DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 126 650 EC 090 566

AUTHOR Hartfcrd, DaleTITLE Learning to Learn: Parental Pre-School Approach for

Early Intervention of Learning Disabilities.INSTITUTION Cheshire Public Schools, Conn.SPONS AGENCY Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education

(DHEW/OE), Washington, D.C.PUB DATE [76]NOTE 61p.

EDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORS

ABSTRACT

MF-$0.83 HC-$3.50 Plus Postage.*Educational Programs; Exceptional Child Education;Intervention; *Learning Disabilities; Mothers; ParentAttitudes; *Parent Child Relationship; Parent Role;*Parent School Relationship; Preschool Education;*Preschool Programs; Program Descriptions;Teamwcrk

Described is a preschool program prcviding earlyintervention and diagnostic planning for 26 3-and 4-year-old learningdisabled children. Common problems with the children are discussed;and mcthers attitudes, roles, and benefits are recounted in theirown words. The team approach to learning is examined with the role ofeach staff member outlined, including that of the mother as a membeof the team. The text is illustrated with photographs, and drawingsof the floor plan used are included. Some discoveries and problems ofthe prcgra are ncted. (IM)

************************************************************************ Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished ** materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort ** to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items cf marginal ** reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality ** of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available ** via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not ** responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions ** supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. *

***********************************************************************

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U 5 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTHEDUCATION WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATION

- ', DOCUMENT IISS BEEN REPRO-:, t ED i xt.crt r AS RECEIVED FROM' ..E PERSON OR ORGANIZATION OR IGIN-A , NC, .1 POIN TS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

:.TF D DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE,ENT 0, c c .AL NAT 'ORAL INSTITUTE OFFD,:' A'ON POSi-ION OR POLICY

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I his booklet, like the program it describes, exists only because the parents ofCheshire children %.,,ith learning problems wanted it and were willing to workto 'nuke it a reality All of those involved in the preparation of this work aregrateful to the Cheshire Board of Education for its continuing support; toDr Stephen August, Superintendent of Schools, for his encouragement andguidance; and to Highland School Principal Chester W. Crowley, Jr., for theunfailing enthusiasm and intelligent direction which have been major contri-butions both to the program and to this publication. Special acknowledgementis clue to Dr. Roger E. Richards, Title III Coordinator, Connecticut StateDepartment of Education, and Mr. David R. Murphy, Federal Program Fiscal.1thninistralion, Connecticut State Department of Education, who read theManusc ript and offered many helpful suggestions. This booket was preparedvvith a Title Ill grant to the Cheshire, Connecticut School System.

this pohhcation was %,,r:tten for the Cheshire School System by Dale Hartford.Photograph, hy llr Hartford and /0) t'olke, Fell\ Drury and John (lake) Foley.Ora Wmas by William Lyle.

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INTRODUCTION . .

CHILDREN WHO FAIL

1101HE KS AND THEIR CHILDREN

T(ILSDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH . .

THE CHILDREN

MOTHERS AT WORK

1 PLACE FOR CHILDREN ....... 7

THE STAFF

El'ALUATION

DISCOVERIES

PROBLEMS

1 ND WHA T NOW ' . .

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THIS IS A PUBL ICA [ION ABOUT HOPE.About the kond of hope which is ex-pressed in thn, simple; touching poem.

I long to hold him in my armsto develop and cherish all his charm;,

Instead his hyper mind does playhavot with my every clay.

lie moves so rust, so wild, so far,out of reach; in front of car.

My heart does stop; I get uptight,wearisome in my daily plight.

It'hy can't I find u way to cope?Please, God, please, give me hope.

That porn was written by the mother of athree -year -old boy shortly after both motherand child were enrolled in a program locatedin Cheshire, Connecticut. The program,funded under Title III of the Elementary andSecondary Education Act of 1965, is called"Parental Pre-school Approach to Early Inter-vention of Learning Disabilities." -It beganfunctioning in our Highland School in the1972-1973 school year. And it has a greatdeal to do with hope.

This booklet describes this program in acomprehensive bit unusual way. Like theprogram itself, this publication emphasizesthe elusive human qualities which are critical-ly important to the pr4gram's success. Whilehard evaluative data is presented in some de-tail, the focus, is on matters which are diffi-cult to present statistically: How can educa-tion best utilize a mother's sensitivity to andknowledge about her child? How can an edu-cational team which includes the mother ef-fectively engage in diagnostic /prescriptiveplanning for very young children who, it is

safe to predict, are going to have difficultylearning in the traditional classroom setting?What kind of resources outside of the schoolsystem need to tie focused on the problems ofsuch children' How do myriad environmentalfactors affect a child's ability to learn? Thequestions go on and on; this program providesa series of intriguing answers.

he program is presented in these pages asa working process Because mothers are at itsheart, they are at the heart-of this presenta-tion, Most often their involvement in and

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Dr. Stephen August

perceptions about the program are presentedin their own words. They have been workingpartners in the preparation of this statement.In these pages, they come alive as real people,'with deep concerns, understandable anxieties,and remarkable commitment. Their children,too, are removed from statistical columns tobecome real boys and girls, together learninghow to deal with the unique and troublesomeways in which they perceive the world aroundthem. Because each such problem is unique,the program process must exemplify an in-trinsic flexibility which permits it to adjust,modify, shape and emphasize on a daily basis.

In many respects, this program represerits1a distillation of what we in the Cheshire'school system have learned in the past 15

years about the special problems of the childof normal intelligence who has a handicappingcondition.

Although Cheshire's mean I.Q. on grouptests is 113tbout 33 per cent of our children

Were consistently found to be unaerachieveis,,and 17 per , ent were'clearly identified at thetime of school entrance as exhibiting medic;tors of learning problems. Mother one per,c.,ent had already peen diagnosed by outsideagencies as being specifically handicapped.

As the pre-school plail was conceived, wehad come 'to recognve the need for a localprogram to provide a bridge from home toschool so that learning difficulties can be moreicachly identified and r mediated at an earlierage than entry to school.

Who are these children with handKappingprobleria yyho manifest some degree oflearning difficulty which may interfere withfuture education? [hey are, we have found,the children with speech piobl6rn, languagedelay, medical problems,. by Ejcuvity orpossible emotional problems'

It has been discos ered that the number ofsuch children is much larger than schools

(.2 goneially recognize Connecticut state law hasc-itablished the responsibility for providingspecial programs tot all children with handi-capping conditions when they arc 3.8 years ofage F itch year more parents are beton)rngaware of their rights under-emsting law, mdaie requesting special programs. As educators,we in Cheshue agi cc. ssith the lawmakers thatthese children need ieduc Aiwa! interventionat the earliest possible time.

In a decade or more of 'sorb, 'se have cometo feel stiongly that learbing disabilities arehest handled during a child's formative years.f he age or trye; yye belie\ e, is of ten too late tobegin responding lu patterns of the child'slearning behaoror, it presentative rather thanremedial measures are to be instituted.

the pi Inc conclusion which these con-cepts base led to in Cheshire is that hearingand'or %IsMr1 1111p,Illed, cerebral palsied and.mustic children have some common needswhich 111(1y he better served in a positivemother-child learning setting with more near-ly normal children Simultaneously

, the nearlynormal children with special needs may alsobe \yell set \ cd

Responding to these developing ideas, ourmain thrust in special education for the pastlu sal, his been timaid reaching the childas early as possible, e decelopmental place-ment by behay 'oral lather than chronologicalage. dark perceptual training in eyeiy elemen-tary class, mother tutoring, resourcerooms hoot (uades 1 through 40, self-,con-

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tatned classes gradually yiefding to the main-stream, a pilot program a the kindergartenlevel, and collection of cla a regardaig, schoolentrants. '

While wen Cheshire, have been acutelyaware of the need to recych children with spe-cial needs before the cige of five, until thisTitle III project began there were no localfacilities for pre-school/handicapped children.Nor were there facilities for children withlesser handicapping conditions.

A former Title Ill project, the Develop-mental Resource Center, was helpful in de-veloping concepts that have been beneficialin helping school-age children. We believedthey would be even more valuable in prevent-ing learning disabilities if utilized at the pre-school level. Simply stated they are:

I) Knowledge of a child's developmentallevel, which differs from mental level, is help-ful in planning an academic program for him.

2) Helping the child heconie an active prob-lem-solver by -picking up clues from his envi-ronment allows him to discover his own learn-ing process and to decide to find more suita-ble approaches to learning.

3) Mother is not only her 4hild's first`teacher but can be his best once she is taughthow to recognize the first two concepts.

4) The physical environment can be syn-chronized with the curriculum to facilitatelearning.

Of course we are not alone in recognizingthe need to serve handicapped pre-schoolchildren with specialized programming. Andyet the collaborative effort described in these

...pages has a number of unique features.I) Within the program, handicapped child-

ren are served in an integrated setting withnormal children with special needs.

2) While other schools provide individualser..es for children, this program allo'Ws forthe simultaneous integratron of child, parent,and public school team into a common, uni-fied effort.

3) Of special interest is the involvement ofthe parent in a Much more comprehensiveway than is I\ plc. ally found in other pre-schoolpi ogi anis

1) Because riI this level of inyolvement,',merits identify with the school as a whole,rather than being made to feel then child isfur ther segregated because of his handicappingcondition.

S) 1 here's positive proof that siblings of

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children in the program derive secondary ben-efits from the parents' increasing knowledgeof child behavior.

6) Since the program is located within anelementary school, there are any oppor-tunities for,,the integration of ervices whicha?e Tully expfted.

7) Finally, the program design demands'the continuing search for new methods ortechniques to facilitate learning.

So much for introductory comment. Letme briefly review. how the program works,what kind of children it serves, and what re-sources it draws upon. All are topics presentedin some detail in the pages which follow.

The program presents a play setting in

which children and their mothers interact fortwo hours per day. Mothers of four-year-oldsattend four days a week; mothers of three --year -olds attend three days a week. A teacherand a teacher aide help in guiding and elaborat-ing the activity of the moment. Time isprovid d for a small group activity for thechildren while mothers engage in- observa-tions, recording data, consultation with con-sultants, and workshops.

Mothers balance their time between childinteraction and child study in relation to theirchild's needs. The adults provide the physicalsetting and the play situations. Within thissetting, the child is free to choose an activitysingly, or to join other children. He is alsofree to change activities, or rest as he chooses.The educational materia's are created in re-sponse to individual children's' needs by theteam of adults.

