Chapter 1
Foundations of Early Childhood
Special Education
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Defining Terms
• Early Childhood Education ECE includes ages birth
through 8 years or infancy through third grade. Thus, it
refers to group settings deliberately intended to effect
developmental changes in children from birth to the age
of entering first grade and continuing through third grade.
• Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) Providing
instructional programs that meet the child’s needs,
socially, cognitively, physically. It is theoretically and
researched based.
Early Contributors
• Jon Amos Comenius (1592-1670)
– Advocated for universal education for all children,
including children with disabilities
• Wrote the first picture book for children called: “Orbis
Pictus (The World of Pictures, 1658). Schooling should
be for the first 6 years of life provided by mothers.
• He advocated learning based on the principles of
nature—development is from within so children should be
allowed to learn at their own pace.
• He also stressed the basic concept of “learning by doing.”
• He is most noted for three significant contributions: books
with illustrations, an emphasis on education with the
senses, and the social reform potential of education.
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John Locke (1632-1704)
– Introduced the concept of tabula rasa
(children are born like a blank slate)
– Locke advocated the concept that
environmental factors influences a person’s
behavior.
– The purpose of education for Locke was to
make man a reasoning creature.
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Early Contributors
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
• His ideas are still followed today in early childhood classes. Free
play is based on his belief in children’s inherent goodness and ability
to choose what they need to learn.
• Concrete rather than abstract materials for children is still one of the
cornerstones of developmentally appropriate curriculum in early
childhood
• Johann Heinrich Pestallozi (1746-1827)
• Swiss educator who, used nature study as a part of the curriculum
and believed that good education meant the development of the
senses.
– Advocated for following the children’s interest in designing
school experiences
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Early Contributors
• Three distinct contributions of Pestalozzi in the field of
early childhood education:
– Emphasis on the education of the whole child
– Parent involvement as an essential factor in
education
– Multi-age grouping as a teaching strategy
• He stressed the ideas of an integrated curriculum that
would develop the “whole child.”
• He wanted education to be of the hand, the head, and
the heart of the child
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Early Contributors
• Robert Owen (1771-1858)
– Recognized for establishing an Infant School
in 1816
– Believed in early education as a critical period
to the development of a child’s character and
behavior
– Believed that providing early education is key
in alleviating poverty
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Early Contributors
• Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel (1782-1852)
– Known as the “Father of the Kindergarten”
– Advocated for the value and benefit of “play”
as the work of a child
– Believed that children should have concrete
experiences in order to learn
– He believed that play was the highest phase
of child development.
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Early Contributors
Froebel (continued)
• Froebel introduced the concept of “gifts”
as manipulative activities to aid in learning
basic concepts such as colors, shape,
counting, and other educational tasks.
• Learning tools include: cylinders, wooden
blocks, natural objects, balls and cubes
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Early Contributors
Froebel (continued)
• Froebel’s curriculum also includes
“occupations”
– fine motor activities to develop eye-hand
coordination such as arts and crafts, beadstringing, and embroidering.
• Teachers are considered as facilitators of
children’s learning, as reflected later in the
work of Montessori and Piaget.
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• His kindergartens included blocks, pets,
and fingerplays.
• He developed the first educational toys
which he termed “gifts.”(manipulative
materials)
• Teacher’s role: Facilitator
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Leaders of the Twentieth Century
• John Dewey (1859-1952)
•
•
•
•
– He was the first American influence on American
education Known as the founder of the concept of
progressive education where the emphasis is on the
child’s interests
He believed that programs for children should be “childcentered”(child centered curriculum and schools)
He is the founder of Progressivism= Child centered.
Dewey believed that children were valuable and that
childhood was an important part of their lives
Children should have real-life experiences and programs
should be set up so that children were allowed to make
choices (They must learn to learn in a democratic society)
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Leaders of the Twentieth Century
• Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
– First female to earn a medical degree in Italy
– Physician turned educator
– She designed and developed activity-based
sensory materials and used them as
intervention strategies for children with mental
retardation.
