a rich early childhood education for all children.
And given the degree of learning and engagement depends on the type, nature and quality of the strategies educators use, I also wonder how ECI professionals can best serve the learning needs of children with disabilities and educators in ECEC environments.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

5. Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
Victorian Early Years Learning and development Framework (VEYLDF)
National Guidelines: Best practice in ECI
Position Statement on the Inclusion of Children with a Disability in Early Childhood Education and Care
National Quality Framework (NQF)
Parallel to Public Policy, findings from EC Research show that children’s progress is associated with quality ECEC programs.
The inclusion agenda is well supported in Australia in the Early Years through a number of frameworks:
Early Years Learning Framework
Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework
National Guidelines: Best practice in ECI
Position Statement on the Inclusion of Children with a Disability in Early Childhood Education and Care
National Quality Framework
These are all solid frameworks, however there is limited research on ASPECTS of quality of inclusive pre-school programs.
Further to this, there is a widely held assumption that young children with disabilities can experience low quality inclusive practices in ECEC settings that are otherwise valued as high quality.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

6. Inclusive Classroom Profile
Adaptations of space and materials/equipment
Adult involvement in peer interactions
Adults’ guidance of children’s activities and play
Conflict resolution
Membership
Relationships between adults and children
Support for communication
Adaptation of group activities
Transitions between activities
Feedback
Parent-Professional Partnership
Monitoring children’s learning Soukakou, 2012
NQF
EYLF
I suggest that there is a place for other tools that help us measure inclusive practices to improve the quality of ECEC programs. Elena Soukakou
The ICP provides us with a tool that is designed to complement existing quality measures by assessing aspects of ECEC practice that might be necessary to meet the developmental needs of children with disabilities.
The ICP has a 7-point likert rating scale to assess quality of ECEC practices for a group of children with disabilities. It is informed by the literature on inclusive practices to reflect evidence based practices that support individual need and promote participation. The ICP is a valid and reliable tool that drills down into inclusive practices. For example the first item - Adaptations of space and materials/equipment: assesses the extent to which adults adapt the space, furniture and materials to promote children's learning and social experience.
And the final item - Monitoring children’s learning, focuses on assessing the extent to which Individual Program Plan goals are being planned, implemented in daily activities, and how children’s progress is being monitored.
The ICP is based on a number of guiding principles, including that specialised instructional strategies and interventions are a major aspect of supportive, inclusive ECEC services. So, the ICP interacts nicely with our current frameworks.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

7. 2. Consultation and coaching with Early Childhood Educators
How is ECIS currently supporting inclusion in ECEC?
Consultancy Project – Noah’s Ark (2016)
Australian literature review and report
Effects of Consultation and Coaching on Teaching and Learning in Education: A Review of the Literature (Buysse & Dinnebeil, 2015).
Interviews –
Educators Kindergarten Teacher/Directors
Long Day Care Coordinators
Preschool Field Officers
Inclusion Support Facilitators
Kindergarten Inclusion Support Coordinator
Kindergarten Inclusion Support Assistants
Cluster Manager
Specialist Children’s Services Team Leader © Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016
Let’s turn our thoughts to consultancy practices in Australia that aim to support participation and learning.
What do we know about how ECI services are currently supporting inclusion in ECEC?
Noah’s Ark is interested in better understanding this and began work last year on a Consultancy project.
Australian model
Consider policies, resources, and infrastructure needed to support adoption and wide-scale implementation of a consultation and coaching model
Use consultation and coaching protocol as the centrepiece of professional development for consultants/coaches, along with content related to effective interpersonal and communication skills.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

8. What are the challenges?
Educators
Consultants
Lack of role clarity
Program quality
Lack of own knowledge about ECEC programs
Turnover of ECEC staff
Educators time
Educators incorporating strategies
Educators ‘relinquishing’ responsibility for the child’s learning
Communication difficulties
Number of different consultants
Consultants lack of understanding of ECEC programs
Time
Expectations of therapists
© Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016
Many of these findings are reflected in the other research findings that have investigated the barriers to inclusion. In particular:
Practical barriers such as lack of time, turnover of staff and the number of different consultants.
Relationship issues such as communication, lack of role clarity
Pertinent to today's session is the Consultants perception that Educators are ‘relinquishing’ responsibility for the child’s learning’.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