Nutrition, physical movement, spatial re-lationships, fine motor coordination, commu-nication and emotions are highlighted and dis-cussed with parents as they observe their childengaged in a pleasurable activity. From suchobservation comes a body of knowledgewhich increasingly serves the child as he learnsto deal more effectively with his learning prob-lem.

In the process, the teacher-director and theteacher of the group join with the parent instudying the child's learning style, his rangeof interests, and his special needs. Task-break-ing is the adults' central problem, so that in-creasingly the child can experience success inhis activities. The library, cafeteria, healthdepartment, kindergarten, gymnasium andauditorium, along with appropriate elementa-ry school staff, serve as ancillary services in

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this process.The program's consultants, including an

optometrist, a psychiatrist, a school 'socialworker, architect and others, are introducedintoothis learning process in the ways in whichthey can serve most effectively. All work to-y.-ether collectively in a team approach. .

Children remain in the program for one ortwo years, depending on need. Concluding itsthird year as this publication was prepared,the program has served children with the fol-lowing identified learning problems: autism,cerebral palq, hearing impairment, multiple

,handicaps, vision impairment, birth trauma,hyperactivity, birth prematurity, languageproblems, emotional disturbance and medicalproblems. Total enrollment in the program's

ithird year was 26 children.A The pre-school 'program occupies two large\ classrooms in Highland School. Further, as

noted earlier, it utilizes many of the school'sfacilities to enrich learning experiences forthe children.

Staff includes two special education teach-ers and their aides; a teacher coordinator, andthe school psychologist, who is the projectdirector. Services as needed are by aspeech therapist, school social worker, aneducational materials specialist, and the con-sultants. The school principal is a key figurein insuring that the pre - 'school program is well-integrated into the mainstream of the towneducational effort. The effort is no less intentto insure this same level of integration, withsupport services as needed, as these pre-school-ers move into our elementary school class-rooms.

If asked to sum up the pre-school programin a single sentence, I would likely say: It is aremarkably comprehensive approach in deal-ing with the special needs of learning handi-capped children during their every wakingmoment.

Perhaps the totality of the program ex-perience is,a key factor under:ying its success.

Ur. Stephen AugustSuperintendent of SchoolsCheshire, Connecticut

I his is Ricky, tt ho'has come to know the pleasure of success.

C III RI I) \RI N \I 1)RI -S( I I()()1has .1 qu,d1h. It (.11,1\(,,

humpr,1111, IJ pr 11()rii I),1( (Al-

111,M \.51 )1 k1112, \A, I Or irid t1'11C 11,1'ld',,

I ill un-1111,11'cnind \\ the (1,1\

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(drowns them that the piogiam must be\ \A hole, Mart\ are fast mated by thetreater, inno(ative use of spate, of «doi andlight, of \ et tital and hoirtontal (limbers,()diets, reseal (.11-oi rented, ,tan evaluation da-ta to learn \t hat is happening to this interest-ing mi\ LI)ilill en 'Stillothers are inmiesse(I b' the aura' of program(onsultants. An ai(hitc(t ' An optometi;st'lust do the\ .\\ oft\ What do the\ do'

And \ et, \auk' it J, cuss to be seduLet.11)\,Ingle I.tstIn,ittng element in the plogt,im'sdt;siuji, It h .1 Idles \isttol, nldeetl, \\ho duesHot I owe ,155,15 Inll igned aiad per Mips (hal-lenged h the plogiain's most unique fea-ture the total littol('enr01N of parents Inthe Ihen lull pm lit ip,i-nun In the on-,.4oIng ,tud\ of learning belho.-,or In ( heshile's pre school plan, paients

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Glen is discollering he has two sides to his body.

Lome to sk.11,361 with their children and

stay. .

The 26 program children, three and four-ear-olds, include a bioad spectrum: the seri-

oiody disabled youngster hearing and/orvision impaired, cerebral palsied, autisticalong with nearly normal children with spe-cial needs. The program does not, in fact,recognile definitive, line between a handl-Lapped child and a child with a handicappingCondit ore

There are many programs for the seriouslytroubled child. But the Cheshire program, byits emstence, poses the question: nee he beisolated, learning only ,vith.children milarlyaffilt.ted? lho, thrust in Cheshire has been todesign a setting and a program where such achild can Itarn to his full potential, in theeveitation that, with continued support, hewill he able to function well in the 'normalSl hin)1 setting.

At the same time*, the program offers uniquelearning opportunities for the child with nor-mal intelligence who is lagging behind in lan-guage am) of motor abilities, who may havespeech pi ohlerilsind who as a consequence

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is afflicted with a po (Serf-image. The frus-tration of repeated f lure in communicat-ing, in running and c imbing and learning is

eroding his confickdce.Ricky is one such child. He deserves a clos-

er look, far in many ways he is representativeof the '"LD" student.

His r mother is Mary Lou. She is yo,ung,pretty, a certified teacher and the mother oftwo. She thus makes her education& judge-ments about Ricky from converging perspec-tives: with a mother's sure knowledge of herchild, and with the objective eye of the wy,lfr

.trained professional."Without this special help," %he said, "I'm

confident that Ricky would be in kindergartennow. But he would be withdrawn, extremelyshy, very quiet. He would be sitting in a cor-ner, withdrawing still more with each passingday. And if he didn't happen to have a teach-er who could pick up his problem, he simplywouldn't "be able to function with a largegroup. I twould be a disastrous gait for him."Ricky, bright as he is, would probably becomeone of the childi-en who fail.

Ricky, now live, is more than simply shy.Recalls his mother, "When Ricky was TA,

In a quiet setting, mother helps her hyperactive childfocus his attention.

My husband and I recognized that he hadpoor language, aril that he was lagging behindin his large,motor abilities." Ricky's tather, aresearch scientist, shared his wile's concerns.

Rick'y underwent extensive medical tests."He seemed to have trouble breathing," saidhis mother, "and was very nasalized." Largeadenoids were considered a potential probe.lem. but on balance Ricky checked out asphysically sound. "There. seemed to be nophysftal problem hampering his ability tolearn," his mother said

But there was no question that hicky'sspeech was unclear, and that his vocabularywar limited. fhe medical view was that Rickywas a "slow starter ," who could be expectedto blossom in one_upid spurt at some unpre-diL table- date.

Dissnislied with that prognosis, Mary Lousearched out a. speech therapy program farpre-schooler, in a New Havencollrge, staffedtA,grailuatq,,students. Ricky spt a half-hourthere Ficit week, and atter soc, months, saidhis .mother, '"I was convinced we weren.'t

.getting to the root of the problem."For concerned parents, these days, weeks

arid months ot searching are among the most

2 confined space gives structure to Elaine's task.

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Glen learns judgement in space orkoutsicle climbers.

trying times. "My husband and I felnz.0 were..giving Ricky so much time and so much loveand Patience, and still we,were not seeing thechange or growth that we wanted to see. Theincredibly frustrating thing is that we simplydidn't know what to do about it."

Admitting she was .'becoming frantic,"Mary Lou called the School Bpard in her hometown of Cheshire, Conn., to talk about herfour-year-old son. Soon Ricky was beingtested by the school psychologist, and sub-sequently he was enrolled in the year-oldCheshire program called "Parental Pre-schoolApproach to Early Intervention of LearningDisabilities." It was the fall of 1973. Motherbecame a member ot the class, too, as we shallsee.

Ricky, igain representative of the "LDchild," proved to have above-average intelli-gence when tested on the Stantord-BinetIntelligence Scale,..blit multiple difficulties invirtualki every other area. On the Gesell, Ve-velopmental T-et, Ricky at four registered,4developmental age of 2.9 years. (For furtherdetails on testing, see Evaluation, page.52 ).His gross motor abilities, so troubling to theparents who longed to see their son run and

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1/1 ipe it the trowkrny %pi( e helps ( reale innillchifies to?

lump like ()Orel ci \it:reknit chililien, indeedte,,tetl out ti slit t'\11t'Illeit, 'WA It:1I 11111

Lc 's illle !youn skills cceie Lii%awe L'\t'l \rid soLialliation and cunlnlunlea-llnil cal 11101)1Ctlls ilnt, as Ili' ell-It'l pior41 am. IlL alsopi, iced to I) ice cisual piohltini casLoci \\ 1111 hcncil1iii iesults.

I >espite RIC.k 's intelltgenLe «the!If cift2,111s, his mothei I, plobal)1\ roller( ul

Jillltllllle,, poni,llunt-,1.2,C alid tt tt &less t% (Mid 111%C tit'lealeilhint in an attempt to function %%Lill ;1 ,.

'WHIM.; I it Might HellII It t bLit ()Mc 111)()11

lhttll,,Ind, of . 'Witten \chi) ilnd eLluLation a\per , ,1 sel les ol

ccear cur.; tnu,ti,ttlons and tilLompteliensWle\lior tation,ccliich the\ hasten to le,ke at the

earliest possible date In fat t, some e \potsbLilie Li, uric as wank ,t, eight millionRicks in this counti some s,p, ten petLent of all preadolescent students hale somet tie t It leal rung pi oblem would respondhi wipe! Lliaci,riikis ,111.1 special plogianinung.

Mete ,tic nun\ LIU tetent !oink of 'eat 11 Mgol)lems mole than 100, .recording to the

National Institute Ut I Icalth and concern isbeim.; Li \pressed lm sortie cho sense a "I una-\%,r, s hill i Wile" \1 11 Ilet1 lediningbeing identif Liciscr 'bed and plogiameil lotwith .11.tii,lunci equei..

\t,ntiolit tin.; the licel discussion ofthe le II 11111:' \11111111

tcssim1.11 tilde,, it Is title to sac that filmicchililten die not leinnit, in a ttaditiiwal \1,t\h tiadilkwal methods in ,r tiaditional setting

kits ( 11.11()ol

p,1/4.1iiiloci,kt and Linetoi of the pie-school

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/eddy, tight, and tither t inhir,

piogiam, can gke countless Li \ample, to sup-t that sew

I hoe was one oungstel who, -it was dis-coLited, could not distinguish the ifilleienLebetween the sounds "a" and "e," a prribleminhibiting his abilit to r cad

hlteie,tnlgly eitough, upon checking it wasfound that hi; mother could not make theLiuditot distinction, Mho but she hadmanavd to toinpensate bit the plobleni.ears below.

"In this instance the kec 11,1, ,twateaess,"said Mts. Cal uthei s When motho and chilcllearned the nature of the pioblem, it soonRicci-led in unpin lance and the irungsutt waswell on the wa% to leading," In junkWhigh hewas on the hunt !NI in an average division-.

