During these two weeks the one and two year room have screening students in English using the Denver II and the Child Observation Record using anecdotal. The children in this room are 14 months to 24 months. They are two teachers so one teacher has the younger group and the other teacher has the older group. In this room there is a child that the family speaks Spanish. He is 24 months old and only makes sounds. He started receiving service this pass summer. He is repeating animal sounds. They have talked with the special needs coordinator. I have ask question to the coordinator about his screening. She stated we need to do all our assessments in English first then we will retest him in Spanish using a translator.
His mother is aware of him not talking at him. He uses gestures, and sounds for his wants and needs. This is a Early Head Start room with eight toddlers and two teachers. This child does have a brother that is receiving services. The teachers want to work with the mother and father to develop a educational plan for this child.
I believe that if you start early assessing a child and making a referral to the right service provider you can make a difference in their life. The question I ask the mother was when did you decide their was a concern with the child's speech. The mother replied at the age of 12-15 months he was not babbling and the doctor referred him to be screen by early intervention. He qualified for services. The special needs coordinator said she was going to work with the family and assess him in Spanish. I am excited to see him use words in Spanish and English.
I also feel if you start early assessing then you will get better outcomes. The sooner you detect a problem the sooner you get it fixed. How does the mother feel about what is going on? I think as a mother it is hard to hear something is "wrong" with your child. My son is 12 years old and he as ADHD! I remember when the concern was brought uo because I was in conplete denial. Now I see that this is something that we have to address and he is still "normal" he just has a disability. I feel we need to be careful about what we say to these parents in the begining because some things are hard to hear.
ReplyDeleteI hope he gets the proper care and everything works out.
Early assessment as well as interventions is key to catching a child up who is behind academically. Many times it's difficult to assess children who are bi-lingual as you do not know where they are having difficulty.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Puntil-Wilcek, I will agree with you I have the watch the child's facial expession and his gestures to understand his wants and needs. We are saying the words in English and in Spanish but he has not showed any progress with words.
ReplyDeleteHe has a brother receving services and we are planning a home visit to understand his home environment. We are working with the early intervention each week. This is a slow process that we are expecting good outcomes by May 2013.