CHCIC512A: Plan the inclusion of children
with additional needs
Develop a plan for inclusion
Contents
When developing a plan of inclusion, consider child’s abilities,
goals, interests, expectations and health status in the context of
their cultural values, needs and requirements
Planning model
3
Identify the child’s strengths, interests and additional needs
4
Develop plan in consultation with all those working with the
child
7
Make recommendations for planning
7
Identify parents’ goals/expectations for their child and use when
developing a plan of inclusion
15
Seek parents’ experience and practices as a resource
16
Adapt service to meet child’s needs within resource limitations
17
Getting ready to include children with additional needs into a
program
17
Toys and equipment
19
Decide on a time to review the plan
21
Introduction
21
Evaluate the plan and make ongoing observations
21
Seek additional resources as necessary
Referring children to specialist resources
2
3
24
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When developing a plan of inclusion,
consider child’s abilities, goals,
interests, expectations and health
status in the context of their cultural
values, needs and requirements
How do we develop a plan of inclusion that considers the strengths, interests,
goals and expectations of the child—as well as the child’s family? And how do we
do that in consultation with careers, professionals and specialists?
To provide an inclusive setting for a child with additional needs, we need to:
•
•
•
Ensure that the child has equal opportunity to participate fully within the
program. To achieve this, we need to take responsibility to provide
appropriate provisions for all children, irrespective of their abilities.
Commit to meeting the needs of all children to the best ability of the
service in the most appropriate way.
Respect diversity and to be accepting of all children and differences.
An inclusive early childhood environment is one that meets the individual needs
of all children. Unfortunately, not all early childhood environments are inclusive—
in some services, there are many barriers to provision of an inclusive
environment. We need to strive for an inclusive environment.
Planning model
In developing a plan for inclusion, we need to use a planning model.
Traditional planning model
The model that is most commonly used in early childhood is the traditional
planning cycle which looks like this:
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Traditional planning model
The traditional planning model allows us to plan for each child, observing and
determining the most appropriate provisions that will enhance the child’s
development.
Identify the child’s strengths, interests
and additional needs
In early childhood environments, we can support inclusion by providing an
appropriate service for each individual child. To do this, we need to develop an
understanding of each child and identify interests, strengths, and additional
needs. Firstly you need to observe the child and consult others.
As a result of our observations and discussion with relevant people, we will begin
to build up a picture of the child. We have now gathered all our information and
must analyse it. A child profile will allow us to clearly record and identify
information about the child.
A child profile contains current information about:
•
•
•
the child’s background, including family information
the health needs and services accessed by the child
the child’s strengths, interests and additional needs.
When recording information on a child profile, it is important that we always
focus on positives rather than negatives. Investigate a child’s interests and
strengths and look beyond additional needs as we do not want to fall into the trap
of providing only a deficient approach to programming.
Reflect upon Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as this will assist you to identify
additional needs for support:
Level 1: The need for essential body requirements—food, water, shelter and
warmth.
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Level 2: The need for physical safety, security and protection.
Level 3: The need for love attention, closeness to others and the need to belong.
Level 4: The need to feel valued by others, to be accepted, appreciated, to be
worthy and to have status (self esteem).
Level 5: The need to realise one’s potential (self-actualisation).
Below is an example of a child profile. You may also like to develop your own
format for a child profile. Be sure to include information covering all criteria.
Child profile
Name:
Date:
DOB:
Compiled by:
Age:
Background information:
Summary of strengths and interests
Strengths
Interests
Assessment of needs
Case study—Tian
Read the following scenario.
Tian is four years old and is new to Summer Sunrise Children’s Centre. He
lives with his mother and father and a two-year-old sister. They had
emigrated from Thailand six months ago. Initially they lived with Tian’s
aunt but have now moved into a flat. Tian’s father can speak a little
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English. Tian’s mother speaks much less English than her husband and has
been attending an English course at the local TAFE college. She is gradually
gaining some understanding but appears reluctant to speak.
At Tian’s enrolment, his aunt, Sue, had interpreted and filled in the forms.
When Tian’s aunt comes to the centre, she comments that Tian is starting
to speak English much more and tells the staff that his parents really want
him to speak English well. Tian is starting to speak in two to three word
sentences in English. He is very interested in the road works out the front
of the centre and has been learning the names of the different vehicles
and equipment used. He has excellent fine motor skills, cutting and
drawing at a quite sophisticated level for a four-year-old.
