5 Ways Your Preschool Curriculum is Hurting Rather Than Helping

I've worked with educators, learners and their parents to address underlying causes of low performance and packaged the experience as a curriculum supplement designed to increase engagement among preschoolers. I've done the heavy lifting for you, so you don't have to go through the trouble of reinventing the wheel.

We want preschoolers to remain engaged (and feel included) in class activities. This requires access to instruction and repeated exposure to letters and numbers. Singing an educational song or playing an abc game doesn't mean students are growing toward mastery of alphabetic principles. Glaring evidence comes in the form of overcompensation - students appearing to learn the material. Such students are skillful in interpreting facial expressions and picking up on cues from the environment to choose correct answers; however, they are not able to demonstrate mastery without prompting.

The route we don't want to take involves passing the student with great personality and social skills along without strong literacy skill. We don't want to wish children into special education courses and IEP programs. We also don't want to prevent intellectually advanced students from transitioning with their peers to the next classroom or to kindergarten. We want to be proactive about unexpected and uncharacteristic challenges they experience.

The curriculum supplement that I propose as a solution to this conundrum isn't the solution, simply a solution that requires minimal adjustment to the way classrooms are run. The ABC Sensory system serves as a bridge by making instruction (and assessment) more accessible to early learners. Preschool curricula that do not provide this approach require expenditure of resources to secure teams of professionals: dyslexia and auditory processing disorder specialists, early literacy interventionists. Implementing ABC Sensory is a low-cost alternative and useful for building strong home-school partnerships as well.

(Save this image for a condensed view of preschool learning objectives.)

ABC Sensory addresses five pain points of many preschool curricula.

Preschool Pain Point #1: Setting parameters for writing letters "correctly". Too much correction prompts learners to disengage and narrow definitions of mastery lead to low confidence. We want to combat this unintended effect embedded in many preschool curricula. ABC sensory handwriting practice sheets show letter shapes and make room for learners to form each in ways that feel natural to them. It's an appropriate modification for learners with weak fine-motor and coordination skills.

Preschool Pain Point #2: Lack of accommodations for learners with delayed language development. Curriculum modifications for special needs populations requires communication, time, and effort. Nonetheless, these learners need strategies in order to follow directions the first time during active learning experiences. Learners who do not yet speak clearly or process language slowly benefit from the ABC Sensory approach in lieu of expressing thoughts verbally. Normalizing ABC Sensory hand signals at home and school-wide addresses this pain point.

Preschool Pain Point #3: Supporting diverse groups of preschoolers with varying social emotional strengths. Adhering to limits and expectations, taking care of their own needs appropriately, forming relationships with adults and friends are all aspects of development that may be impeded by language acquisition challenges. ABC Sensory offers a solution that addresses these and more social emotional preschool learning guidelines by equipping students with tools for interactive classroom collaboration.

Preschool Pain Point #4: Placing limits on self-expression. This approach prompts young learners to shut down. It's difficult to demonstrate a positive approach to learning when the expectation is that students express themselves in ways they have yet to master. With this pain point, I'm specifically referring to students who are learning to cope with delayed and different cognitive abilities. The examples in a recent blog post further demonstration how ABC Sensory offers relief in this area.

Preschool Pain Point #5: Delayed diagnosis and intervention. Encouraging use of digital games to strengthen alphabetic knowledge takes precious time away from building strong motor skills. With ABC Sensory print games (suitable board games), we don't have to choose between learning letters or improving handwriting skill or mastering social-emotional objectives. Playing print games with adults and peers is especially helpful for nurturing the whole child.

Why reinvent the wheel?
ABC Sensory is a system created for clients and perfected over the course of dozens of private tutoring sessions with feedback from parents and early learning experts. Hand signals for each letter of the alphabet are specially designed to improve recall and ideal for teaching the differences between features of similar letters like b, d, p, and q. Using the hand signals helps students unlearn instinctive directionality associated with other objects in the environment. Early learners, preschoolers, and special needs populations learn their ABC's with ease; they're also equipped to participate in an inclusive setting while working toward mastery.

Preorder the complete ABC Sensory system today to save program dollars and develop your staff. The system includes ABC Sensory teachers handbook, flashcards, and 200+ pages of abc learning activities especially designed to facilitate participation in inclusive preschool classrooms and meet the unique challenges learners with disabilities face. Request a quote for bulk orders.

To sample the complete ABC Sensory system, download the handwriting journal and flashcards in our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Educational Support Professionals are available to answer questions and walk you through product demonstrations. You're invited to schedule professional development training today.

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You're invited to become an ABC Sensory partner 
by emailing the learning center: published@je411.com. 

                      

ABC Sensory: Creating an inclusive preschool classroom

Creating an inclusive classroom often requires we get comfortable being uncomfortable. It's comfortable to teach lesson plans as they're written. For many learners, taking this approach may prove effective. To reach learners with diagnosed or suspected special needs, we learn to embrace uncomfortability (yes, it's a real word). Uncharted or unknown territories are often opportunities for fun and growth that we enjoy only if we're intentional. Otherwise, it's just an annoying experience that you learn nothing from. Perspective matters.

