INTRODUCTION
Today, many who provide services designed to promote the development of children share the belief that services should be conducted within the context of everyday settings. In the SPIES curriculum, everyday settings are defined as the daily routines and activities that are part of a child's life. In the home these routines and activities may include dressing, eating, brushing teeth, and playing with family members. At school, they may include center time, snack time, story time, and free play. In the community they may include shopping or attending entertainment. For most children, interacting in everyday settings is all that is needed to promote their optimal development. However, children with disabilities, special health needs, or those who are at risk for the development of a disability often need supports in order to learn and develop through interactions in everyday settings. In these instances, adults can provide intervention to help the child learn and develop in areas where he may need special help and encouragement.
CULTURALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY APPROPRIATE
SPIES is culturally and linguistically appropriate for families and classrooms. SPIES Facilitator Manuals and videotape modules were submitted to the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Early Childhood Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 1999. The following comments were taken from the CLAS Institute review:
" The SPIES videos would be most helpful to families, because families would observe that other parents, children and other family members, participated in the development of this useful program. The use of the videotape format makes the material accessible to adults with limited school experience. One notable strength is the involvement of the family in their child's intervention program. Videotape illustrations of parents helping their children learn at home will encourage parent-professional partnerships, which ultimately produce optimal outcomes for children."
"SPIES has been field-tested by individuals from many cultural groups, in Utah, South Carolina, Washington, Wyoming and Florida. The material is exceptional in organization and clarity. The video presentation is outstanding; it depicts cultural diversity effectively. Varying cultural and linguistic groups are fairly represented in the powerful role of service providers, as well as service recipients. SPIES can be an excellent multicultural education program because the videotapes include persons of diverse ethnicity, social-cultural differences, gender, and disabilities."
"The principles presented in this material can be adopted in many different cultural contexts for training in early childhood intervention. No adaptation is needed to make the material culturally relevant. The developers chose simple sentence structure and vocabulary for the technical terms (such as intervention strategies), to enable a wider population to benefit from this excellent training material. The glossary is helpful when the users have questions about particular terms. There is also a Spanish language version for programs who wish to conduct training in Spanish."
*Adapted from a review by the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Early Childhood Research Institute, 1999.
The intervention strategies introduced in SPIES are designed to help children master their goals and objectives. Using everyday settings as the context for intervention, we will show how adults can plan and carry out intervention and how they can determine if intervention was successful. We do not mean to suggest that the intervention strategies introduced in SPIES are the only ones available, nor do we mean to suggest that all intervention can occur in everyday settings. We do want to show adults ways to take advantage of everyday settings to provide intervention that can help children master a variety of goals and objectives. The intervention strategies introduced in SPIES are based on methods of instruction that may be called naturalistic. Naturalistic methods of instruction have the following characteristics: They are used in everyday settings, incorporate developmentally and individually appropriate activities, and are based on a child's interest. The first characteristic of Naturalistic methods is that they are used in everyday settings. There are several advantages to embedding instruction in everyday settings. One advantage is that it allows for dispersed practice and children can practice skills throughout the day in a variety of settings. For example, a child can practice a language goal, such as labeling objects during story time, snack time, or free play. This process encourages the generalization of skills across settings. Another advantage is that the adult can help children integrate multiple skills in a single setting. For example, during free play the adult can help a child work on several objectives that may include social skills, motor skills, and language skills. The second characteristic of Naturalistic methods is that they incorporate developmentally and individually appropriate activities. Developmentally and Individually appropriate activities support "the notion that all young children should have equal opportunities to experience their surroundings, to make choices, to develop independence and to move beyond their current skills, concepts and strategies". Developmentally appropriate activities are those that other children of the same age choose to do and that promote learning and development by keeping children actively engaged. Individually appropriate activities are those that may be adapted so that a child with a disability can participate, even though he may not participate in the same way as other children. The third characteristic of Naturalistic methods is that they are based a child's interest. If a teaching opportunity is based on a child's interest, the adult can be reasonably sure the skills and concepts taught are relevant to the child and have a clear purpose.
The SPIES curriculum is divided into six modules. Following is a brief description of each module.
Module 1: Creating Teaching Opportunities
An important element of intervention in everyday settings is the teaching opportunity. A teaching opportunity is an interaction or event that provides an occasion for an adult to teach a child skills and concepts that promote his learning and development. This module introduces eight techniques adults can use to create teaching opportunities based on a child's interest.
Some children have difficulty responding to cues in their environment or completing a particular task or activity. When a child has difficulty, it is a signal she needs help. Help includes verbal, nonverbal, and physical prompts given to assist a child to learn and develop skills. Help enables the child to learn a concept or to perform a skill more correctly, completely, or independently. This module introduces four forms of help and three help strategies that can be used to assist children.
Incidental teaching is a strategy for systematic intervention in everyday settings. Incidental teaching focuses on interactions between children and adults. During these interactions adults can use incidental teaching to provide opportunities for children to learn and develop. Five steps are included in incidental teaching: child initiation, adult elaboration, child response, adult help and natural consequences. This module introduces each of these steps and describes how to implement incidental teaching in everyday activities.
Tracking progress is the process of collecting data regarding a child's behavior as it relates to her objectives. Data are used to make comparisons to detect changes in a child's behavior over time. Comparisons are made between what the child does now and what she did in the past. This helps adults determine if the child is making progress in mastering her goals and objectives. This module describes how to implement a data collection system.
The first three years of childhood can be characterized as a time of rapid change and growth. In fact, changes take place in this period of life far more rapidly than in any other. This module provides information on working with infants and toddlers and how to meet their needs by adapting the intervention strategies for preschoolers.
Module 6: Planning Intervention Across the Day
When providing intervention in everyday settings, it is important to plan ahead. Planning helps ensure children have enough opportunities to learn and develop the skills described by their objectives. This module presents a seven step process for creating a written plan for providing intervention and discusses how to evaluate the usefulness of that plan.