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Leaders of the Twentieth Century
Montessori (continued)
• Examples of Montessori’s sensory materials:
(see p. 10)
–
–
–
–
–
wooden cylinders
material swatches
sound cylinders
tonal bells
green rods
– pink tower
• Many of Montessori’s materials can be used by
young children with disabilities.
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Elements of Montessori’s Work
• The use of mixed-age grouping
• Individualization within the context of a
supportive classroom community
• An emphasis on functionality within the
Montessori environment
• The development of independence and
the ability to make choices
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Elements of Montessori’s Work
(continued)
• The development of organized work
patterns in children
• The classic Montessori demonstration
• An emphasis on repetition
• Materials with a built-in control of error
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Elements of Montessori’s Work
(continued)
• Academic materials that provide a
concrete representation of the abstract
• Sensory materials that develop and
organize incoming sensory perceptions
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Leaders of the Twentieth Century
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
– Known for the theory of cognitive stages development
or how children think
• Child learns by constructing and reconstructing what
he/she knows.
• Developed the concept of the adaptive processes:
• Assimilation
• Accommodation
• Equilibration
• Teacher is designer of activities appropriate to child’s level of
development
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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development
• Sensorimotor
– Birth to 2 years
• Preoperational
– 2 to 7 years
• Concrete operations
– 7 to 11 years
• Formal operations
– 12 years of age
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Lev Vygotsky: Sociocultural
Theory(1896-1934)
• Introduced the concept of ZPD, zone of
proximal development, as “the distance
between the actual development level
as determined by independent problem
solving and the level of potential
development as determined through
problem solving under adult guidance or
in collaboration with more capable
peers”
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Lev Vygotsky: Sociocultural
Theory(1896-1934)
• Children progress at their own pace which
is influenced by their experiences, present
cognitive levels and maturation.
• Zone of proximal Development (ZPD)
• Scaffolding
• First supporter of inclusion!!
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Lev Vygotsky
• Another Vygotskian concept, scaffolding,
refers to the assistance given a child by
adults and peers that allows the individual
to function independently and construct
new concepts. (Gargiulo, p. 14)
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Erik Erikson:
Psychosocial theory
Psychosocial Stages:
• Trust vs. mistrust (0 to 12-18)
• Autonomy vs. shame & doubt:
(12-18 to 3 years old)
• Initiative vs. guilt (3 to 6 years old)
The Development of Special
Education
• See Table 1-4 (page 18)
• Compensatory education movement of the
late 1960s played a major role in the
development of early childhood special
education.
• Project Head Start came about as a result
of the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act.
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•
Compensatory programs:
To compensate
for poor
environmental
Head
Start(1960’s)
conditions and insufficient early learning
experiences.
• 1964: War on Poverty:HS:
Comprenhensive approach
• HS not required to serve children with
special needs util 1972
• 1994: Early Head Start: Infants, toddlers
and pregnant women
Compensatory Programs
• Goals of the Head Start Program:
– Promoting the child’s physical, social, and
emotional development
– Developing the child’s readiness for school
– Improving health by providing important
services
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Compensatory Programs
• Early Head Start emerged as an answer to
the need of opening programs to serve
children in the birth to three age group.
• Early Head Start incorporates the “four
corner emphasis” which embodies child,
family, community, and staff development
(Allan & Cowdery, 2009).
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CAN EARLY EDUCATION
MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
• Human Brain is most active during the
first 3 years of life
• Early experiences have an impact on the
actual structure of the brain (all
developmental levels)
• Early experiences have a decisive impact
in how a person functions as and adult (all
developmental levels)
Compensatory Programs
• Two intervention projects include the
Carolina Abecedarian Project and the
Perry Preschool Project
– programs focused on improving cognitive
abilities of young children living in poverty
• From these projects, more than 120
disadvantaged students were followed
from age three to adolescence.
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Program Outcomes
• Results from the investigation showed that
those individuals who participated in the
project as preschoolers:
– had higher incomes
– were more likely to own a home
– had fewer arrests
– had less involvement with community social
service agencies
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Chapter Summary
• Early childhood general education, special
education, and compensatory education
have all contributed in the emergence of
services we have today for young children
with special needs.
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