 
Early Childhood
Special Education
Children learn many fundamental social skills before
they enter kindergarten. Before the age of five society
expects young children to be able to interact with
others, play cooperatively, initiate and maintain
conversations and use manners at appropriate times to
name a few. Children learn these things without formal
social skill instruction. As with most learning in the
preschool years, children learn social skills in
naturally occurring situations during routine parts of
their day. Young children learn almost everything through
their own personal research experiments motivated by
their curiosity and self expression. These experiments
are expressions of the child's urge to understand how the
world works and how he/she fits into it. Adults call
these natural learning experiences play. Play is a self
motivated creative exploration of the child's physical
and social world, which is open ended and subject to
revision by the child or outside forces.
Because young children learn best through
their own play experiences, the role of the Early
Childhood teacher is different than that of teachers of
older children. Whereas older children have had
enough life experiences to be able to conceptualize and
internalize more abstract knowledge, younger children
need more concrete experiences to help them internalize
and retain knowledge. Thus, the teacher of young children
must be more of a facilitator of experiences, rather than
a teller of information. The Early Childhood teacher must
observe a child to see what he knows, and arrange the
environment so that a situation may occur in a child's
day which will challenge him/her to grow and learn.
This philosophy of developmentally appropriate
practice is applicable when teaching young children of
all ability levels. In Show Me How II, (Goff,
1991), the Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education's program guidelines for Early
Childhood Special Education, the authors state that:
When working with young children with
disabilities, the instructional strategies and
curricular focus must address the areas of need for
those children. However, this can occur within a
broad context of appropriate learning environments
for young children, whether or not they have special
needs. The concept of the whole child must be kept in
mind. An over-emphasis of isolated skill development
is inappropriate. Enhancement of functional skills
and social competence needs to be addressed through
the learning environment. To the extent possible
activities should occur within their natural context.
Teachers should capitalize on naturally occurring
routines (such as snack, outdoor play, etc.) and
events in the classroom to teach developmentally
appropriate skills as well as identified IEP goals
and objectives (Goff, 1991).
Goff states that research indicates that most
developmentally delayed children have greater difficulty
in interactive play and have an absence of peer related
social competence. Additionally, these children are
frequently placed in homogeneous groupings and have few
appropriate peer models (Goff 1991). She strongly
suggests that children with disabilities and non-disabled
peers integrate in the classroom, as well as in the
community. She feels that the role of the teacher as the
facilitator of social interaction is especially important
when integrating children with moderate and severe
disabilities.
Preschool children learn social skills in an
atmosphere of structured and unstructured play. The
teacher must create an environment that supports the
taking of risks and guarantees safety. Young children
often initiate small group activities with play
equipment. Dramatic play, for example, frequently
involves at least two children. Social interaction
opportunities will also occur during teacher directed
activities when the teacher allows children to talk
and problem-solve together. Social interaction may be
enhanced by including activities throughout the day
that bring the children into close proximity with one
another, by including play equipment that requires
more than one child, and by organizing play tasks
that require the selection of partners. Play
activities can be planned to require reciprocity and
equality of skills....
Language/communication is the essential core of
social interactions. All three basic functions of
language (communication, expression and reasoning)
are enhanced when young children converse with one
another. Classrooms that foster peer interaction
incorporate periods of adult silence and observation
mixed with needed guidance. This orientation which
values silence and observation is not a "hands
off" approach. Rather, the teacher actively
guides the children through subtle and necessary
intervention. Adults influence the environment by
determining the setting, its design, the objects
present, and the social atmosphere (Muller and
Bergstrom, 1986). For nondisabled children and the
children with disabilities to accept one another, the
teacher must set the tone for acceptance (Goff,
1991).
Social Skills, therefore, are best learned in
naturalistic settings which foster play interaction
between all developmental levels of young children. The
teacher's role is to facilitate social interaction skills
by designing the environment to promote interaction,
encouraging children to converse to each other and guide
the children through interactions when necessary by
asking questions, modeling feelings and verbal solutions
to problems or parallel talking if appropriate.
The Early Childhood Special Education Program of the
Special District recognizes and encourages the use of
developmentally appropriate practices. These practices
and philosophy include the following principles:
-Children learn through active involvement and
engagement with materials and people in their
environment;
-Young children learn from whole to part;
-Young children feel more secure and operate more
independently when provided with a consistent
routine;
-Children choose what interests them. It is our aim
to encourage child initiations and remain sensitive
and responsive to facilitate their learning
In order to incorporate these goals and principles
into the philosophy of early childhood special education,
we support and promote an implementation model that is
collaborative among disciplines to facilitate growth and
development. It is through this collaborative effort that
we can provide appropriate experiences to promote
learning in an integrated manner and uphold the key
principles of learning for young children.