Anothei child, born without a loctum, c'vasobsercied using only th.e tight side of Ills bodywhen pumping and in other activities. Altersec'etal days ril c,uclul evaluation, this Lharac-let istic was pointed out to the child's miither ,a blight alert, concerned patent. But evenal let a petted of Li \ tensive obseivation of hetchild through a one-way minor, the mothercould still not distinguish the unusual behaviorpaltein. It took lour months lot het to be-come aware of the nature of het son's mob-lem and with that awai cricks came a giantthrust fin \cat d in helping the child,

Concern f (>1 these kinds of problems whichn1,11 think beat on a child's ability to learnlike been e \ essed nationally lot a decade ofmole In the search hit clues to learning dil-1 'cultic, !Lice conic a hull of labels, somedc,ttlptr\e,some cuntllctrtlg, more than a lew

dting perceptual handicap, Namconceptual handicap, congenital \void

blindness, minimal brain LIc sf unction, nettio-

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Game extended by Cairie's mother, Kathleen, '

helps Carrie and Inv work cooperatively andstrengthen social skills. ,..--.----,------

Protect Directbi GwynetteCaruthers works with a motherin the observation room.

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phrenia, dyslexia, hyperkinetic impulse dis-order, developmental aphasia, psychoneuro-logic learning disorder, attention disorder,hyperexcitabilitv,syndrome.

While these are all interesting terms, manywith varying interpretations, it is fair to saythat for all learning disabled children, some-thing is amiss with their basic informationsystem' with the way they take in information;with the way they interpret it and relate to it,;with the way they respond to it; or with somecombination of these three processes.

The problems may, of course, vary in se-verity. Other learning handicaps may be medi-cally based, such as visual'or hearing deficits.But for most learning disabled children, theprobremwlies not in the senses, but in howtheir brain perceives impulses.

Some of the more common ways thelearfilng disabled child may run into educa-tional difficulties include:

Reading. 'The child having problems withvisual ,and/or auditory discrimination, or withvisual and auditory memory, usually does notlearn to read along with his peers. He mayperceive letters backwards or upside down, beunable to retain sequence, or have other simi-lar problems described in the literature.

Language and writing. These same difficul-ties of discrimination, memory, sequoncing,and spatial or direction orientation imposegrave hardships on the child struggling towrite letters or repeat sounds.

Concepts and abstractions. Some childrenare slow to grasp the relationship betweensimilar obiecis (car, truck, bike), althoughthey may be able to identify the objectsindividually. Others arc puzzled by space,

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.time and direction, confusing "above" and"below," "near" and "far," "more" and"less."

Behavior. The hyperactive child often can-not perform a simple but critically importantfunction necessary to meaningful learning: at-tend to a single task by screening out surround-ing distractions. Without this filtering mech-anism, the hyperactive youngster_is literallyoverwhelmed by stimuli during every wakingmoment. Little wonder that his attentionspan is so short and his energies so prodigious.

As has been suggested, the rang° of identi-fied learning-problems is great and still grow-ing. The area of commonality is that they all,each and every one, bear in some direct,important way on orie or more of these basiclearning processes: reading, language develop-ment and writing, concepts and abstractions.

it has been a decade or more since educatorsnationally began expressing deep concernabout the child with normal or better intelli-gence who, for some often subtle reason, is

inhibited in his ability to learn.The concern for this same child has been

equally intense in the Cheshire, Conn., systemfor this period of time or longer.

Early in the- 1960s, emphasis in the lowergrad of the Cheshire system began to shiftfrom grouping chittiren by chronological ageto concert for developmental and behavioralplacement.

The Gesell Developmental Examination hasbeen administered town-wide since 1968with remarkably consistent results. Each year,30 of the 400 incoming five-,,,ear-olds haverevealed predictable learning disabilities.

Since 1969. mothers of children (age 7

through 10) with special needs have been at-tending school along with their children twoto four hours per week to gain a better under-standing of their children's learning behavior.The results have been positive: improvedschool performance for the children, increasedawareness for the parents.

This effort was begun with Title Ill, ESEAfunding as a Developmental Resource Centerproject which in a five-year period has en-gaged 350 mothers in cooperative learningactivities with their children.

The underpinnings of today's pre-schoolprogram were thus set in place over a numberof yea..

Per-Jnalities inevitably played a crucial rolein formulating the end product.

The pre-school proggam's head teacher, LoisRhin, and the school psychologist, Gwynette--Caruthers, came to believe a decade ago th'tthe would never deal with the learning dis-abled child with a high degree of.effectivenessunless and until they got the child's parent in-solved in the learning process. As ideas for thepre-school program were refined, both con-sideied intensive parental involvement a car-

element.Consultants entered into program planning

in different ways.At one point, Cheshire's School Superin-

tendent, Dr. Stephen August, asked Mrs. Caru-thers to search for a common denominatoramong the one-third of tfie children_who, inannual testing, demonstrated perceptual devia-tions. At the time, all of these children sharedonl' one thing: they could all be expected todo less-well in school. They were the - childrenconsistently identified by teachers as under-achievers, most hyperactive or most with-drawn.

Seeking better educational footing, Mrs.Carutheis consulted with Dr. John Streff,then Dire"ctor of Visual Training for the Ge-sell Institute -of Child Development in NewHaven. Could visual problems be the rootcause for these learning and behavior prob-lems? Perhaps, concluded Dr. Streff, one offour of the children could benefit from havingglasses but he felt that all could benefitfrom visual training.

Soon Dr. Streff was in Cheshire talkingwith parents and teachers about conceptualdevelopment through physical movement.And mother element in today's pre-schoolprogram began to take shape.

A chance meeting on a plane was the be-ginning of Cheshire's innovative experimentswit h classroom space. A youngCheshire teach-er was flying south on vacation, when the un-occupied scat next to her was filled by a hand-some, curious young man. She, it turned out,taught a Readiness class a new term to thegentleman. And he was Felix Drury, then aprofessor of architecture in the Yale GraduateSchool of Art and Architecture, a restlessspirit who, he admitted, was singularly unim-pressed with most school architecture, con-sidering it stultifying and inhibiting in thelearning process.

Softness and responsiveness of rope makes itespecially appealing to children.

Some months later, Felix Drury's curiousmind drew him to Cheshire, so that he mightlearn more about "Readiness" education.,-Hemet Stephen August. He met John Streff,Gwynette Caruthers, and other dedicatedteachers seeking better ways to reach children.

Within a short time, Mr. Drury had fash-ioned a course for his Yale graduate studentsin classroom architecture, and they werespending two full days a week in Cheshire,serving as aides, relating to children and,teachers, attempting to identify those modifi-cations in a child's environment which might

14

stimulate and enhance the learning process.,Dr. Robert Adams, Director of the Water-

llkiry Child Guidance Clinic,-had been a psy-chiatric consultant to the Cheshire school sys-tem for some years. Now an articulate spokeman for the pre-school program, he was ini-tially wary if not opeply opposed abouta plan which would involve parents in theeducational process on a day-to-day basis. Buthe watched, listened, made his own invaluable .contribution and became a convert.

Finally the elements were all in place, thecreatie, energies were all focussed, for a criti-cally important effort: to reach out to thepotentially learning handicapped youngsterwell before he entered the public school set-ting. Again funding came from the FederalTitle III program, for an innovative pre-school plan with these central features:

1) It is limited to children who are identi-fied as having predictable learning handicapswhich will affect their ability to acquire basicand fundamental learning skills.

2) It fully utilizes the enormous resource ofa parent's knowledge about and sensitivity toher own child by bringing the mother intothe classroom. Working with a highly sophis-ticated and deeply committed staff, she islaugh t to explore her child's unusual approachto learning in a creative and productive way.

3) Exciting, innovative modifications in thelearningenvironment are carefully designed tomeet the children's special needs.

4) Finally, the program relies on expertconsultants to further strengthen its-conceptsand techniques, in full recognition that theprogram is a process rather than a package,and as such is subject to constant revision, on-going evaluation, and never-ending dialoguein what one teacher aptly called "a symphonyof teal ning."

It isrb,we allt team approach withmother as a full member of the team. That isan elusive tact which may escape the one-timevisitor in the observation booth, who may,understandably, be fascinated by some morerisible program component.

But it is the team approach which is at theheart cif the effort and it is an approachwhich works. Flead teachertois Rho, withmany oars' experience in early childhoodeducation, sums up the problems and the po-tential in this learning methodology:

"We think our team approach to the Win-., ing experience with parents as full, partici-

11

- 15:

pating members of the team is exciting,rich, dynamic. But there are continuous hur-dles.

"We must, first and foremost, have theability to share. We can't be protective ofwhatever we are, whatever we have, but ratherwe must be willing to give professionally andpersonally. Each of us has his or her ownstyle, and we must respect that style in oneanother, so that when we come together weare working from a base ol mutual accep-tance. The goal is the program to make itreally work. In the process, you learn a lotabout yourself, and some of it is painful. Youhave to work with a sense of trust, and not fOra moment be in it for yourself.

"But the rewards are so great, personally,professionally, and most of all is a team."

In 1972, a planning year, the program en-rolled six children and six mothers. In* 1974-75, the total had swelled to 26 children, oc-cupying two large classrooms in the kinder-garten wing of Cheshire's Highland School.Twenty-six children. Twenty-six mothers.Twenty-six mother-child relationships. Twospecial education teachers. One teacher super-visor. And the support staff consultants,school psychologist, social worker.

All coming together in an intricate, mean-ingful, rewarding "symphony of learning."

This booklet describes the symphony in itsmost important parts, in the hope that, seenwhole, the harmony of the design shinesthrough.

THE NINE PROGRAM MOTHERS WEREdeeply engrossed in a conversation abouttheir children. The shared deep concernfor the special needs of one child emergedas a common bond of near-visible force

in drawing the mothers together.Without Cheshire's pre-school program,

they agreed, several of the youngsters wouldnow be in "outside placement," a pleasanteuphemism for a highly structured environ-ment, with segregation by the nature of thedisability. Others could look forward only tospecial education programs in self-containedclassrdbms. Still others would drift into theeducational "mainstream" and, most likely,be early drop-outs from the educational ex-perience.

As the far-ranging conversation continued,a central program precept emerged with star-ding clarity: the Cheshire program, in themost fundamental sense, really is the Mother,and Mother is the program.