Activity 1
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Develop plan in consultation with all
those working with the child
Make recommendations for planning
Once we develop a child profile, gain knowledge about the child’s background;
identify the child’s interests, strengths and needs; and the family’s goals and
expectations we can begin to make recommendations for planning in consultation
with the family, carers and specialists. As we have said, it is really vital that we
focus on the positive rather than the negative.
In developing planning recommendations, remember we are focusing on the
whole child using information we have gained from consultation with others. This
is where you have your planning meeting.
Planning meetings
I cannot emphasise enough the importance of actually making time to plan an
individual program for a child. The discussions and cross fertilisation of ideas are
extremely beneficial not only to the child but also to your own professional
development. Remember there is never one correct way to do anything!
Regular planning meetings ensure that:
•
•
your program continues to be appropriate to the children’s strengths,
needs and interests
you have access to appropriate resources and services.
Working with children with additional needs
When working with children with additional needs, we need to reflect that these
children attend a variety of services to support their growth and development. I
once worked with a child, Joe, four years, who attended up to six different
services in one week.
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Joe’s week
Monday
Department of Education Early Intervention—Pre-school 9am12.30pm
Speech Pathology 3pm–3.45pm
Tuesday
Possums Pre-school 9am–3pm
Wednesday
Department of Education Early Intervention—Pre-school 9am12.30pm
Occupational therapy 3pm–3.45pm
Thursday
Possum’s Pre-school 9am–3pm
Friday
Early Intervention—group session 10am–12pm
Early Intervention—individual physiotherapy 1–2pm
How confusing do you think this was for Joe?
I would have difficulty as an adult coping with this amount of change in one week.
Joe’s parents were run off their feet. As well as Joe’s appointments, they had to
care for three other children under six and Joe’s father worked full time. Imagine
what it would be like for Joe and his family. It would be very stressful, I would
think.
Therefore it is extremely important that all services working with children with
additional needs take a co-ordinated approach. They only way to achieve a
coordinated approach is through the implementation of regular planning
meetings.
Regular planning meetings include parents, families, carers, professionals and
specialists. They are called individual family service plan meetings.
Individual family service plans for children with
additional needs
An individual family service plan or (IFSP) is a planning process which ensures that
all who work with the child work in an effective coordinated way towards goals
which reflect the families concerns and priorities for the child.
An IFSP is organised by the family service co-ordinator, a person who is nominated
by the family.
The co-ordinator assists the family to:
•
•
•
•
8
plan the IFSP meeting
gather information
obtain assessments
develop links with appropriate services.
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At an IFSP meeting, those present are given the opportunity to:
•
•
•
•
•
listen to families needs and concerns
discuss the child’s strengths, interests and needs
talk about assessable resources and options for the child
develop goals and plans for the child
evaluate previous goals and plans.
Activity 2
You need to ensure that all information at an IFSP meeting is accurately recorded.
It is important to take notes during the meeting to share with staff members back
at your service. You will also find that the family service coordinator will provide
participants with a copy of the completed IFSP plan and will keep in regular
contact with all team members.
You will find that there are a number of different formats or models for IFSPs.
Case study—Tian (continued)
Think back to our example of Tian and read through Tian’s child profile to refresh
your understanding of Tian.
Tian’s case coordinator, James, has consulted with Tian’s family and has decided
to call an IFSP meeting. The meeting objective is to determine an appropriate
program for Tian.
James’s supervisor is the Director of Summer Sunrise. The Director and Tian’s
parents have invited Tian’s aunt, carers, the local SUPS worker and the resource
worker from the multicultural resource centre.
At the IFSP meeting, there are Tian’s parents and his Aunt Sue, the Director of the
service, three carers from his room, the SUPS worker and the resource worker.
James (the case co-ordinator) will be facilitating the meeting. Firstly, they begin by
discussing how Tian is progressing. Each person will outline their perception of
Tian’s strengths, interests and needs as recorded on their child profile. The carers
identify that Tian has strengths in fine motor skills, interests in road working
equipment and needs in language areas.