9. What does this mean in terms of a shared understanding of the role of the consultant ECI professional?
What does it mean in terms of moving from thinking about children participating, to thinking about children as learners?
How does this interact with the finding that both groups perceive that consultants lack a thorough understanding of ECEC programs?
What are the implications for the ways in which ECI consultants and ECEC educators work together to provide embedded learning opportunities ?
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

10. What works? Consultants Educators Inclusion support meetings
Teamwork
Resourcing
Programming support
© Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016
Inclusion support meetings
Coaching
Strengths-based practice
Specialist support
Supporting children's learning and development
What did we find that works in our current Consultancy arrangements?
Inclusion support meetings were valued by everyone.
Given that today where talking specifically about ECI consultants and ECEC educators working together to provide embedded learning opportunities, I’m particularly interested in highlighting that:
Educators value the resourcing and program support that consultants can provide, and
Consultants value a strength-based coaching approach in providing that support
What might happen if for consultants focussed some of their efforts on resourcing and supporting ECEC educators in embedding learning opportunities within and across routines and activities, to support the child’s learning and development; using a strength-based coaching approach?
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

11. Opportunities
Key Worker balancing and addressing functional goals across all environments.
Parents, educator and ECI working together to balance and address functional goals across all environments and teach skills to promote child engagement and learning.
Herein lies an opportunity!
One of the real opportunities for those working as a Key Worker in ECIS is in developing practices that support children across all environments that are individually dynamically, and functionally goal orientated.
There are great opportunities for us here in terms of a partnership between educators and Key Workers– just as we develop a partnership with families.
The role of the KW I believe is to develop those partnerships with, and between, parents and educators and to teach skills to promote child engagement and learning.
To do this we need an inclusive practices framework.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

12. © Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016 Individualised interventions
Embedded learning and intentional teaching
Program activities and approaches
Participation, engagement, adaptations and partnerships
Universal service supports
Policy, procedures, practices, curriculum
ECEC standards, systems and frameworks
NQF, EYLF, VEYLDF
Here’s one way of thinking about an Australian Inclusion Framework.
ECEC Standards: strong foundation
Universal service supports: including professional development and learning opportunities for staff
Program activities and approaches for children with additional needs: thinking carefully about membership, adapting environments and partnerships with families and other professionals
Today focussing on the top tier - Individualised interventions
That is: embedded learning and intentional teaching that is supported by a quality service
Important to acknowledge that some educators may require action steps related to these more foundational practices in order to achieve individualised intervention implementation. Another place for the Inclusive classroom profile perhaps?
© Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

13. 3. Individualised interventions
Let’s home in on the top tier and clarify what we mean by embedded learning and intentional teaching.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

14. Embedded learning Context of ongoing routines
Learning skills in the context in which the child will use them
Multiple opportunities to learn skills throughout the day
A focus on independence, engagement and social participation
(McWilliam, 2008)
“ A recommended approach for addressing children’s individualised goals in the natural environments” (Wolery et al., 2001).
Let’s home in on the top tier and clarify what we mean by embedded learning and intentional teaching.
Robin McWilliam, who many of us know in relation to his work on the Routine Based Interview, suggests that embedded learning approaches:
Promote learning within the context of ongoing routines and teaches skills in the context in which the child will use them
This provides the child with multiple opportunities to learn skills throughout the day and promotes a focus on independence, engagement and social participation.
Mark Woolery describes embedded leaning as“ A recommended approach for addressing children’s individualised goals in the natural environments”
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

15. Embedded learning is a teaching approach involving the intentional teaching of individual child learning goals, within the context of activities, routines, and transitions.
Intentional teaching
Educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and actions.
Intentional educators act with specific learning goals in mind and play roles in guiding children’s experiences. (EYLF)
Embedded learning is a teaching approach involving the intentional teaching of individual child learning goals, within the context of activities, routines and transitions.
The EYLF speaks really well about intentional teaching
The NQF also highlights intentional teaching
For example: in Quality area One - Educational program and practice.
Quality Area “Educators respond to children's ideas and play and uses intentional teaching to scaffold and extend each child’s learning
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