Goff, Paula. Show Me How II;
Planning and Implementing Early Childhood Special
Education Programs. Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education, 1991, (p.11-17).
Mueller, E. and Bergstrom, J. (1985). Fostering
Peer Relations in Young Normal and Handicapped Children.
In Kathrine Borman (Ed.); The Social Life of Children in
a Changing Society. (p. 191-192).
Learning
Objectives: Early Childhood Social Skills
General Teaching Strategies:
1) Organize the environment
a) Observe the child and determine the appropriate
level of play and interaction.
b) Provide new information that is contextually
relevant if necessary.
c) Maintain the topic so that new
actions/communications logically extend previous
acts.
d) Provide opportunities for the child to interact.
2) Initiating and refining social
skills/communications
a) Observe the interaction initiated by the child.
b) Interpret the interaction as a contextually
appropriate request, command, protest, greeting, etc.
c) Elaborate on the child's interaction, modeling
expanded and extended actions/utterances.
d) Use scaffolding strategies to assist the child's
interactions such as:
- prompts
- questions
- new information
- restatements
- close procedures
- gestures and pantomines
Learning Environment:
Each child is encouraged to structure his/her own
thinking to gain mastery over his/her social
relationships through a variety of methods. These include
observing, discovering, questioning, problem solving and
sharing activities. Learning activities must be provided
within a natural context so that children can easily
understand the appropriate social skills to use in the
appropriate setting.
The following are suggested
strategies for promoting several individual social
skills.
Skill: Sharing
Teaching Strategies:
• Set up the environment so that children must
work cooperatively on a joint project (block
building, parachute play, table games, etc.).
Encourage children to play together.
• If a child wants to play with another child's toy
but uses socially unacceptable means to get it, model the
correct language such as "David, ask Mark if you can
play with his toy when he is finished." Follow up to
make sure the toy is given to the asker.
• If a child is unwilling to share, children may
want to find a mutually agreeable solution, or the
teacher may want to use a time limit for turn taking.
Skill: Dealing With Frustration
Teaching Strategies:
• Use in class observation and parent reports to
determine areas which may be frustrating for the child.
• Complete a task analysis for the area of
frustration to pinpoint any deficits impeding
success.• Through play and the environment, teacher
structure opportunities for success in smaller units.
• Provide a model or hand- on- hand assistance.
• Provide an alternative choice for the activity.
• Check for physical limitations which impede
success, for example gross and fine motor deficits,
visual impairments, etc.
• Assist the child in verbally labelling feelings (scared,
afraid, feel that something is too hard, etc.)
• Remind the child of success previously achieved.
• Use the child's communication system, (
signing, verbal communication board) to facilitate
the child's asking for help.
• Teach children to use appropriate communication
rather than negative behavior.
• Discuss the child's frustration with parents and
possibly assist in structuring appropriate expectations
for the home setting.
Skill: Conflict Resolution
Teaching Strategies:
• If feasible, have children decide on classroom
rules and post them. Teacher may decide on, explain and
post rules if necessary.
• Help children learn self control and appropriate
ways to express their feelings by:
-recognizing and stating children's feelings
("I see that you are angry").
-stating or clarifying the problem ("It makes
you mad when Jane takes your toy").
-helping the child to become aware of others feelings
("Jane thought you had that toy too long").
-helping the children develop problem solving skills
("Jane wants a turn with that toy, too. What do
you think you could do so you both can have a turn?.
. . Can you think of a way that you can both play
with the toy? . . . What if each of you had a turn
for five minutes?").
-teach children to use words rather than acting out
feelings when there is a conflict ("Tell Jane
how you feel about her taking your toy." Or
"Tell her you don't like it when she takes your
things." or use "stop" or
"no" sign for the nonverbal child).
• Encourage children to work out their own
problems whenever possible. When this isn't working some
children like to use the "Class Meeting"
strategy. When there is a conflict the teacher calls the
class together and requests solutions to the conflicting
children's problems. Children discuss the solutions until
one is agreed upon by the majority of the class.
• Some teachers use the "Peace Table"
method. Conflicting children must sit at a peace table
until they can agree to a solution to their problem.
• Remember, it takes maturity to demonstrate an
understanding and consideration for others. Maturity is
not something most preschool children are known to
possess.
Skill: Negotiating Differences
Teaching Strategies:
• Plan a project, such as block building or mural
painting which involves several children with a shared
goal. Generally, as children will have different ideas on
how to attain that goal they must negotiate and
compromise so that the goal may be achieved. Make sure
that children can finish the project by themselves,
without adult help. Children also need to have a finished
product visible, rather than something abstract.
