Background Information
Rayan is a three year old girl who was born with a hearing impairment. According to Zirpoli, (2008), a child with a hearing disability finds speech to be imprecise, and Rayan cannot understand any of the speech sounds that are used by people around her. The hearing problem was first discovered by her mother when she brought her from hospital after birth. According to the video ‘A Family Affair’ her mother discovered that she could not wake up after sleeping when disturbances such as drawers and wardrobes are closed. Furthermore, even when the mother played behind her daughter never heard her at all; hence there was a problem in hearing. Therefore, due to the severe hearing loss, Rayan finds any speech sounds distorted and she cannot understand the syllables that are used in words. However, she is quite polite and she likes spending time alone with her dolls. Rayan is friendly, and she likes smiling to other children. Rayan is a girl who has significant interest in gardening whenever she is with her dad over the weekends. She is said to be a girl who really enjoys being involved in this activity. According to Commonwealth of Australia, (2005), a child’s involvement with her parent is advantageous since parents are mostly the prime role models for young children, and they can enforce significant socialization skills to the young ones. Being involved with her dad means that it is easier for her to feel secure and trusting to her peers once the trainers take this point as Rayan’s strength. Rayan is friendly and she smiles at her peers whenever she looks at them, but she does not like approaching other groups of children when they are working. It is vital for adults who are involved in the lives of disabled children to provide the necessary aspects of role models in order to keep the children assured and interested to learn (Hooper, 2009).
Why Rayan should be included in this setting
Unfortunately, Rayan does not like approaching various groups of children in the babies’ room. During free time, Rayan can hardly interact with her peers and this has caused her parents to worry much about her socialization capability. Also her mother does not speak fluent English; hence there is the need of an ethnic child worker to assist in training the child as was evident in the ‘A Family affair video’ where the father noted that the child after the intervention was able to mix well with other preschool children. Rayan’s parents are totally concerned with their daughter’s hearing impairment and her inability to socialize with her peers. They seem to be concerned with the manner in which she keeps to herself and her inability to play with her peers like other children do. Therefore, her parents feel that this is the right age for their daughter to get the special attention and supervision that she needs so as to enable normal emotional development. Her teacher, who is usually concerned with children between the ages of 3 and 5, feels that Rayan needs special attention in order to change her behavior towards people, and to ensure that she gets equal opportunities to learn like any other child.
Impact of disability and additional needs
Such problems can easily lead to emotional problems associated with low self esteem and fear as she grows up (Arthur, 2012). Her teacher fears that Rayan might develop social difficulties if she is not assisted at this tender age. This is because she seems more contented when she stays alone with her dolls or when she stays close with her close family member. For a small child with such needs, it is important to ensure that her learning is specialized due to the difficulty in understanding any normal speech even when using hearing devices (Salter, Johnston, & Lunn, 2005). Rayan needs to constantly use hearing aids, and it is important for her to learn sign language through a specialized teacher for the deaf.
Goal for Ryan and its Rationale
The family’s priority or the focus goal is to improve social interactions between Rayan and other children in the center such that she can develop high self esteem and confidence as she grows up. It is vital to keep the goals right and try not to deviate from them as much as possible unless mutual agreement is reached with the child’s family (Dunst, 2003). The inclusion plan for Rayan is valid because children with hearing impairments can lead difficult lives since they are unable to communicate effectively with their families, teachers and peers. It also becomes very difficult for them to perform normal activities and early detection can aid in gaining physical and emotional rehabilitation so as to ensure that those children lead normal and quality lives. It would not be right to neglect a child with disability without offering the necessary specialized and supportive services since it would mean that the child can not get equal learning and social opportunities like other children. According to Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, (2009), it has been noted that children who cannot form close friendship with their peers can have a long term defect in initiating and maintaining social relationships. The situation can be worse for children who have disabilities since the impact on their self confidence, communication skills interpersonal goals can be very serious (Grisham, 2005). In this sense, Rayan can be helped by giving him social skills training by giving her instructions on how well she can initiate and maintain social interactions with other children in a mutually satisfying manner. In such a case, Rayan’s parents and family must be involved in the training so that they can also find ways to ensure that share knowledge about their goals and objectives. For successful implementation of the inclusion plan, Rayan’s family and close friends must learn new ways of dealing with the little girl in order to encourage her in her journey towards recovery.
Collaboration with Rayan’s Family
Family, especially parents, can be said to be vital in coming up with goals and objectives for the rehabilitation of a disabled child (Salter et al., 2005). In order to understand Rayan’s situation and needs, there have been several interviews with Rayan’s family, that have been conducted in order to establish Rayan’s impairment in regards to her family context. Rayan’s parents have got two children and Rayan is the elder of the two. This means that they have other responsibilities of taking care of a young toddler, even with the current Rayan’s challenge. Rayan’s parents have already taken her to an intervention center for children just like other parents do. Regardless of the passion that her parents have in the betterment of Rayan’s situation, Ryan’s mother is not very fluent in English since she comes from a different background. This makes it difficult for her to understand the intervention sessions, and she constantly needs an interpreter by her side whenever she goes to the center. Rayan’s father spends most of weekends with his daughter doing gardening work since he noticed that Rayan really enjoys gardening with her dad. After observations and face to face interviews with both parents, it emerged that they are concerned with Rayan’s socializing skills and they want her to stop keeping to herself while at the center. Apart from their concern about Rayan’s problem with peer interactions, both parents are also concerned with Rayan’s disability and they want her to access all the emotional and physical aid that she needs for her to live a normal life just like other children her age.