16. Embedded Instruction has key practices that fall into
four categories
What to teach - developing a short-term goal for the child’s learning
When to teach - considering which routines are relevant to embedded learning for this goal
How to teach - selecting strategies that could be used to provide a learning opportunity
How to evaluate - developing a plan to collect information to monitor progress towards the goal
(Snyder, Hemmeter, Sandall, & McLean; 2008).
How do we embed learning?
Pat Snyder and her colleagues from the US provide us with a very helpful and simple What, When and How approach.
This is a cycle that is familiar to us, of of developing goals, considering the routines that are relevant to embed learning, selecting strategies and developing a plan to collect information and monitor progress.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

17. What does this mean for young children with a disability and their learning opportunities in ECEC?
Let me introduce you to Nick – who likes to paint!
From the RBI, Nick’s parents identified nine outcomes:
Playing next to other children Walking up stairs holding hands
Rolling a ball Using a spoon
Pulling up his pants Following instructions (stop, come here, wave bye-bye)
Tasting new foods Copying sounds
Playing with his brother
When Nick started at day care, the Key Worker conducted a modified RBI with the educator in order to balance and address functional goals across all environments and teach Nick skills to promote his engagement and learning.
Nick’s mum was there too and they drew up a matrix that identified how learning opportunities could be embedded at home and day care.
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

18. Balancing and addressing functional goals across all environments
OUTCOMES
Breakfast
Getting ready for day care
Playtime with dad
Swimming pool
Hanging out at home
Outside play at home
Lunch
Free play at day care
Outside play at day care
Playground
Bath time
Dinner
Playing next to other children X
Walking up stairs holding hands
Rolling a ball
Using a spoon
Pulling up his pants
Following instructions (stop, come here, wave bye-bye)
Tasting new foods
Copying sounds
Playing with his brother
Nick’s educator had a way in which she could embedded learning with functional goals that were within the context of all of his activities, routines and transitions.
What to teach - developing a short-term goal for the child’s learning
When to teach - considering which routines are relevant to embedded learning for this goal
How to teach - selecting strategies that could be used to provide a learning opportunity
How to evaluate - developing a plan to collect information to monitor progress towards the goal
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

19. Collaborative consultation and coaching
Approaches that are dependent on the Consultant Key Worker having the knowledge, skills, qualities and core competencies in:
• Early childhood development and learning
• Early Childhood Education and Care theory and practices
• The NQF and VEYLDF/EYLF
• Interpersonal and communication skills
• Coaching and consultation skills
• Reflective practices.
© Noah’s Ark Inc. 2016
To finish up I would like to highlight that the extent to which inclusive practices such as embedded learning and intentional teaching are promoted in ECEC services depends on the skills and qualities of ECEC educators and the ECIS KWs or consultants supporting them.
I believe some of the consultants require very specific core competencies to enable them to support embedded learning and intentional teaching.
Pivotal to this is a solid grounding in early childhood learning and development. Back to where I started 30 minuted ago.
Understanding the way little children grow, learn and develop us critical in supporting meaningful inclusion.
Consultants also need to be on top of…
This is an exciting time, as we think more clearly about children with disabilities as learners and how we can embed learning opportunities within and across routines, activities, and environments. With our understanding that children learn best through every day experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar contexts, there are implications for the way in which ECI professionals help children participate more successfully in daily activities within ECEC settings through collaborative consultation with educators
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

20. Seven Key Principles: Looks Like/Doesn’t Look Like
Infants and toddlers learn best through every day experiences and interactions with familiar people in familiar contexts.
• Learning activities and opportunities must be functional, based on child and family interest and enjoyment
• Learning is relationship-based
• Learning should provide opportunities to practice and build upon previously mastered skills
• Learning occurs through participation in a variety of enjoyable activities
Workgroup on Principles and Practices in Natural Environments
OSEP TA Community of Practice- Part C Settings
ECIA 12th Biennial National Conference, Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …

21. Senior Manager, Noah’s Ark Inc. ©
12th Biennial National Conference Choices that matter: ECI in a new era …
Thank-you
Kerry Bull (PhD)
Senior Manager, Noah’s Ark Inc. ©
7-9 September, Melbourne, Australia