No question that the highly skilled profes-sional h-as a vital role to play, as do the sup-port staff: they are collectively the catalystwhich makes it all work.

And yet the entire process, stripped to itsmost important element, is mother-child,child-mother. For several reasons whi'ch themothers made clear.

First, mother is a child's first and potential-ly best teacher. There is no way to instill inany other teacher her special knowledge aboutand sensitivity to her child. Secondly, the pre-school program recognizes that success withthese special children requires a total effort;that the youngsters must be enveloped in art,atmosphere and a carefully designed environ-ment during every waking moment. Only themother can carry thatatmosphere and environ-ment into the home.

16

Finally, it is true to say that in many in-stances a learning problem resides not in childalone, not in mother alone, but in some sharedway. Mothers can, and often do, benefit asmuch from this program as do their children.

Because their role is crucial/ because theyare in fact the program, it is valuable to sharethe mothers' insights. How do-they perceivewhat is happening to them and to their child-ren? What do they recognize as the program'sstrengths and its weaknesses?

As the nine mothers talked, these and othertopics were discussed wit, the candor whichis characteristic (and essential) in all mother-Staff, mother-mother, mother-child relation-ships in the program.

Participants were:Margaret, mother of Beth, a late-speaking

child with poor motor abilities.Mary, mothef. of Michael, a graduate of the

program; and of Jonathan,' a disorientedyoungster, with information-sorting difficul-

Jackie, Brett's mother. He's a bright littleboy who had no language at the age of 4. ,

Sheila, Teddy's/ mother, now a programaide. Teddy has cerebral palsy, and came intothe program with virtually no language.

Claire, mother of twin boys, Ion and James,hyperactive children"With speech problems.

Mary Lou, a teacher and Ricky's mother.Linda, Brianna's mother. Brianna has severe

visual problems and frequent tantrums.Kathleen, mother of Carrie. Carrie is a very

active little girl who has made many trips tothe hospital.

And loan, mother of the hyperactive Bob-by.

1,t ),', I )111. N r t' 1`. 3 'I f)I )f;i f),

12

1 HI'.

Jackie: Brett was four, and he still wasn'ttalking. He was a very easy going, happychild, but I began to sense his frustration be-cause he couldn't communicate with us. Whenthe whole family was out riding in the car,we'd play guessing games with Brett. He'd saysomething which wasn't distinguishable at all,and we'd all say, "Do you mean this?" or"Do you mean that?" And you could see thefrustration in him because he-couldn't expresswhat he was feeling.

He had gone to nursery school fora year,and people there told me he was fine. Andour pediatrician said the same thing he'sfine. Perhaps it was Mother's instinct, but Iknew something wasn't right.

Then I received a letter from the school,and one of the things mentioned was traumain a child's life. Brett at 2V2 had been rushedinto the hospital emergency rooms and wasclose to death. He had to have a tracheotomy.The only word he could say up to that timewas "cookie." But the doctors said this ex-perience had no effect on his speech. .

It's only been in this past year that Brett'sbegun verbalizing about the hospital, andabout how. much he hated it. Now he's able6 talk about the experience he had two yearsago: It was a very traumatic experience, forhim and the whole family.

Margaret: I read about the program in thelocal paper, the day before the deadline forregistration. To that point, I had taken Bethto a pediatrician a number of times, withoutsatisfaction. He 'kept trying to reassure methat Beth was just a slow starter, and that she'dcome along like our other children had. Oneof ourboys had been a .late talker, and hebloomed all at once. But he too could havebenefitted from this kind of program.

Because of the uniqueness of the mother-child relationship, I think the mother ex-periences special anxieties and frustrationsWhen she senses a problem inher child.

There were prOblems beyond, the languagedeficit, though. When Beth first came into theprogfam, she obviously had inner fears. Shewouldn't get up On a climbing board and goacross ILA big part of my job in working withher is to give her a sense of security.

,

13

17

Linda: I felt either I was going to be com-mitted, or need psychiatric help. It isn'tBrianna's tantrums, the crying and screaming,that bother me. It's the complete frus,trationof not knowing how to reach her, to help her,to change her behavior. I wasn't able to findalternative ways to modify her behavior, andfrankly, I was almost at the breaking point.

Kathleen: I was very frustrated, too. I havetwo other children at home, and they keptasking, "What's wrong with Carrie? Why isn'tshe talking?" This kind of peer pressure,, frommy own kids and from neighborhoOdRids, aswell as from my friends, was difficult to ban:dle. When we first entered the program, I

think Mother needed help more than thechild. I was trying to draw words out of Car-rie, and it just wasn't working.

Sheila: Before this program, I was very ner-vous with Teddy, and very depressed and con-fused. I suspect that didn't help him verymuch. The program has helped me put- thingsin proper perspective.

Claire: There were times when I was veryhappy with my twins, and other times when Isaid, "Why did this happen to me, at my age,to have twins who seem to be hyperactive?"But then I thought, maybe they're really nothyperactive maybe it's just because thereare two of them. I didn't see this program asan end to that sort of thing, but actually it hascalmed them down a lot. Mostly it's taughtme how to dO tfiings effectively with them athome.

Jackie: I think I was beginning not to likeBrett. I was embarrassed by him, and he wasdoing thingS I didn't understand. If we werein a supermarket or any place where therewere other children, he'd run up to them andgo "Grrrr!!" --like a monster. And I'd think,Oh dear God, why this? I didn't realize thiswas his only way of communicating withother children.

)

Kathleen: It's very important for the moth-er and child to be together in the classroom,but it's just as important that the same prin-ciples apply at home. Otherwise, it's self-defeating. You get -very close to your childwhen you're involved with her in the class-room. Carrie looks forward to the time wespend here and so do I.

Mary Lou: (The mother's role is a vital partof the program. Ricky in the beginning needed

.401.1k

Margaret, mother of Beth.

np, support. `I- had to be there in order forhim to be comfortable, and to help him relateto this 11 hole new situation and other people.I don't think he could have done it withoutme, And it's got to he long-term, because thechildren are alwa}changing, the activities'andthe space are always changing, and most of

beLate }Ulf have to carry home what.}.ou'ie learning on a day-to-dAy basis to thefather and the rest of the family.

Bout : I CID 'corking with all of the chiten a great deal, and I have a tendency to goto the Lhild 11, ho needs the most help. To tryto'get things going for her. But Jonathan re-sents n it I spend too much time with others,so I 11,0,e to handle this LarefullY.

Sheila. Unless the mothers can contributee}es} thing the know about their child, thiswould he a 1, , e\perience. The fat1,, no one knows a,Lhild like his mother.

1/arquipt: Mother is the bridge betweenhome and school Before this program, all ofIt; at home ere tr}ing to stimulate her lan-guage in different ways. Now, with the knowl-

Es

Jackie, Brett's mother.

edge,1 bring home from the program for all ofus, we're all approaching BCth in a prettycoordinated way.

Mary: There's great value, toy, in motherstalking to other mothers. You get supportand encouragement, and you learn more aboutyour own child by watching other children.All of us, in the beginning, had this terriblefeeling of isolation and aloneness. All of us,I'm sure, felt we were the only ones experienc-ing these kinds of problems with our kids.

I Is f l,\\ I YOUR I WI ) RUN(I I \\(,/ I t I,l lilt pRo(-4,),,Am:

Margaret: It's mate me more aware ofBeth's needs. Outwardly, at first, we warejust concerned about language problems, butdeep down I knew there were motor difficul-ties, too. It's had an effect on the kinds oftoys 11e get for Beth, the kind of activities westructure for her. It's given our whole familymore patience and more tolerance.

EsOcially patience. The staff mademe aware, in a very nice way, that I have atendency to rattle off 2,1 instructions to Brett

1814

in less than a minute before he's even graspingthe first one. It's helped blow me down, andI've had to modify my ways a lot..And it hasreached way out. My friends who know thatBrett is iti the program are much more con-siderate of him now. They take the time tolisten to him. Many have come here to see theroom.

loan: I was too permissive. I had to learnhow to be more organized, more structured.When we first came to the program, Bobbycould practically climb a wall without repri-mand. It was just not my nature to be authori-tarian. I dogged far too much time to Bobby,taking it away from the rest of the family andmyself, too. Bobby always came first.

But he gained so phenomenally in the firstfew months of the program last year that itwas unbelievable. Prior to that, it was justabout impossible to live with this child. You'dnever dream of having company. Now we canstructure his activities, and he's a differentperson.

Mary: I changed. I probably have lots morepatience, and I'm much more operthan I wasbefore. Now I don't get terribly rattled 'if I'mbaking and the flour gets spilled. Before, I

wouldn't even, let my children in the kitchen.I had six children in 10 years. I love coming toschool, lt gives me two hours with my onechild. It = reates a wonderful feeling of close-ness. And you-change as a person.

Linda: School.is my quiet time. It's therapyfor me. I have patience with Brianna at home,but here there's help when I need it. As a resultof the program, I'm in much better shapeemotionally and physically.

Mary Lou: The program has taught me toslow down. It has allowed me to do morethings with my children. For example, a fewyears ago 1 would4n't have dreamed of havinga small pool filled with water in my kitchen,as I did this winter. ,The value of it for thekids never would have occurred to me. I wouldsimply have, said no.

This experience' has made my husband andme focus more on the positive aspects of ourchildren, on their specialness. Not that wedidn't think they were special before, but Ibelieve we were concentrating too much ontheir problems and' their weak areas. Whenyou dt) foctis on the positive, very, specialthings about your children, it does wondersfor them. And I can relate that to myself, aswell.

15

19

Kathleen: The program has affected memore at home than anywhere else. We have ahyperactive nine-year-old, in addition to Car-rie, and I've gained a lot of insight into hisproblems through this prOgram. It's helpedmy husband and me just to sit down and talkabout the children. That was very difficult forus before, and now it seems that's all do.

Margaret: Confidence in herself. When Bethfirst entered the space, she was a frightened °

child. She would tremble if it was suggestedthat she climb, and she wouldn't take a stepoff the floor without being very conscious ofthe danger of falling. This staff has an incred-ible ability to introduce a material at just theright instant at a time when the child willrespond to it, and learn from it.,

After three months, it's a joy to me to seeBeth climb right up to the ceiling.,No matterwhat kind of climbers are in the room now,she just takes off -her shoes and tackles them.