Funding of the Inclusion plan
The source of funds is expected to come from the government of Australia through the special programmes department. The government has been encouraging recognition of the disabled, and this program has come at the right time. The government had requested that organizations and institutions that deals with the physically or mentally challenged to come forward and ask for assistance. Therefore, I expect some funds from the government in order to create conducive environment for the child with hearing disability. I expect volunteers too to offer their services in the school. The itinerant teacher for the deaf will be paid monthly since she will be coming to see Rayan every month.
PART B: INCLUSION PLAN FOR THE NEXT SIX WEEKS
Adaptations and modifications
The adaptation and modification that needs to be considered is cooperative classroom projects so that group work can foster peer acceptance amongst the children, (Sandall, 2001)Since Rayan likes playing with dolls, it is possible to use this interest as a stepping stone towards her learning. Rayan should be put in group plays (Small groups to avoid threatening experience for the little girl), where she can play with dolls together with the other children. At her age, her social interaction can be enhanced by cooperative social pretend play (Salter et al., 2009). The roles between the group members should be spelled out by the trainer so that each child can feel that he or she is part of the group. Also, while interacting with family members like her dad, she should be able to feel wanted and cared for. Her dad can try and engage Rayan during gardening, maybe by giving her instructions or by acknowledging her good gardening skills. This task-adaptation method will ensure that Ryan develops quality interpersonal and social skills.
Characteristics of the early childhood program
There are specific strategies that must be considered in order to achieve the goals and objectives that have been set. The plan will focus on Rayan as an individual, her parents and Rayan in a group of other children, in order to examine her interests, strengths and fears in a satisfactory manner. In the first place, it is crucial to understand that Rayan could already be dealing with fear and lack of self-confidence. This could be the reason as to why she avoids large groups of children and it could be the reason as to why she feels too shy to approach them. It is important to set up an environment that offers care without cohesion in order to ensure that the social, cultural, emotional and physical needs of a disabled child are taken into account (Guralnick, 2001). Rayan needs to first be introduced to a non threatening group experiences as a stepping stone for her recovery. This is because she already has low self esteem and she is unable to create friendships with other children, hence the withdrawal symptom. A non threatening social experience can be introduced in the form of small groups of children, whereby the teacher can ensure that Rayan remains in groups of two to three other children in the center. Back at home, Rayan’s parents can try inviting other few children who Rayan is familiar with so that she can feel confident around them. The teaching sessions should be individualized in order to understand Rayan’s strong and weak points, and find ways of improving her learning experiences. The trainers must be objective in their implementation of classroom activities and extracurricular activities so as to give Rayan the required motivation to participate in the activities (Salter et al., 2005).
The reason for this kind of learning is to give Rayan an opportunity to interact with other children. The group is made up of a few children so that she may not feel threatened by a large group of students. Rayan can take a turn to watch other groups play and the next turn; she can try and act in the play. After learning verbally, it could be fit for the teacher to ask some children to act a play based on the instructions learned. This way, Rayan can be in a position to be at par with other children in the class in terms of grasping concepts and instructions.
The teacher could enhance instructional strategy by using visual demonstrations rather than verbal instructions so that Rayan can easily grasp the concepts. The visual ability for deaf children needs to be powerful since it’s the basic way for passing instruction when using sign language (Sandall, 2008). Visual modeling would play a major role in making Rayan feel that she is part of the class, and the teacher should encourage eye contact with her since her eyesight is the most important unit of interaction. Rayan should be encouraged to make eye contact with teachers, instructors, parents and peers during communication so as to reduce shyness.
The teacher should ensure that Rayan participates in the group activities so that the team can assess her progress in terms of interpersonal and social skills. Rayan’s parents must be involved in each step that she makes by ensuring that they discuss at the end of the day, with the teacher about her improvements in behavioral change. Rayan’s dad should encourage his daughter to go on with her gardening interest through constant acknowledgement and instruction. The instructions will happen in the classroom or in the play field. I will participate in ensuring that the room is bright enough for Rayan to see clearly, since her eyesight is very vital in grasping instructions.
Close and continuous monitoring and evaluation will take place daily, weekly and monthly in order to examine improvements in Rayan’s social interactions. According to American Psychological Association, (2009), it is important for team members to record their observations using a tally & frequency charts, and antecedent and consequent procedures so that an analysis can be done at the end of each month. During the monthly evaluations, itinerant teacher, professionals and experts who deal with early childhood programs for children with disabilities should be present to review the progress, make necessary changes and set goals and objectives for him
Mon
Saturday
8 – 10AM: Learn sign language
9-10.30: Out door play
11-12.30: Play with other children (using dolls)
11-1: Participate in class with her parents (since they need to know how to handle their daughter)
2- 3.30: Social skills training
2-3: Gardening with her dad
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