1- You are asked to be a member of an interagency work group including teachers, specialists such as Speech and Language Pathologists, administrators, and parents to address the inclusion of young children between the ages of 3 and 5 years who qualify for services under IDEA and who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in a range of preschool programs (i.e., Head Start, State Preschool, local private preschools, and public school Transitional Kindergarten [TK] programs). Discuss the strategies and steps that should be taken to support effective processes for the interagency work group and evidence-based practices to support positive outcomes for all students.
2- A young child just celebrated his second birthday and he has recently received a diagnosis of Autism from a pediatric neurologist. His family lives in a working class neighborhood in a suburban area. Both parents work outside of the home and the child is cared for by his maternal grandmother and an aunt during the day. He has one older sister (age 3 years, 6 months) and one younger brother (age 3 months) who are not manifesting any unusual development or delays at this time. Both parents are Cuban and they speak both Spanish and English fluently. The grandmother speaks predominantly Spanish and is a first generation Cuban immigrant. The aunt is the sister of the child's mother and she speaks fluent English as well as Spanish. The childis demonstrating delays inage appropriate adaptive (e.g., feeding, dressing/undressing, etc.), fine motor, language and communication, and social (e.g., interactions with caregivers and siblings; appropriate play with toys, etc.) skills. He appears to be developing as expected in terms of overall health and physical development including gross motor skills. He has been referred to the Early Start program for assessment and the development of an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).
Your role on the IFSP team is to determine the family's concerns, priorities, and resources in relation to the needs of the child. Discuss (1) the information that you plan to collect to address the assessment question, (2) the specific methods or approaches you plan to use to collect the information, and (3) how the information can be used by the team to facilitate decision-making regarding the development of the IFSP.
3- Use theinformation in the Case Studyattached to the Final Exam questions. You have had the student described in the case study in your preschool special day class setting for the last five weeks and it is time to develop the annual IEP. There was a 30 day review meeting last week and the Speech and Language Pathologist provided progress on the IEP goals related to Communication Development as identified in the case study materials. Discuss how you, as the current teacher, would assess this student for the development of their new annual IEP. Include a clear description of all steps in the assessment process including the tools and approaches that you would use and how the family would be involved.
4- Briefly describe the characteristics of each of the team models used in special education. Discuss the benefits of providing services in Early Childhood Special Education using the transdisciplinary team model in comparison to the other team models.