CHAPTER
22
Early Childhood
Adapted Physical
Education
Lauriece L. Zittel
Chapter 22 Early Childhood Adapted Physical Education
Federal Legislation
and Young Children
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (PL 108-446, 2004)
Consider
• age group (3-9 years),
• noncategorical approach,
• multiage and multiability classrooms, and
• multidimensional assessment.
Early Childhood Movement Programs
Selected, designed, sequenced, and
modified to maximize learning and
active participation for young children
in preschool- and primary-aged
programs.
Testing Young Children
• Identify a gross motor developmental level
compared with children of the same age.
– What instruments do you use?
• Identify specific skill delays for program
planning and instruction.
– What instruments do you use?
Assessing Developmental Delay
• Norm-referenced instrument
• Standardized testing
• Formal setting
(continued)
Assessing Developmental Delay
(continued)
• Instruments:
– Brigance Inventory of Early Development (Brigance,
1991)
– Peabody Developmental Motor Scales (Folio &
Fewell, 2000)
– Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 2000)
Planning for Instruction
• Criterion referenced
• Curriculum-based assessment
• Formal and informal testing
• Instruments:
– Smart Start (Wessel & Zittel, 1995)
– I CAN K-3 (Wessel & Zittel, 1998)
– Carolina Curriculum (Johnson-Martin, Attermeier, &
Hacker, 1990)
Why Use Rubrics to Assess?
• Individualized for each ability
• Benefit children with severe
disabilities
• Assist with designing
instructional environments
Standards in Physical Education
• National physical education standards
• Assessing standard 1
• Early learning standards
Primary Objectives
for Early Childhood Programs
1. Young children experiencing delays
in their motor development should
receive opportunities and instruction
that are designed to parallel what
their same-aged peers receive but are
modified to address individual
challenges.
(continued)
Primary Objectives for Early
Childhood Programs (continued)
2. Activity environments should be
designed according to
assessment information and
individualized. Arbitrarily
selecting games and activities
because they are fun is not in
line with good practice.
Early Childhood Instructors:
Considerations
• Developmental differences between
preschool age and primary age
• Developmental differences between
children of the same age with differing
diagnoses
Facilitating Communication
• Use both verbal and nonverbal: Recognize
similarities and differences.
• Collaborate with all team members.
• Consider strategies to prompt speech or
other communication.
Alternative Systems
for Communication
• Sign language
• Picture systems
• Visual schedules
• Voice output systems
• Acting out stories and songs
Three Cs of Curriculum Design
(Wessel & Zittel, 1995, 1998)
Content
Construction
Contact
Content
Differences between preschool and
primary ages depend on how well the
teacher has examined the assessment
information and understands the
developmental differences.
Construction
How the teacher constructs the activity
environment and how the activities are
introduced differ for preschool- and
primary-aged children.
Contact
Critical to instructional planning is the
thought given to the strategies that
maximize engagement with equipment
and peers versus time with adults.
Curriculum Organization
Instructional units might be organized around
the following:
• Fundamental skill units (e.g., locomotor
skills, play skills)
• Themes
– Schoolwide
– From classroom themes (e.g., colors, numbers,
events)
Teaching Approaches
Exploration: The teacher selects the
instructional materials to be used and
designates the area to be explored
(Pangrazi, 2007). Children explore the many
possible ways of using equipment.
Guided Discovery
Children are presented with a variety of
methods to perform a task and then
asked to choose the method that is
most efficient or that works best for
them.
Movement Environments
Preschool-aged principles of design:
1. Child-directed learning
2. Opportunity for choice
3. Self-initiated exploration
4. Mix of novel and familiar equipment
5. Opportunity to view peer models
(continued)
Movement Environments (continued)
Primary-aged principles of design:
1. Use of a variety of learning styles
2. Equipment options available for practice
3. Task-rule flexibility
4. Use of a variety of classroom designs
5. Opportunity for peer observation