Mum (through the interpreter Sue) tells the carer that she really wants Tian to
speak only English—he is not to speak in his native language at the centre.
There is some discussion about this issue as a service would normally try to use
some keywords of the child’s main language and be accepting of Tian using the
language as well. But this is very important to the family as they want him to have
a good grasp of English by the time he commences school. They feel he will still be
exposed to the Thai language enough at home to maintain it, so it is agreed that
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Tian will be mainly spoken to in English and his carers will provide him with as
much assistance as they can to learn English. He will also be encouraged to speak
in English as much as possible.
From this meeting, the team members develop an individual family service plan
for Tian. As you will see, we have only filled in the first part of it. The subsequent
sections will be filled in as we work through this topic.
Individual Family Service Plan
Individual Family Service Plan
Child’s name: Tian R
Date: 21 January
DOB: 4/7
Review: 2 March
Age: 4.3 years
Recommendations
for planning
Strategies
Responsibility
Evaluation
To offer opportunities
to consolidate and
extend his fine motor
skills
Use of scissors
Drawing/writing
implements
Gluing/pasting
activities
To provide
opportunities for Tian
to be accepted and
valued within the
service
To incorporate an Art
display of Tian’s
drawings at the service
To include cultural
items from Tian’s
homeland
To offer opportunities
to use English
whenever possible:




10
labelling
telegraphic
speech
small group
activities
1:1 activities
with carer
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To offer opportunities
to listen to English
when possible:




stories
meal times
small group
times
1:1 activities
with carers
Identify strategies to achieve recommendations
This next step correlates to the second column in the IFSP. Now that the team has
identified Tian’s interests, needs and strengths, they can look at strategies to
ensure these are met.
Look at Tian’s IFSP to see what strategies his team came up with.
Individual Family Service Plan
Individual Family Service Plan
Child’s name: Tian R
Date: 21 January
DOB: 4/7
Review: 2 March
Age: 4.3 years
Recommendations
for planning
To offer opportunities to
consolidate and extend
his fine motor skills
Use of scissors
Drawing/writing
implements
Gluing/pasting activities
Strategies
Responsibility
Evaluation
Box
construction
activity using
roadwork
equipment as
focus.
Cutting
Pasting
Painting
Drawing
To provide opportunities
for Tian to be accepted
and valued within the
service
Family stories
and photos
To incorporate an Art
display of Tian’s
drawings at the service
Art show and
family
afternoon tea
Displaying
children’s art
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To include cultural items
from Tian’s homeland
Home-like items
reflective of
Tian’s home—
cooking items,
foods,
music/stories
and special
events
To offer opportunities to
use English whenever
possible:
Encourage S to
label objects,




labelling
telegraphic
speech
small group
activities
1:1 activities
with carer
Sensory
experiences, eg,
play dough,
feely boxes,
treasure box,
sand/water play
To offer opportunities to
listen to English when
possible:




stories
meal times
small group
times
1:1 activities
with carers
Ask simple
questions giving
non verbal cues
Stories in
English variety
of levels
Facilitate lunch
time
conversation
between S and
other children.
Staff labelling
and using non
verbal cues to
assist.
As you can see, they have come up with a number of strategies. One of the main
points to consider here is how you can incorporate the strengths, needs and
interests of the child to ensure you have an interesting activity that builds on
strengths and needs at the same time.
Tian’s team has planned a box construction activity. His carers will place a number
of pictures of the different road work equipment on the wall near the table and
also provide a number of boxes and other materials in different sizes and shapes.
Prior to the experience, they are going to discuss with the children the names and
functions of the different vehicles. The children will be encouraged to represent
the road work equipment. However, no models will be provided (except the real
life pictures around the area). The carers will ensure that one of them sits near
Tian and discusses and labels the different parts of the road work equipment and
also the materials Tian will use. She will attempt to draw him into a conversation,
modelling sentence structure and grammar.
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Activity 3
Implement the plan
So far we have identified the child’s interests, strengths and needs. We have come
up with some recommendations for planning, decided on some strategies and
nominated activities for Tian. You need to be aware that this case study of Tian
has been somewhat simplified.