• The role of the teacher during negotiations is to
help children focus on the goal by restating and
clarifying children's solutions to the problems. For
example, if two children are building a garage out of
blocks the teacher might say "I see John is making
the building two blocks high on his side, so his truck
will fit into it." Jane may then tame her side two
blocks high, or suggest another solution how to fit
John's truck into the garage. Teachers should avoid
suggesting solutions to problems, rather by using
prompts, questions, restatements or providing new
information she should encourage the children to
negotiate their own differences.
• Opportunities for cooperative problem solving
occur throughout the day in free choice activities such
as table games, physical knowledge experiments or block
building, or open ended projects such as dramatic play,
making up a new game or spontaneous art projects.
Skill: Predicting Consequences
Teaching Strategies:
• As young children gain experiences in the world
they begin to act with a purpose in mind. Through
repeated actions on their part, children receive a
reaction. The key to a young child being able to predict
a social consequence is the consistency and frequency of
the response. For example, if a teacher wants a child to
know that she will receive a greeting if she first gives
a greeting, the teacher must always be consistent in
returning greetings to the child at appropriate times.
Situations where preschool children can be trained to
predict social consequences happen innumerable times
during the day.
Skill: Introducing Yourself
Teaching Strategies:
• Opportunities arise for the teacher to model
and teach introduction skills at naturally occurring
times, such as when a visitor comes to class, or during
community access activities. Other ways to promote
knowledge of this skill would be to put several
telephones in the dramatic play area and encourage
children to phone each other. Children also enjoy
identifying themselves and listening to their voices on a
tape recorder. Doll and puppet play time is a good time
to encourage and model introductions.
Skill: Asking for Help.
Teaching Strategies:
• Organize the environment so that the child will
need another person to help him complete a task (getting
dressed, clean up, etc.). As the need arises the
teacher may prompt students by asking, "Do you think
this is too hard for you to do? How could you get this
done faster? Do you want to ask for help?" Model
correct language if necessary.
Skill: Interrupting Appropriately
Teaching Strategies:
• As the situation arises in the classroom the
teacher can help the student by not giving eye contact or
ignoring a child who is inappropriately interrupting.
When the time is appropriate the teacher can direct her
attention to the child's needs. At this point the teacher
may wish to recognize and state the child's feelings,
"I know you wanted to talk to me"; state her
feelings, "It is hard for me to listen to you when I
am talking to someone else"; state her wishes for
his behavior, "I would like you to wait until I'm
done talking to Jim next time so that I can listen to
you, unless it is very important", or the teacher
may ask him to state his need, "What would you like
to tell me?"
• If a child needs help interrupting, the teacher
can give eye contact at the appropriate time. If this is
not enough, she can use scaffolding strategies to assist
the child such as prompts, questions, adding new
information, or using gestures or pantomines. For
children who are able to generalize situations, puppetry
could be used as a way to model the process.
Skill: Dealing With Fear
Teaching Strategies:
• Teaching Strategies: Teachers need to identify
fears in young children by observation, child or parent
report. Teachers can desensitize fears using a variety of
techniques. For example, if a child has a fear of Santa
Claus, a teacher may want to read Santa stories, being in
a Santa suit for which children can try on, and roleplay
visiting Santa, using a familiar adult as Santa.
• Fear of the dark may require a slow progression of
light dimming over a period of several weeks. Adults need
to recognize childrens right to be fearful, and help the
child verbalize his/her fears.
Skill: Showing Affection
Teaching Strategies:
• Teaching Strategies: During the preschool
years, young children are often encouraged
to hug or kiss relative strangers because it is
"cute." However, as some children with
developmental disabilities grow older, it is difficult
for them to unlearn this behavior
and it ceases to remain socially appropriate. Therefore,
it is especially important to help
young children know when and with whom to show affection.
This can generally be done in everyday situations.
Teachers can encourage children to give parents a hug
when they leave the classroom, model waving goodbye to
the bus driver, or modeling smiling and greeting friends.
Use of puppetry or doll play may help some children
internalize this concept.
• Teachers need to discuss with parents what is
socially acceptable behavior in the child's
family, and help parents understand why they are teaching
specific behaviors at school.
Skill: Turn Taking
Teaching Strategies:
• Strategies: Set up a high interest activity
that involves steps to complete such as a cooking
project, board game, or shopkeeper/customer dramatic
play. Make sure there are just two or three children
involved at first, so participants don't have to wait
long for a turn. The teacher may want to suggest who goes
first, second and third, then ask the children to
remember the order for their second turn. As a follow-up,
the teacher may want to discuss with children why it is
important to take turns, citing an example of a child
who's turn was skipped, and how they felt.
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