Jackie: I agree, self-confidence. But notfor Brett, in climbing, but in communicatinghis feelings. A year ago, I simply couldn't takeBrett into any setting where there were otherchildren, without' risking chaos. But just lastweek, we were in a plant shop; of all places.And there were six other children in there atthe same time. A year ago, I simply wouldn'thave taken Brett in there. But, he went around,;,to each of the children, and I must say he wasthe best-behaved child there. He went aroundand said, "Hi. I'm Brett and I'm five. Howold are you?" And I just puffed up with pride.I've learned to respect him as an individual

fnowFinally, as a result of this program, I'm

communicating with my 13-year-old. If I hadthis when he was little, how much easier itwould have been to bring him up.

Sheila: For Teddy yes, I agree, self-confidence.

Joan: Bobby has learned to work outsideof his home, with people around, withoutgetting so distracted that he can do nothing.If you see him with other children' who donot have problems, and who are *not pirt,ofthis program, of his same age, you will findBobby acting so much more maturely inmany areas, even with his hyperactivity.

Mary: The single greatest benefit for mychild? Me. When I was here with Michael,

I1111111L_AIIIM

Linda, BriannaVmother.

Jonathan spent many hours with a sitter. HeIrked her, but it wasn't being with .mother.Now he has me exclusively for a certain timeeet da.

inthr Boanna has gotten two importantthings out of the program, in a shot t time.First, help with her vision. John Streff jvi-sualiperceptitm consultant) helped me under-stand about her tunnel vision, And we'reworking with equipment and activities tobring her out of this. As this situation im-pt 0\ es, there's noticeably less frustration, andthe.tef ore tewcr tantrums. Now, at times, in-'stead of screaming for something or aboutsomething, she'll talk about it. that's a ter-rific improement.

Kathleen: Yes, self-confidence has beenunpin taut torCarrie. It's been especially help-ful for her to come into contact with theother mothers, the..42ther adults in the pro -'gram She had a lot )rf diffi,cttlty relating toadults.betore.

,Ildripet: it's too small, and riot sufficient-

Ni

Kathleen, mother of Carrie.

ly well-known. It needs to reach many morcichildren.

Sheila: I think we need even more helpfrom consultants. There should be a bridgebetween the educational program here andthe medical aspects of a child's problem.When it exists now, it's apt to exist in an in-formal way. For example, I think the programneeds a developmental pediatrician as a' con-sultant. And we could use more extensiveservices from &speech therapist.

Kathleen: I think there's a need, too, for aformal follow-up program as the childrenleave the prOgram and go on into kindergarten.Even those who have made great progress heremay still need a lot of support. There's agood deal of follow-up now, but I think itneeds to be for malired into a permanent pro-,gram.

I;!!

;1'4

/0an: Sur e, it's expensive. But if you don'tspend the money now, you're going to have

16

,1*

Sheila, Teddy's mother.

J

to spend it later and perhaps much more.It's eery cute to take a three-year-old to thepublic library, and. have him climb up to theLaing on the side' of book - casveryonelooks and smiles, and mother is frantic. If thatchild conies to school and he can climb, and'it's legal like it is in this program that'shelpful. But if it isn't, and he starts climbingon top of school buildings, he becomes a littlemenace. Sooner or later, someone's going tohave to pay for his care.

It's hard to get people to endorse preven-tive measures. And I'm speaking not just interms of thaid who's destructive to society.1-fNhe's doingabsolutely nothing, just sitting''there, he may 'still have to be placed in a verye\pentve setting later on.

1.really Teel if I could Wive had this kind ofsupport frornNthe time Bob6y was born, he+,ouldn't need th program today. He wouldhave outgrown it:1 could have been helpedright from the begincihig, and there's no oneelse to do it but the educators. That kind ofhelp doesn4 L.ome from Ellie medical profes-sion. les-got to come out of the School system.

17

Claire, mother of the twins, Ion and lames.

%VIII RI, 1)0111 1111. ( 1111

W0111.1) RI(,111 , , I MO110N,11.1_1", 1)1_VI I OPMI 11,1 1 , II I II.

OR sill \VASN'I IN IIIIS PROGRAM,Margaret: I think Beth would still be talking

in phrases rather than in sentences, and I don'tMink she'd be doing these other activities,such as climbing, at all. I'm not sure we wouldhave made any` progress in dealing with herinneFfears, and her po6r self-image.

Jackie: Brett would he in kindergarten. I

don't know what his language developmentwould be, but I'm sure he'd be very active,perhaps even destructive, and a riot- very -well-put- together kid. I think he would be consid-ered a problem kindergartener, and I would.

-et a nervous wreck.Joan: Bobby is a Dec6Mbor baby, and

would probably have been in kindergartenthis year. Yes, he would probably be in kin-dergarten, with one or two aides to drag himout of the classroom every time he becametoo difficult to handle. And probably no onewould understand the nature of his problem,and year we'd be looking forward to

0 II4 ik01

0

,11ary, mother of Michael and Jonethan.

asthma and several other things which usuallycrop up in first grade with kids like this. Thewhole situation would be just a mess. Bobbywouldn't understand what was happening tohim, and no one else would understand, either.And as he got the situation would havegotten worse.

Mary: Michael would,probably be in kinder-gacten, where he is now, but he'd be in.a cor-ner, doing absolutely nothing. There would beno social'contact at all. But not long ago hiskindergarten teacher told me how pleasedshe was, because there was aLittle girl in theclass who hadn't talked for two weeks;-'andMichael got her to talk.

Linda: Brianna would Still* banging intowalls, tripping over things, running every-where 'very quickly. Not learning to slowdown as she's doing now. And she'd probablybe under the care of a child psychologist,, be-cause I didn't know what to do with her. AndI'd probably he physically and mentally ex-hausted. '

!.; J111 :f

1,1 1;i it 11)1( \11t)N lilt N \I II( II I)t;\ \NI .

Jackie: I think there's too little conimuni-cation between school and parent until it'salmost too late. The tendency is to wait untila, problem is severe before involving the parent.This program has.made my husband and meso aware of everything going on in the schools,and we want to be right on top of it.

Margaret: This program has made me awareof the special needs in public education. I can-

imagive what it would be like for any ofthese children entering a regimented kinder-garten without haying had the benefit of thistype of exposure first.

Joan: I was brought up in a very stricthome, and I've always been in awe of anykind of authority and I expect VII carry thatwith me until the day I die.

One gem thiriLabout,this staff is that they----d-OTITOrTerend to be gofls. They -actively seek

out my opinion on what's best for my child;and they admit they don't aryv4ys know whatto do. I'm beginniqg to find out that my

Mary Lou, Ricky's mother.

2218

ti

ideas are pretty good, too and I'm going, tomake my presence felt more in the schools: Ihave I4-year-old daughter who has sufferedalong the way several time because of myreluctance to get involved, of being afraid toquestion things.

[believe if 50 per cent of the parents couldbe exposed to this program experience, itwould revolutionize education very muchfor the better.

! I 1 a )1 Pio )t '\1

is \ II \I I

tiff ti4\1),1\,( \I ()I: NO I .7

Sheila: It would be a tremendous experi-ence for all children, perhaps through thethird grade level. I think we'd,;ee potential inthildren we don't even dream exists now.Arid this is the kind of program motherswould fight for, and support financially andin 'ally other-way

* * *

As the conversation continued, Clak again, mentioned to the mothers how difficult it was

for her to get her three-year-old twins, Ionand James, to school on time. With five child-en, her mornings are hectic.

But no matter that they are a little late.When the twins enter the space, the programprocess for them begins anew, as we shall seein the unfolding of a typical'i5re-school day.

loan, Bobby's mother.

maim.

1#

Or. john 3tretf fields questions from the parents in one of the evening informational sessions held regularly.

19

23

4

a

Brian sits with pride atop the world he has

RIAN, EMMA AND HARDIN WERE1.0 totally absorbed as their elaborate home

took shape.With their mothers, they had arrived

a bit early on this Tuesday morning."Brian seems more settled," commented

Diane Gamble, the classroom teacher:. to heraide, Pat Foley; as both watched the largecardboard blocks being- stacked into place."Yesterday was not or)e of his better days."

"We need beds! Beds!" shouted Man, asthe walls of the house went up. \Hardin'smother, Carolyn, left the play to f4kd a mat,an e \cellent bed in a'pretend world.

"And pots for the kitchen!" said Hardin in

created.

her tiny voice. Elaine, Emma's mother, beganlooking for toy pots and pans.

The roof on the cardboard structure wasnearly done as' the twins arrived, dashingthrough the tower, James first, Jon close be-,hind, radiating energy and excitement.

"It's me! It's me!" shouted James. .

"Brian! Brian!" chorused Jon. Brian wastheir favorite, the focus of their in-school at-tention and affection. Which is difficult forBrian; heihas had little expeSence with otherchildren.

The house was a masterpiece, nearly done,and the twins wanted tb share in the play.

"No! You can't come in! This is my house!

2420

r.

=10I don't want,you ,in- here!" Brian, petulant,not fully recovered aom his blue Monday.

The twins seemed unabashed.Diane, the teacher, mastering the art of

subtle structuring:, "Why don't you build ahouse over here,? You can be Brian's next doorneigh bl)r! "

But the location walwrong, Diane sensedimmediately. The blocks were in the hallway;"to-get "next door" to Brian, the twins wouldhave to carry them through a climber. Espe-cially 'difficult for Jon.

I`No, it would actually be better over hereyou'll be able to see Brian better." A direct

path to the blocks was opened.Claire, the twins' mother, smiling as always,

was a little unsure of how to begin.The boys made several trips, and the pile of

wooden blocks began to build., Diane began al.to` mak a wall. Claire helped. Soon both

.boys w as engrossed as their neighbais inhuildi their house. j

Ju y d her mother, Vi, had been readingquiet", in the little space set off from themain room. Nbw Judy got interested in help-ing the twins. They welcomed her.

'We need a telophohe!" said James, as thewood house neared completion.

"Yes! Us, too!" from Brian, his exuberantmood restored.

"Alright. When we finish," said Diane."But we'll have to take orders for them. I'llhave my assistant do that."

Hardin's mother, Carolyn, picked up on ttdramatic play immediately.

With a small pad and pencil irrhaqd, she. approached Brian's house.

"You would like to order a telephone, Sir?""Yes.",

" "And what is your name? Your addre,ss?And wild; color phone would you like?"

While Carolyn approached Jon and Jamesfor the same information, Diane was busilylooking for telephones. She found one quick-ly, Porrowed another frbm the nearby kinder=garten room.