One of the next steps would be to determine who is actually going to carry out
each recommendation. In some IFSPs, you would see quite a large number of
people involved—including parents, teachers/carers, special educators,
occupational therapists, speech therapists and physiotherapists, to name some of
the major participants. Remember, the case study we provided of Joe (who has a
hectic weekly schedule)? His IFSP would involve many people.The major
responsibilities for this IFSP are going to be met by the service director, Tian’s
carers, the SUPS worker and multi-cultural resource worker.
Look at Tian’s IFSP to see who will be doing what.
Individual Family Service Plan
Child’s name: Tian R
Date: 21 January
DOB: 4/7
Review: 2 March
Age: 4. 3 years
Recommendations
for planning
Strategies
Responsibility
To offer
opportunities to
consolidate and
extend his fine
motor skills
Box construction
activity using
roadwork
equipment as focus.
Primary caregiver
Use of scissors
Cutting
Drawing/writing
implements
Pasting
Gluing/pasting
Drawing
To provide
opportunities for
Tian to be accepted
and valued within
the service
Family stories and
photos
Primary caregiver
To include aa display
of Tian’s drawings at
the service
Displaying
children’s art
All staff in room
Painting
Art show and family
afternoon tea
Director
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Evaluation
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To include cultural
items from Tian’s
homeland
Homelike items
reflective of Tian’s
home
cooking items
foods
Parents
Resource worker
SUPS worker
music/ stories
special events
To offer
opportunities to use
English whenever
possible:




labelling
telegraphic
speech
small group
activities
1:1
activities
with carer
To offer
opportunities to
listen to English
when possible:




stories
meal times
small group
times
1:1
activities
with carers
Encourage S to
label objects
All staff in room
SUPS worker
Ask simple
questions giving
non verbal cues
Sensory
experiences, eg,
play dough, feely
boxes, treasure
box, sand/water
play
Stories in English
variety of levels
Facilitate lunch
time conversation
between S and
other children
All staff
SUPS worker
Staff labelling and
using non verbal
cues to assist
At this stage, the case co-ordinator would provide all services with a copy of the
individual family service plan. Each individual service will then implement planning
recommendations that they have been given responsibility for. The service
implements their own individual plan for the child (also known as the child’s
individual education plan) which reflects the child’s strengths, interests, needs
and the planning recommendations as identified at the IFSP. This collaboration
ensures that all services working with the child and family work in a co-ordinated
way concurrently towards the family’s expectations and appropriate goals for the
child.
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Identify parents’ goals/expectations
for their child and use when
developing a plan of inclusion
You need to allow time for parents to express their goals and expectations for
their child. We need to respect what they want for their child and work in
partnership with them when developing a plan of inclusion.
Meet with parents prior to the planning meeting for them to express their goals
and expectations. Assist them to identify what is important to them as a family
and what they see are the priorities for their child. Write these points down with
the parents so their ideas are already formulated for the Planning Meeting. Some
parents may find the Planning Meeting intimidating and/or emotional, especially
if there are several people including specialists and health practitioners. Having
their goals and expectations already prepared can help them communicate their
ideas clearly.
Having fully discussed the parents’ goals and expectations with them you should
have an understanding of their ideas and so will be able to act as an advocate for
them (if necessary) in the Planning Meeting to ensure their goals and expectations
are integrated into the plan of inclusion.
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Seek parents’ experience and
practices as a resource
When working with children with additional needs, we need to get to know the
child’s family and build positive relationships with them.
To work with parents of children with additional needs, we need to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
respect parents’ values and practices
be non-judgemental of individual child-rearing practices
understand that most parents try to do the best for their children;
(remember, their idea of what’s best may be different to yours)
work in partnership
establish and maintain good relationships
provide opportunities for parents to share information with you about
their child’s additional need
consider that some parents are afraid of rejection because of their child’s
additional need
acknowledge that some parents sometimes believe that their child’s
additional need is none of your business
remember that some parents will not be aware of their child’s additional
need.
It is important that you communicate a positive and accepting attitude toward
parents at all times. Positive relationships are dependent upon us respecting
parent’s values and practices, even if we do not agree with them. We must be
non-judgemental of parent’s child rearing. Respect for parents will enable us to
work with parents in a true partnership – where we are both equal participants,
respecting and valuing each other’s expertise and experience.