When I launched Jackson Education Support in 2012, the inclusive preschool classroom wasn't on my radar. Preschool games, teaching the alphabet, and early childhood education in general were not included in my list of specialty areas. I had no desire to become proficient in this area until the challenge was presented by a client. I couldn't say no. I had to give it the old college try. In supporting clients in early literacy growth and mastery, it was necessary to create custom early literacy activities to personalize the learning experience. The first product uploaded to Teachers Pay Teachers was downloaded nearly seven hundred times when I wrote this post and rated as an all-star resource by educators and parents.

Kindergarten readiness is a big concern for parents and educators. Parents want to ensure children arrive to daycare or childcare prepared to learn, and educators want to meet the challenge of including preschool age children in meaningful learning activities - no child left behind is the goal. It seemed appropriate (and felt great) to stretch myself through professional development in order to meet the unique needs of early learners. Now, Jackson Education Support empowers and equips preK-12 and adults (with and without special needs) to transition into more challenging environments. 

What is an inclusive classroom?

In short, an inclusive classroom is an environment wherein students with special needs effectively learn alongside students without special needs. In order to create this kind of learning experience, we have to think critically about a number of factors (e.g., individual strengths and weak areas, achievement gaps within the group, available learning materials, curricular requirements, time management, evaluation criteria). 

In many instances, a team labors year-round to ensure student success. Since clients usually find me when there's a missing piece or disconnect between planning and outcomes, I've learned a great deal about curriculum adaptations. Adaptations is an umbrella term that includes accommodations and modifications. "Accommodations" refer to changes to learning environments to make curriculum more accessible, to ensure students understand content; examples include eyeglasses, hearing aids, seating students at the front of the class. I set out to improve cognitive ability, to specifically effect learning, so accommodations are usually outside the scope of services that I provide.

Creating an inclusive preschool classroom

Curriculum modifications are my strength. Modifications are the bridges that make learning possible. A modification requires both a change in curriculum and learning outcomes. This second type of adaptation helps educators and parents meet students at their level. We aren't 'dumbing down content'; instead, we're offering an age-appropriate bridge so students can participate in classroom learning experiences at a level they can understand. Modifications include substitutions, deletions, and additions to an existing curriculum.

One example of a preschool age modification used to create inclusive preschool classrooms is ABC Sensory, a curriculum supplement that allows preschool educators to bridge learning in the classroom as well as strengthen home and school partnerships and homeschooling outcomes. ABC Sensory Handwriting Journal and Flashcards are designed by Jackson Education Support as early literacy tools for automating letter identification and expanding alphabetic knowledge as well as improving phonics, print concepts, vocabulary acquisition and use, and word recognition. 

Benefits of ABC Sensory as a curriculum modification tool

The ABC Sensory system was created for clients and perfected over the course of dozens of private tutoring sessions with feedback from educators, students and their families. Hand signals for each letter of the alphabet improve recall and are ideal for teaching the differences between similar letters like b, d, p, and q. Preschoolers and special needs populations learn the alphabet with ease; they're also equipped to participate in an inclusive setting while growing toward mastery.

ABC Sensory establishes a common system of learning the alphabet for learners with language acquisition challenges. By implementing this tool, parents and educators maintain rigor while bridging the learning gap for students with special needs. Examples follow.

• Olivia cries uncontrollably during carpet time letter identification activities. She sings the alphabet song along with other children, but becomes visibly emotional it's her turn to shout letter names. An effective modification involves ABC Sensory Flashcards: instead of shouting the letter names, Izzy participates with her peers by showing the hand signal for letters.

• Mason roughhouses with neighboring classmates after drawing on handwriting practice sheets (instead of tracing and writing the letters). An effective modification involves ABC Sensory Handwriting Journal: most handwriting practice sheets have 30% guided writing and 70% blank space for freehand writing whereas the ABC Sensory curriculum supplement takes advantage of the opposite rule (70/30) to provide much needed guidance to strengthen weaker fine-motor ability and muscle memory. With reminders to follow the guides from an adult, Mason experiences greater confidence and becomes more invested in handwriting practice.

• Izzy shuts downs when tasked to use a mobile device to play an ABC game that requires her to listen to letter names and choose the correct letter from several. An effective modification involves ABC Sensory and an adult: the adult shows hand signals for letter names spoken in the app as Izzy taps the correct letter on the screen. In this way, Izzy completes the same activity by leveraging her strengths.

Jackson Education Support is actively seeking ABC Sensory partnerships with individuals and organizations that educate preschoolers age 3 through 5. We're offering free training with purchase for a limited time. All clients that use this system improve performance and enter the classroom with greater confidence. 

____________________________________

You're invited to become an ABC Sensory partner by 

emailing an interest letter to the learning center: learn@je411.com.