How to give them fiermanence within theplay, so one youngster would not pimply claima telephone and walk off with it? A smallrope the telephone's cord proved' to bethe answer. ,

Soon Carolyn shifted roles from order-takerto telephone installer.

"And where would you like this phone,sir?"

21

25

Lois Rho entered the space, leaving JakeFoley to work with the four-year-olds in thenext room. A simple signal from Diane. Inter-esting play taking place. Lois nodded, andslipped into the observation booth. Brian'smother, Neen, and Emma's mother, Elaine,followed her there. They had asked for an ob-servation period earlier.

"We need a mailman," said Claire."Great idea! I'll get a mailbag," said Diane.

"Jon, you can be the mailman. 'Meanwhile, James was testing his phone,.

"Brian? This is James. Can I come over tomor-row?"

But it wls Hardin on the line."Hi, honey. I won't be home for dinner to-

night: Have to go out for a meeting. No Ican't take- the children. They can come danc-ing; but not to my meetings."

Emma is well into the housekeeping role,strutting around Brian's self-claimed domain,hand on hip. "Damn kids, they're always onmy nerves. Can't get any of my houseworkdone!"

But Emma was getting tired of keepinghoUse for Brian. She wanted a place of herown, and 'wandered off to the small space va-cated earlier by Judy and he Mom. SoonHardin followed her. ,

/ The mailman was busy. Diane was writinga child's name on a piece of paper, and off Jonwould gd to deliver it First to Judy, now offin a corner painting, with encouragement fromMom.

Brandon arrived very late, bringing hisfather to school for the first time. He-Was anX=ious to show him the marble game. And therewas mail for Brandon, too. Jon was walkingthrough the space surprisingly well, not trip-

' ping, falling and bumping into things as hehad earlier.

While lively telephone conversations con-tinued, while mail continued to be delivered,Emma was getting into dress-up in the smallroom, with Hardin'a fascinated observer.

Lois, Neen and Elaine in the obiervationroom were. intrigued, able to see and hear theplay.

"It's a first," said Elaine, Emma'sralother."They've never been together in play before,just the two of them. And they've put up ascreen, a door to their own house." Emmahad been having a lot of tantrums in the room.Everyone's goal for her was simply to havesome success at whatever she approached.

v.

4>-,,..f c..

II

-,......

' Mine Gamble and a mother study Mark and Neil's dfiproath to a task, above left. At fight?, mirrors are in- .*1,duable in helping a (had disc over who he is. Below, with a helping'hu from mother, Ion prepares tolump into a pile al pillows. lie's facing a mirror while doing so. ,

.

26 22

...

.e ,..-.. .

1

s

C

OR

Jon camp to deliver the mail, pushingagainst the screen.

coui be difficult," Lois observed.Emma and Hardin reacted aggressively."Out! Out! This is our house! You have

your own house!"Qiane, seemingly-OcAilt,ent, offered a

simple intervention."He has mail for you." AndShe was gone.Jon became cautious. He pushed the screen

a bit more, threw in his letter and left quickly.But he returned later, and the girls welcomedhim into their space.

Jon's interest in music is easy to discern.

It was 9:45. Play had centered on the twohouses for an exceptional period of time.

Claire put. a record on the phonograph;"Vhange," one of the children's favorites. Itstar ts with a strong calypso beat, then movessubth. into other rhythms:

As always, Jon's reaction was strong and) inimediate."Musicis. his first love. He dashed

to the nasket full of instruments, took':out atamboaiihe and a shaker, and immediatelytell into the .music's rhythm, swaying andgruming and shaking before the large mirrors-.Quickly the other children joined him, getting

23 ')

instr ime is a favor-ite time, a happy time, even for those like'Brandon who only sit and listen.

An enigmatic quality in Jon shines throughat music time. His involvement with the musicis total, his sensitivity to complex beats ex-traordinary' in a three-year-old. And yet hismotor abilities are seriously limited. On theplayground, he's unable to set in motion asmall push-pull swing, requiring the simplestcoordination and sense of rhythm.

Two records play, and then Diane bringsout the autoharp.

"Sing about my dress!""Sing about my shirt!""Sing about my shoes!"Diane begins to play and sing.I I

. . . Jon is wearing a blue shirt, blue shirt,blue shirt, Jon is wearing a blue shirt, all daylong ... "

More kids, more clothes, set to music.The children love it. James, lacking his

brother's rhythmic talent, is nestled againsthis mother, sitting on the floor. Claire is tap-ping the music's beat on his back. And thenstings about body parts.-Children in front ofthe mirror. "-Close eyes ...open eyes ..;openmouth close mouth ... lift leg ... '

And animal sounds. Some children learningfor the first time the unusual things which canbe done with a mouth.

. Snack time approaching, but first Carolynleads the children in a few simple dances..

.Emma and Judy begin putting paper cupsand napkins around the table for the six child-ren. They .gather, Sth Pat,, for the social,mid-morning break,* chattering -in tow key.Enjoying juice, raw carrots, fruit. Noniweets.

After snack, they'll walk with Pat down bythe little pond, and play among the trees.Their school day is coming to an end. .* * * * *

As the six children settled around,the 'tablefor their snack, their Mothers left the Sparsefor their daily meeting with Lois Rho, thehead teacher, and Diane Gamble, the class'-rooweacher.

While they gathered in the small conferenceroom, pouring coffee and chatting amiably,Jake Foley was meeting with the parents ofhis four-year-olds in Highland School 's libraryfor the same kind of evaluative session. Thedaily meetings are recognized as ia vitallyimportant part of the prograni proces?.tirde permitting, would share her insights with

Above left, Mary Ann involves son Steven in a game of visual tracking. eight, Sandy watches as son MarkyoeN-='fishhig" an excellent way to develop eye-hand coordination. Below left, tracing his own shape helpsa child zero in on his own identity. Right, sequencing and body balance are important for fmma as-shebounces high.

2824

both-groups.As the mothers of the three-year-olds met,

Elaine and Carolyn seemed particularly ex-cited excited about the day's activities forJon and James. The conversation, extendingfor, nearly an hour, included these comments:Carolyn: Claire, you ought to be so pleased.The twins had a wonderful day. I see so muchprogress in both of them.Claire: James seems much bettfir able to staywith one activity now. Did you notice bowlong he stayed with' the house play, and htjw.ong he stayed with p Ione.Diane: Just coup'e of weeks ago, Jameswouldnt have bce11 able to bring those blocksin from the hallway. He would have becoMedistracted along the way.Lois: And you know, yesterday, when weopened the doors to room two so the: kidscould circulate if they wanted to, James spentnearly the entire morning over there.Claire: Yes, he worked in the sand area fornearly 30 minutes, and then he moved to thetable with the small manipulatives and orga-nized the toys quite well. And then at theend of the morning, he went up the climbingequipment of the tower for the first time.Lois: He acted as if he'd never been up thathigh. He just watched, and talked about thethings he saw. And you know, James is usinglanguage much more appropriately now. Andhe's less aggressive.Claire: Did I tell you that today, just beforesnack, James came all the way across the roomand said, "I'd like Brian to visit some day."Lois: That's an indication of tremendousgrowth, Claire. He had an idea, he was able tohold on to that idea, handle the space andcome over to you, without being distractedalong the way. R'emember, it wasn't very longago that I had to meet you and the boys whenyou arrived, and get James off into the smallroom playing with blocks, just to get himmotivated and to get him to focus on onething. He's come a long way.Diane: The space just wasn't- working wellthen, for either James or Jon.Claire But it seems better now.Lois We spent a whole day with Felix Drury,finding ways to completely restructure theroom to prmide more clearly defined spacesYou're right, it is much better and not onlyfor James and Jon, but for all the kidsDiane Flow are things at home with the twins,Claire? Arc they showing growth there, too?

25

29

Claire: You remember I told you about theday the boys went into the upstairs bathroomand poured oil into the light fixtures? Thatwas a low point for me. Now they're settlingdown a lot, playing with games for fairlylengthy periods.

And I'm becoming more convinced that youwere all right about separate identities. Theyhave their own bureaus now, and I thinkdressing them differently helps. All of us inthe house used to think of the twins as oneperson, I guess.

--L-vir-t-tostyvi as fames.Claire: Yes, as James. He seems the strongerOne, or at least the loudest.Diane: But Jon doesn't call himself Jamesanymore. He's definitely developing an identi-ty of his own.Claire: Perhaps the most remarkable thing ofall is that I didn't realize much earlier that thetwills were having learning problems. I'd al-ways, heard that twins develop more slowlythan other children, and while they didn't havemuch language, they seemed to communicatewell between themselves. So I wasn't reallylooking for help.Neen: What changed your mind?Claire: Well, I got a letter from the schoollast spring about this program, and almostevery problem area it mentioned seemed toapply to my -children. I decided I'd betterinvestigate.Lois: Do you have an objective in mind forJames today?Claire: I think I'm most concerned about hislanguage, and playing well with other children.Diane: I agree. And his auditory abilities. I

think we should structure some activities forJames which will encourage him to use lan-guage more extensively. Socialisation willcome at the same time. Both the twins loveall the children.Lois: Claire, maybe you can involve Jameswith the obstacle course and bead system,part of the cabinets along the wall.Diane: I'll help you set it up.Lois: The beads on the wire' will give you achance to do lots of things with him, Claire.Sec if he'll be interested in changing beadsfrom one cup to the nett, and tell you whathe's doing Then you can ask him for a headof a particular color.Diane. Or you can ask him to Lind a head ofthe same color as the bead on the wire. Or askhim to do two 'things-in sequence, like pick up

s.%

Det r< e ahoy e, built especially for Ion, encouragesduldren to use both sides of their body alternately.It right, a fide regal(' or playing in this swing made

ites tar her, firlatind's eyes straighten and her temper1,4111rUIIIS ra<eJe

head tn)rn the cup and then send it dawnthe 'srieti!)/% And sse Lan work on his auditory dis-L I olilatl,iil Iii the same ,cria(1t1;7C I I, )ss

We'll, it I Imes gets into that little crawl,pace wide; the cabinet, ask him topless whois walking a, oso, abuse him by the sound (r1the tiiiit,steps_ I he kids lose that game Sec ithe, c.:n ti II It Child lit an adult hy the

lit the tootsteps, and r1 they're bare-tr ice shoes oo !flings like that

1,1.3 I<Iniulce it all with language( I') 11 sii:inds like Inn

i'o It, 'n IficspaLe\er\ ,

seiIt,3II,' h. .1 HI II t:onhle v,etting

"It 1 t' \AA, t ,,t

It walls v,oi rim,

/1

,Veen. I was thinking perhaps we ought tohay e pathways, leading ft oni the house tovarious areas. 1 hat might he especially usefulto Jon.Lois That's a 141,11-selous idea, Neen! He really,needs that kind of structuring right now.Claire You know I talked with /Orin Str elfwhen he was last here, and he eyplamed aboution's yision Dr Stiett said that he sees al-right with his I ig,ht eye, and he sees OK withhis left eye, but that he can't conyerge, bringthem together to focus lie's either using oneeye or the other all the time, but not both atthe same time

ors We're working on some materials rightnow to deal with that, Claire We scant to e \-tend the sense of comeigence to all of hisay t [tiesClaire Urd sou notice that the hoy s didn'those then trucks with them toda, 1 rucksale then laymite thing, but they has en't askedto hi 1.1s; them the last lew daYsMirk' I think they were kind of Nike be-tv,cch home Ind s(hool lhat's piohabl%

the 're getting more Lomtortable in the

0V26

space. They're using most of the materials,although Jon can't quite make it on theclimbers yet. He will, though. .