Parents have a great deal of experience and expertise in working with their child
and we need to respect this and work in partnership with them, learning from the
parents, as well as them gaining knowledge from us and other professionals.
Activity 4
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Adapt service to meet child’s needs
within resource limitations
During the IFSP process, the child’s service implements their own individual plan
for the child (also known as the child’s individual education plan) which reflects
the child’s strengths, interests, needs and the planning recommendations as
identified at the IFSP. At this point, the service needs to make adaptations to the
service using appropriate available resources to support the child’s needs.
Getting ready to include children with
additional needs into a program
What do we mean by children with ‘additional’ needs? They are children who
need support that is additional to what the other children need and their
additional needs may arise from:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
language and communication difficulties
cognitive differences
physical differences
sensory impairments
social and emotional differences
health needs
family circumstances and need.
In order to include children with additional needs in our programs, we often need
to consider a number of different aspects. Firstly let’s look at the environment.
When I discuss the environment in this sense I am looking at all the parts of the
program that make up the immediate environment for the children. This will
include a number of aspects including:
•
•
•
•
physical environment
toys and equipment within the centre
carers working in the centre
any specialist help that might be available.
What features make an appropriate environment for children with additional
needs? What a huge question! But first, what is the ‘environment’? Is it the
physical setting—or more than that?
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Reflect on your environment—say, your home. When I think of my home
environment, I think of the house with its furniture as well as the appliances that
make things easier to do (eg, stove). I think of the outside—the garden and even
the street. I also think of what’s in the house that gives me comfort and joy (eg,
radio). I also think of the people I live with.
We will look at the service environment in relation to the:
•
•
•
physical environment
toys and equipment
specialist resources (human resources).
Physical environment
Some of the factors when assessing the physical environment include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The building and site. Included in this is the type of building. Is it purpose
built? Does it look homey or institutional? Is it roomy, pokey, shabby? Is
the site shaded? What aspect does it have? The aspect (ie whether the
building is facing north, south, east or west) will have significant effect on
the temperature inside the building.
The interior of the building. Included in this are the walls, ceilings,
flooring, window, doors and lighting. All of these need to be considered
when planning any early childhood environment.
The routine areas. By this I mean the places we prepare food, feed
children, change nappies and toilet children.
Storage facilities. Believe me you can never have too much storage space
in any early childhood setting. In this category we need to look at whether
the storage is open or closed. The storeroom, shelves and cupboards
would all need to be considered.
How the room is set up. This will tell you a lot about any service. How has
the space been divided up? Where have activities been placed? Is there a
wet area? Is there one big open area or do we have interest areas
scattered around the room?
The outdoor environment. This includes all aspects of outdoors, including
the verandas and fixed play equipment.
How can we modify/adapt the physical environment we have?
When taking a child with additional needs into the program, we may need to
make adaptations to the environment and the program in order to meet those
additional needs. The type of additional need will determine the
modifications/adaptations we need to make to the physical environment.
Activity 5
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Activity 6
Activity 7
Activity 8
Activity 9
Activity 10
Activity 11
Activity 12
Toys and equipment
We have so far looked at some of the modification and adaptation to the physical
environment. We can now consider service provision of toys and equipment for
children with additional needs. What do I mean by these terms?
I am talking about both the specialised equipment and general equipment that we
need to run our programs. Specialised equipment includes wheelchairs, hoists,
railings, crutches, standing frames, cut out tables, scooter boards and
communication devices, just to name some of the more common ones. Toys are
essentially objects for children to play with that may or may not foster their
development.
Toys and equipment are often the cornerstones of our program. We need to
ensure that we are providing a range of developmentally appropriate toys for all
children. What constitutes an appropriate toy?
Some factors include:
•
safe and durable
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•
•
open ended and multi-useful
non stereotypical.
As with any others, children with additional needs require appropriate toys and
equipment. Look at any educational supplier catalogue and you will find a huge
range of toys and equipment. So how do you know if they are appropriate?
