Welcome to Building Bright Beginnings
Introduction
Early childhood education and early intervention prepare the children for long-term academic and social success. The early years for children are the period when rapid brain development occurs. During this time when supportive environments and intentional teaching will highly effect learning goals. When children have positive experiences in early childhood they will develop nurturing relationships with peers and teachers, stable environments, and enriched learning opportunities. These are closely connected with school readiness which influence the outcome of cognition, social skills, and emotional domains. The Early intervention program is very beneficial to children who demonstrate developmental delays or disabilities. With time and support the gap in learning and adaptive skills will shrink. Early childhood programs that use evidence-based practices may produce large, meaningful gains in readiness skills, especially when supports are ongoing and aligned with children’s developmental needs.
In our inclusive preschool, we will collaborate with families, educators, and the communities. We will make our priority to expose the children to exploring, communication, and providing opportunities for social connections. An excellent way is for teachers to use play-based during center play to develop early literacy and number skills. This will also support communication development and interaction with their peers. Individualized support embedded within daily routines help the development of atypical children. They will learn with their peers. To help the children gain the skills to start kindergarten and following grades, we must nurture the children’s curiosity, resilience, and confidence.
School Readiness
School readiness is something that children must be helped with. School readiness includes cognition, social-emotional skills, physical, and language skills. The skills of the child go beyond the capacity of the child but it also depends on how prepared the school is to meet the families different needs and how the family can support the early learning of the child. In our preschool we use different to ensure way to know identify readiness. We use observational assessment, developmental screenings, language samples, and family details. These are the tools that help us determine where the child’s strengths and where they may need additional support to succeed. Teachers must take into consideration their cultural linguistic, and social context.
Teachers collect information on early literacy behaviors. These literacy behaviors include print awareness, the use of vocabulary, and the ability of storytelling to determine how developed their language is. We assess skills in both the home language and English for multilingual students. We do this not to underestimate the abilities of the child. Social-emotional readiness is determined by the observing how the child interacts with their peers, how they deal when self-regulating, and how they problem solve during play. To test physical readiness we observe how the child draws and handles small objects.
The environment and cultural background are taken into consideration. When children are exposed to storytelling that is rich in culture may show strengths in narrative even if there is not a lot of exposure to print. Children who are atypical can demonstrate readiness with other ways of communicating with using gestures or assistive technology devices. To ensure that the readiness assessments are fair and show the true child that includes their unique cultural background, we use different sources of data.
Learning Influences
There are different factors that contribute to children learning. The factors include language, culture, and what they experience when and with their families. Inclusive early childhood programs must incorporate these influences into the curriculum and the instruction of the children. Environments that are culturally enriching heighten engagement, identify development, and provide academic advancement for all learners. In our preschool teachers begin by becoming familiar with each of the families values, the routine followed at home, and how they communicate with one another at home. This is helpful in the classroom teacher to identify what may be needed in the classroom. Choosing books that are relevant to the different cultural in the classroom. Teachers can also incorporate languages spoken at home into the daily routines. You can use some phrases in the visual schedule or modeling can help close the gap in the differences while still being respectful of who the children are and where they come from. Teachers must adapt the expectations to correspond to their diverse norms.
A child from a home multiple language speaking home maybe strong in cognition and in problem-solving skills. This can strengthen through bilingual labeling, bilingual songs, and peer modeling language. Teachers can also speak to each other in a different language and translate to the children the conversation. Autistic children may need structured support to guide them through cultural expectations that revolve around communication and social interaction. Visual schedules or modeling can help with the differences and still be respectful of the child’s identity.
The background of the family can also impact in the pace the child learns and the style in which they learn. Children who are around family that are verbal and rich in oral traditions may have higher verbal expression skills. Meanwhile children who come with structured homes have a higher success rate because the use of routines that are predictable. When these influence are recognized we create a pathway to individualized learning that support both typical and atypical development.
Collaboration
Being on the same page is something that is important to getting the child the needed help. The well-being of the child is stronger when the collaboration is strong between the families and the professionals. Our school used regular communications with families through parent-teacher conferences to set shared goal. We invite families to engage in “Learning at Home” workshops where teachers can model techniques to promote language and play. Parents teach cultural facts, development insight, and the priorities that shape the individuals plan for learning.
When families collaborate with speech therapist, occupational therapist and early intervention guarantees support for children with atypical development. Providing the children these added services is on a team-based model. This model is when the specialist, coach, teacher come up with strategies that can be implemented into the daily routine. A speech therapist may collaborate with the teacher to incorporate visual supports and communication prompts during meals times to encourage expressive language.
These collaborations are a support system that will benefit all the children. Families feel more in control, teachers and professional gain a deeper understanding. This ensures the specialist are consistent and effective. The specialist can also get a better picture of the child when they meet and discuss how the child is at home.
Conclusion
This webpage gives the families and the different stakeholders a direct and precise explanation of the philosophies, research, that direct the direction of our inclusive preschool. By explaining how we assess readiness, respect cultural and linguistic diversity, provide support social-emotional development, and collaborations with the families and professionals. Our goal is to build transparency and most importantly trust with the families. Gaining the families trust gives them peace of mind that we all want the best interest of the child. The child gains and benefits when everyone is on the same page. Families can use the information provided by the professionals to understand how to help the child’s development and what they can do at home to improve the child’s educational journey. The professionals will also benefit and get a better understanding form the information they get form the families. We will actively participate in the learning decision making with the families. The community and professionals can partner to can use to make coordination stronger and ensure that all the children receive developmental support and are treated equally. With everyone having all hands on deck we can create a learning an environment is safe and productive for all. Tis cannot be influenced by the child’s background or regardless of the ability of the child. Every child is given the same support so they can thrive.
"Building Bright Beginnings has transformed my child's early learning experience. The inclusive environment and dedicated educators have made a remarkable difference in their confidence and joy for learning."
References
Barnett. W. S., & Friedman-Krauss, A. (2020). Early childhood education: Effective interventions to improve school readiness. National Institute for Early Education Research. Homepage | National Institute for Early Education Research (nieer.org)
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2016). From the best practices to breakthrough impacts: A science-based approach to building a more promising future for young children. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA). (2023). Research synthesis on early childhood inclusion. ECTA Center: Inclusion
National Association For the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2020). Developmentally appropriate practice position statement. Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Position Statement | NAEYC
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Head Start. (2021). Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages birth to five. Head Start Services | The Administration for Children and Families (acf.gov)
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2024). Embracing Linguistic Diversity to Support Multilingual Learners. Embracing Linguistic Diversity to Support Multilingual Learners | NAEYC
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[[618 west 164 street]]
[[New York, NY 10032]]
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Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed
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