* 4., * * *The conversation continued, with Lois

describing at length the interaction betweenEmma and Hardin in the small room, and theway Diane had handled` on's approach tothat play. "It's a very delicate thing, knowingwhen to intervene and when to let the kidswork out something all by themselves. In thisinstance, Diane provided exactly the righttouch to permit the play to continue, withoutin any sense dominating the situation."

Strategies for all the children were dis-cussed games to play, materials ito use inthe continuing effort to adapt the learningprocess to the individual child's conception ofhimself and his surroundings.

It was nearly noon when the mothers leftthe conference room to pick up their childrenfrom Pat. * * * * *

The noon luncheon meeting for the staff isinformal but intense. Often Lois, Diane andlake are joined by Gwynette Caruthers, theproject director, and program consultants overfood trays hurriedly brought from the cafe-teria. There's so much to say, and so littletime. .,

The conversation extends beyond the needsof a particular child. What is working in thespace? What changes need to be made? Howis one particular mother handling emotionalstress?

There are - no written objectives for themothers, but each member of the staff iskeenly aware of the particular needs of eachparent. Conversations between staff and par-ents are exceptionally forthright and direct.

"I don't care if she only comes here andobseryes," said Lois at one point, as the con-flicts of one particular mother were discussed."Tier important thing is that she feels she'sparticipating. She'll get into the 'classroomsoon enough, and I just have a hunch she'sgoing to prove to be marvelous working withall the kids."

, Nearly 1 p.m. The conversation came to anend, with too many things left unsaid. Itwould continue late into the day, and spillover int* the weekend. It is a never-endingdialogue.

But now it was time to set up for the after-noon groups. Different children, different

2731

..1.

mothers, different problems. But the processremained the same.

, * * * * *Late afternoon. The mothers have left after

their meeting with the staff. Lois is having aquiet cup of coffee with Dr. Robert Adams,the program's consulting psychiatrist.

She is troubled by Jon. There has to be abetter way to deal with his unusual motorproblems. Dr. Adams listens attentively, puff-ing on his pipe. "You've got to further ob-jectify and isolate your observations," he sug-gests.

: * * * * *

Diane has come to the Rho home` for din-ner. Not an unusual circumstance at all. Thetwo women are absorbed in the pre-schoolprogram.

In the conversation which followed, Loisagain expressed her concerns about Jon. "It'sso apparent now that John Streff's observa-tions about him were very accurate. Even inthe way he handles the shakers during musicyou get the feeling the two halves of his bodyare acting independently of one another."Diane agreed. .

,

"What we need," she said, "is somethingthat will reinforce the inter-relationship be-tween right and left eyes, arms, legs, what-ever. Remember, we did nearly the samething with Brianna, in that sling, but Jon can'tclimb like she can." ,

"Maybe we can build on Jon's love oftrucks," said Lois. "You know, have Joy (en-vironmental design specialist) come up withsomething like a truck, maybe a platformwith wheels on it, and we can work from that."

Diane picked up on the idea immediately,and with growing excitement. "That's reallygood, Lois. Just think if you had some-thing like that, and maybe a couple of ropesattached to the wall, coming to the truckJon could pull himself along by pulling on theropes, probably alternating between his leftand right arms. And he could pull that waysitting up, or lying down. It might really workfor him!"

And then, on to the special needs of otherchildren.

"One more cup of coffee, Diane?" A typicalday in this pre-school program was coming toan end. * * * * *

The program at work. And now a more de-tailed look at other program children.

-:.

:,

Fine motor activities, group experOnces, communications

T he mission of the pre-school program issummed up succinctly in its descriptiveliterature

Fo promote early intervention oflearning disabilities by the teacher joining

forces with parents, so that both parent andteacher become more diagnostic in their ap-proach to the J.hild."

But how does it happen' Where do thechildren come f rum? What Is the process?

In its first ear (1972-73), the program en-rolled se en 1 our- ear-olds. Two had previous-k been placed in pm ate xhools near Che-shire, then tuition and transportation paid for11%, local tuncis Liter both were found to haveaN,erage intellectual potential, but as they en-tered the program, one was diagnosed asautistic, the other as retarded One other child,cerebral palsied, came Into the program lateIn the ear upon the recommendation of theNewington ito,pital for Crippled Children.

1 he remaining f our children, ail demon-

all are among program goals.

strating average or better intelligence in test-ing, exhibited predictors of later difficulties,such as hyperactivity , delayed language and/orphysical problems in early infancy, They wereknown to members of the school psychologystaff because of work done with older sib-lings.

In the program's second year, coqceptschanged and broadened.

New children were sought for the programin a letter from the Board of Education to640 Cheshire parents. It noted that the pro-gram would have openings for three- year -oldand four-year old children with normal intel-ligence "whose mothers could participate. Weare looking for children who are hyperaLtive;who were horn prematurely; who had somekind of birth trauma; or show evidence ofsome language delay ...

About 100 parents responded to that let-ter, md the screening process began.

As the procedure is handled now, mothet

32 28

and child have an opportunity to come intothe space and to meet the teaching staff. Con-currently, the school social worker obtains asocial history and Mrs. Caruthers andlier as-sociates begin educational testing.

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale is

used in this initial step. "We are looking foraverage potential in our program," Mrs. Caru-thers noted, "simply because retarded child-ren have to be approached in an entirely dif-ferent way. Perhaps the strongest programcandidates of all are those children with nospeech at the age of three."

The end result of that process was a pro-gram enrollment, in the 1973-74 school year,of seven four-year-olds and 13 three-year-olds. Their disabilities included speech, medi-cal, and emotional problems, premature birth,hyperactivity, multiple handicaps, birth trau-ma, and hearing deficits.

In the 1974-75 school year, total enroll-ment was expanded to 26 children, with thenature of the disabilities remaining about thesame.

Once a child is accepted into the program,an intensive and conuing effort is made todetermine exactly "were he is develop.,mentally, in his gross and fine motor abilities,in his socialization and communication pat-terns: The Gesell Developmental Test', theStanford- Binet, parent questionnaires, Teach-er Inventory all are important in the evalu-ative process. Keen and constant observation,by teacher, parent, psychologist and consul-tants, is the most important tool of all.

There is no better way to understand the-program's approach to these special childrenthan to understand the children themselves.

!

We met Ricky earlier in this booklet: theshy little TA-year-old with lagging speech andpoor motor abilities the oldest child of twodeeply concerned parents.

Ricky's problems were, indeed, severe. Inhis first weeks in the program, he would ap-proach no one, and answer few. Mostly, hewould just shake his head in response to aremark or question. Ricky had reached thatfrustrating point where he was cSnyinced hecould not be understood.

Mrs. Rho, the head teacher, remembersRicky in those early days this way: "Hetalked very rarely in school although we knewhe had language because he spoke at home. Hemoved very slowly about the space, and

29

33

watched a lot, sitting for long periods of time,observing other children. We felt he was moti-vated to enter into play, but wasn't able to doso because he was so awkward, his motor abili-ties-were so poor."

Where to begin with a child like Ricky, abright child who simply isn't fun% tioning?

Early on, Ricky was assessed by JohnStreff, the visual /perception consultant, and alazy eye condition was discovered. Glasseshelped minimally.

The program team observed Ricky by thehour, day after day, sharing insights, planningstrategies.

As is so often the case, the first emphasiswas in helping Ricky develop his large motorabilities.

"Even at three, we are dealing most oftenwith c-hildren who lack self-confidence, whoare well on the road to developing damagingself-images," said Mrs. Rho. "The process isas simple as it is tragic: a child has a problem,medically based, emotionally based, whatever,which makes learning in 'accepted' ways dif-ficult for him. He senses early in the game thathe's not performing at an expected level; helearns th`e meaning of frustration, of repeatedfailure. Stemming, then, from his problemwhich in itself may be relatively minorcomeswhat is often the most damaging effectof all, a fear of trying."

A small trampoline part of a climber oncedesigned for an autistic child was intro-duced into the space just for Ricky. It provedto offer the beginning of meaningful growth,for Ricky, awkward as he was, liked-to jump.After a period of intense involvethent withte trampoline used most often with mo-ther standing by Ricky began to use a se-ries-of modular units in his play, and to moveon to a few other selected materials.

Teachers and mother soon shared the viewthat Ricky cognitively was way ahead of hismotor ability. He could solve all kinds ofcomplicated problems, and began construct-ing intricate bridges and obstacle courses. Byyear's end, he was even beginning to get in-volved with the other children.

The heart of Ricky's problem was that hismind was capable of handling nearly any task,but his body was reluctant to respond to hiscommands. What better definition of frustra-tion?

And then there's the matter of Ricky'sspeech. Again prolonged observation proved

r)

From this vantage point, Imo can txplore the ceilingand get a different perspective on the activity below.

its value and the enlarged adenoids firstdiscovered by a doctor several years beforewere in fact largely responsible for the prob-lem. "Ricky, we found; because of his en-larged adenoids was having trouble breathing:And he was not getting his tongue in and upwhen speaking because he Ariad to keep his ,-mouth open to breathe. That's what affected'the clarity of his speech," said Mrs. Rho.

Ricky's mother, Mary Lou, is with him inthe classroom, of course, for each of the fourdays he is there each week. Classes last for twohours.