I have given you some factors to consider when choosing toys and equipment for
any centre. The question is how do we know what is specific to children with
additional needs? Of course this is really going to depend on the types of need
that we are trying to meet. It would be very easy to get carried away and buy lots
of really expensive toys. But I want you to think about the 18-month child who
receives a fantastic gift that comes in a great cardboard box. The child spends one
minute looking at the toy and then spends ½ hour exploring the box—tasting it,
touching it and climbing in and out of it. What does this tell us? It tells me that
children don’t always need expensive purpose-made commercial toys. We can
actually improvise for many of the toys we need for children will additional needs.
Many toys will be able to be used in exactly the form they are bought in and will
be appropriate for many developmental stages or levels. Some of these toys may
need to be modified. It is, of course, going to be essential that we look at the child
we are modifying the toy for when deciding what to modify. When modifying or
adapting, we are essentially trying to extend the use of toys.
Consider the scenario below.
Samantha is a seven-year-old with quite severe visual impairment. In
order for her to succeed in a normal classroom situation, modifications to
her immediate working environment are needed. She has a large wooden
board sitting on her desk which is tilted at an almost 90 degree angle that
her work rests on rather than on the tabletop, thus putting any work much
closer to her face. When she requires a written stencil, for instance, it is
photocopied on an A3 sheet of paper rather than A4.
Activity 13
Modifying the environment—not the child
We have looked at the physical environment, in particular the adaptations we
might need to make to the environment as well as the toys and equipment in that
environment. The most important thing I think you need to remember is to look
at each child as an individual. Remember to always ask, how can I change the
environment to suit the child? Even ‘small’ changes to the environment can make
a very big difference to the child. In fact, it is more than likely that the
environment needs changing—not the child!
If a child cannot be included immediately, communicate the reasons clearly!
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Decide on a time to review the plan
Introduction
Now it is time to decide on a time to evaluate and review the plan.
As you can see in the plan, the IFSP team members have entered strategies and
responsibilities to be put in place. They have allowed enough scope for the IFSP
to be possibly appropriate for up to six months. However, each case needs to be
looked at individually and, of course, different services will have different
expectations and procedures. An IFSP should always be appropriate for the child
and family meeting their needs and current expectations.
It is the responsibility of each service to continue to observe and record
information and evaluate planning recommendations. This information should be
taken and shared at the next IFSP.
Evaluate the plan and make ongoing
observations
This is the final step, but also the beginning of the cycle. Here, we need to check
the progress of the child as well as our delivery methods and strategies to ensure
we are still meeting the needs of the child and family. Using the IFSP outlined
previously, it is now the responsibility of the person implementing the strategies
to evaluate. Sometimes this will be an individual evaluation but at times it may
involve others. Look at the following evaluations written by Tian’s IFSP team
members.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCIC512A: Reader LO 9370
© NSW DET 2010
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Individual Family Service Plan
Child’s name: Tian R
Date: 21 January
DOB: 4/7
Review: 2 March
Age: 4. 3 years
Recommendations
for planning
To offer
opportunities to
consolidate and
extend his fine
motor skills
Use of scissors
Drawing/writing
implements
Gluing/pasting
activities
To provide
opportunities for
Tian to be accepted
and valued within
the service
To incorporate an
Art display of Tian’s
drawings at the
service
To include cultural
items from Tian’s
homeland
Strategies
Responsibility
Evaluation
Box construction
activity using
roadwork
equipment as focus.
Primary caregiver
Represented a tip
truck, cutting out
small circles and
shapes for parts of
his truck.
Cutting
Accurately pasted
and painted truck.
Pasting
Painting
Drawing
Family stories and
photos
Displaying
children’s art
Art show and
Family Afternoon
tea
Homelike items
reflective of Tian’s
home
Primary caregiver
All staff in room
Director
Parents
cooking items
Resource worker
foods
SUPS worker
music/ stories
S pointed and
verbally labelled
Mum and Dad in
family photo
S appeared very
proud showing his
art work to family
S and his family met
another family from
Thailand who attend
the service
S is developing a
friendship with P,
playing associatively
in home corner.
special events
To offer
opportunities to use
English whenever
possible:




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labelling
telegraphic
speech
small group
activities
1:1
activities
with carer
Encourage S to
label objects
Ask simple
questions giving
non verbal cues
Sensory
experiences eg play
dough, feely boxes,
treasure box,
sand/water play
All staff in room
SUPS worker
In box construction,
S names all six roadworking vehicles. S
used two- and
three-word
sentences when
replying to
questions.
Began to use some
texture words for
first time during
feely box activity—
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCIC512A: Reader LO 9370
© NSW DET 2010
soft, furry.
To offer
opportunities to
listen to English
when possible:




stories
meal times
small group
times
1:1
activities
with carers
Stories in English
variety of levels
All staff
SUPS worker
Facilitate lunch
time conversation
between S and
other children
Staff labelling and
using non verbal
cues to assist
At lunchtime, S
joined in rhyme with
A and J. Attends to
stories for five to 10
mins, especially if
the have transport
in them. Tried to
whistle with others
after reading story
about a boy who
tries to whistle.
As you would expect this last step is also the beginning of the cycle all over again.
The progress of the child is determined along with the success of the program.
Here changes will be made to both the process and the outcomes and a new IFSP
will be developed for the child and family.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCIC512A: Reader LO 9370
© NSW DET 2010
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Seek additional resources as
necessary
The type of additional need will determine the need for specialist resources. Here
I’m looking at the human people you can contact and tap into to aid the
development of the program for a child with additional needs. Some of these
people include:
People who could help develop a program for a child with additional needs
speech pathologist
Focuses on and develops programs for the development of
speech and language. Also assists with feeding difficulties.
occupational therapist
Develops programs focussing on fine motor development and
self-help skills.
physiotherapist
Focuses on developing programs for the gross motor skills
and movement.
SUP worker
Worker from the Commonwealth-funded Supplementary
Services Program who supports children with additional
needs entering children’s services and monitors their
progress.
ethnic workers’ pool
A pool of workers from various ethnic backgrounds who are
employed to support children and staff from the different
cultural backgrounds.
early childhood special
educator
Usually an early childhood teacher with degree or major in
special education who may work within an early intervention
service or a sponsored home/playgroup program.
paediatrician
Medical doctor qualified in the care of children. Usually one
of the first professionals to see and refer children.
DoCS community worker
Employed by the Department of Community Services to work
closely with families of children with additional needs.
psychologist
Professional who works diagnostically identifying and
managing additional needs.
Often some children will be clients of many of the above specialists. Some
children with additional needs will not be serviced by any of these people,
although that would be uncommon. If you are unsure of the role of any of the
above professionals, check their description.
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCIC512A: Reader LO 9370
© NSW DET 2010
There are a number of associations for different additional needs and
organisations that can help support parents and staff. Refer to the beginning
of this topic.
Referring children to specialist
resources
When should we bring in specialist resources?
By the time a child with an additional need arrives at your children’s services
centre, it is likely that the child and family would have already met with a number
of specialists.
However, occasionally the situation might arise when the child would not have
been referred to any specialist—you would be the first. This occurred twice in my
preschool within a six-month period. I had a little boy who was four years old,
who was going to school the following year. He had the physical appearance of a
toddler and when he ran, he also resembled a toddler. His language was quite
delayed and fine and gross motor skills caused me concern. After a few weeks
observing him, I spoke to his Mum about my concerns in an appropriate manner.
Mum, fortunately, had similar concerns, which she had addressed to medical
practitioners in the past. She felt that she had been brushed off.
I referred her to an early intervention service to have her child assessed. It turned
out that he had an 18-month development global developmental delay. He
continued attending my preschool five mornings a week and went to the early
intervention service two afternoons a week. He made huge gains quickly.
Surprisingly enough, I had another little boy enrol six months later who also had
global development delays. Again, I was the first point of contact for this child and
referred him on.
The staff at the preschool or long day care centre can often be the first
professionals to identify a child with additional needs, especially speech and
language difficulties and certainly children new to Australia. Children diagnosed at
birth, eg, with Down syndrome will probably have a whole range of professionals
they already work with.
If you are concerned about a child, the first people you need to talk to are the
parents. Remember confidentiality is always to be considered (unless you have a
child protection issue which is a whole different ball game and one not covered in
this topic.) If the parents agree with you, you can then make appropriate referrals
to other agencies and services. Remember, we are not qualified to make
assessments of the type of disability. You need to refer children to Early
Intervention Services for qualified professionals to make a full diagnosis.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCIC512A: Reader LO 9370
© NSW DET 2010
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