But her responsibilities as teacher-aide-mo-ther do not end when she bundles Ricky up.) ,

for the ride home.Like all mothers, she meets regularly with

the staff for extensive, in-depth discussionsabout her child and all the children in Ricky'sclass. She is expected to keep fairly extensiveobservation records on Ricky's progress in at-taining all of the objectives which Nye beenset for him and she, is, of course, a centralvoice in helping develop those objectives.

Half way through his second year in theprogram, Ricky is a changed boy. His speechhas come along very well, his motor skills are

3

developing, and his growing self-confidence isapparent.

While he remains in the program new ob-jectives will be written for Ricky about everytwo weeks objectives which may be formu-lated oMy after hours of discussion betweenmother, teachers, school psychologist, andconsultants. ,

The objectives written for Ricky in mid-November of his second year give insight intothe program process. They read in part:

General Goal Self confidence.Observation In the past, we have ob-

served Ricky's obvious interest in the playgoing on around him, but we haven't hadmuch success in acknowledging his interestby offering him a place in the play. Instead,Ricky chose to wait days for the activity tobecome available for his use. By saving aspecial set of materials for his use, we haveseen him use, enjoy, and appropriately pro-tect and share what he is working on (largeblocks). He followed this the next day bybeing invited back to the blocks by anotherchild and enthusiastically becoming in-volved. ..,_,

Specific Objective For Ricky to tell an .

Dad helped Brandon build this maze to contain theguinea pig.

30

el

adult at the beginning of an activity periodwhat he chooses to do ... and move to it.

Planned Activity and Strategies Thechoices made available to Ricky should in-clude.

I) An activity reserved just for his use orclimbing equipment with Daniel.

2) An activity he especially enjoys andhas the confidence to maintain control of(large blocks, unit blocks).

3) Other materials not then being used.4) Activities already underway with oth-

er children. The range of choices availableto him must be broad in order that Rickywill get to do what he telli us he wants todo. The expectation is that he will not al-ways choose the special things saved forhim but will return to the play he has en-joyed in the past which is now being usedby other children:A week later, an evaluation was prepared:

11/21 Gave Ricky a list of things hecould choose, including large, blocks andclimbing equipment. Chose large blocks.Worked with father, building a house withalleyway around it. He spoke up right away,naming what he wanted to do. Later whenhe needed more planks he'wasn't so verbal.

11/22 Entered very quietly. When Igave him his choices, he chose instead tosay, "1 want to climb up there," pointingto the tower. On fringe of firefighter playrest of the morning. Refused Carol's invita-tion to join Bobby and Daniel.And so it goes, day after day. A process of

keen observation, of careful diagnosis, of con-tinuing evaluation. For Ricky, and for all ofhis classmates.

In the fall of 1975, Ricky will enter a nor-mal kindergarten, where he is expected to findhisown place, and to function well within thegroup.

We've met Brianna, too the strabismicchild with temper tantrums. In many ways,she is a classic example of the program pro-cess at work, although at the time this book-let was prepared she had been exposed to itsinfluence for only four months.

Not atypically, Brianna's mother, Linda,turned to the program in a state she describesas ii total frustration." Brianna's violent andfrequent temper tantrums were dismissed1w the family doctor as a passing thing whichshe would soon outgrow. The strabismis, not

31I-

35

present at birth, was being treated with no asp-

parent success.The same process of detailed observation

of Bria,nna in the classroom soon revealedthat she had profound problems in dealingwith time and space. She exhibited aminabili-ty to determine where she was in relation towhere she wanted to go, and had no sense ofhow long it miOt take her to get there. Herdiagnosed tunnel vision was affecting her per-ceptions about everything.

During one visit, Dr. Streff observed thatBrianna's eyes straightened when she was onthe trampbline (further details on page 45).

Within a day of that observation, joyWulke's talented hands had fashioned a tri-angular macramae climber for Brianna whichstretched from wall to wall. And she took toit immediately, for despite her visual prob-lems, she's an exceptionally agile child.

Up the climber she went, and happily snug-gled in the hammock, which tended to keepher shoulders back and her arms up.

It was a successful experience for Briannain many ways. Of foremost importance, hereyes straightened noticeably while she was inthe hammock, and she was able to focus onobjects out of the nearby window. And shewas happy in the device, playing a series ofgames introduced by mother and teacher.There were no tantrums in this setting.

There is much yet to be accomplished withBrianna. She has little vision in her left eye,and is often unaware of activities to her left.An obstacle course which has again toucheda responsive chord in the child has been setup along the wall, with a bead track on theleft side, which she touches as she walks along.Brianna would, naturaliy, prefer to approachthis track from the right; but with encourage-ment, she'll move the beads along from herproblem side.

The team continues to define objectivesfor Brianna, and to devise activities to meetthese goals. She needs to be more aware ofherself in space, all agree, and to modulateher pace when moving. She must come tounderstand alternatives, and to be more flexi-ble in her thinking. Work needs to be done onher time perception.

For each of these objectives, and more, aspecific activity is designed, and specific ma-terials are brought into use. As Brianna beginsto experience success in such play, her tempertantrums are receding.

30

"

Left, street table and special lighting createsideal setting for tine motor activities lop lett,snack time is impot tont tot lanytichic develop-ment /thole, motor skills, soLialmation, co-operation, IllItIS1111 Illatel Icils all c 011le togetherin Hardin and Cdrrie's estiherunt play,. Belowswimming is another conlidence-huilder

32

Carrie, at five in her second year in the pro-gram, is representative of the children withmedically based problems.

At 1%2, she had extensive surgery for theremoval of a cancerous tumor. The effects ofchemotherapy lasted for a substantial periodof time.

At 3, when Carrie entered the program, shewas exhibiting a great deal of infantile behav-ior, and her motor abilities were at the 18-month level or lower. Her single word to theage of four was "Mommy."

Again, mother and staff began to design aseries of success experiences for Carrie ito helprepair the effects of her physical traumi. Andagain, the emphasis was on developing herlarge motor abilities. "As we seer success inthis area," said Mrs. Rho, "we concurrentlycan encourage language development, as wellas socialization and communication skills. Noone aspect of development is undertaken inisolation; it's a question of where we place theemphasis at a particular time."'

But the simplest plans must still be imple-mented with care and sensitivity. Carrie has anine-year-old sister who is a skilled gymnast,so she was immediately attracted to the foamclimber. Once on top, she proceeded to do asomersault and landed on her head.

In the second year, language began to comef(ir Carrie and her Motor skills improved dra-matically. The emphasis shifted to socializa-tion, and to helping her develop spontaneousspeech.

In the fall of 1975, Carrie is expected toenter a normal kindergarten with no seriousproblems integrating into that setting.

Where might Carrie be today, without thebenefits of the pre-school program? She'd bein kindergarten, her mother, Kathleen believe,"hiding in a corner, with something over herhead. She'd be lost completely."

Teachers in the pre-school program arequick to comment that Sheila, Teddy's mo-ther, is a gifted teacher. Teddy joined the pro-gram late in its first year, and now, two yearslater, Sheila has joined the staff as an aide.

She's also an articulate spokesman for theprocess, and no, one can describe her experi-ences with Teddy in the program better thanshe

"Teddy wax under the care of the Newing-

33

37

to Childrerits Hospital from the time he was18 rlonths old. To that point, I had spentexactly 18 months trying to get answers frompeopT6 about his slow development withoutsuccess. At Newington, Teddy was started onspeech therapy, because_he was weld-below-------normal level. He had no words, not even agurgle as a baby. He was thoroughly checkedby a neurologist, but the cerebral palsy wasn'tpicked up at that time. Finally, when he wasthree, it was discovered.

"At that point, things kind of crashed inaround me. In ore sense I was happy withthe discovery, because I finally had a label forTeddy's problem. On the other hand, I was

absolutely floored at the thought .of caringfor a CP child. But of course I.came to realizethat the label didn't make Teddy any different,he was still Teddy.

"Even in going to Newington, I had manyconcerns, and felt there was more I could bedoing for Teddy. Socialization was-a big con-cern, for he had no one to play with excepthis sister. Newington was pressing me to gethim into a nursery school. I called them all,and I felt I had to say that Teddy was a cere-bral palsied child. And I did, I would getthe standard answer: 'Well, we'll put-you on awaiting list.' They obviou§ty felt they couldn'thandle him, and they never called back. ThenNewington referred me to this program.

"Teddy 'had a variety of problems grossmotor, fine motor, speech, language. He ,wouldn't talk to anyone, except me and hissister. His speech was garbled, so he finallygave up.

"He was iur this program t6ree months inthat fiat year, and in that period of time Iwas able to single out areas Teddy neededhelp in, through a cicAe interaction with thestaff. With the information I got from staffmeetings, 1 could go into the room and knowwhere to Zero in with Teddy. I gave him a cer-tain amount of time at the things he was bestat, such as block-building and playing withsmall'ars. He was always working close tothe floor at that time. He was building upconfidence in himself, so that when we movedinto other areas that were more difficult forhim, he was able to enter calmly, and be ableto accomplish something.

"I feel the mothers are the most importantpart of this program. The staff made me feel Iwas so capable, and so important in my son'slife. As a result, I was able to gain confidence,

!Manna engages in play at home with Mrs. Rho, above,0,w-ell-takes notes. Right, children often gain

d sense of sestinty in small spaces. Below left, Iontends to trap the hall with his arms rather than Latch

his tinge's. Right, high in a climber, Briannu'seves straighten as her weight ,hilts backwards.1

38

4

34

It

and make some very good, meaningful deci-sions about teddy's

"One example concerns his visual problem.[eddy had been going to a leading opthamolo-gist, and I relied completely on his judgment.He said Teddy should not have glasses until hewas ready to read or write. Finally largelybecause of the confidence I had gotten in thisprogram I sought another opinir. Andthe doctor I talked with, after one look atteddy, couldn't believe this child had neverhad a prescription for glasses.

"I told the doctor I didn't'believe Teddywould keep them on he doesn't like to haveanything attached to his body. And the doctorreplied, it they work for him, he'll keep.themon. Now, the firstcthing hi; does in the morningis put on his glasses, and he never touchesThem until bedtime.

"Teddy 's whole world changed the day hegot glasses. As soon as he put them on, helooked out the window and said, 'There goesa red truck!' He couldn't have done that be-tore. And he got up from his chair, walkedacross the room and Walked right out thedoor. That may not sound like much, but be-tore he would have hesitated in approachingthe door, opened it, and kind of shuffled hisfeet to feel his way. Now he just struts down-the street.

"Teddy is in kindergarten -now, with anaide, and doing very well. The first day ofschool, he walked into the room and said 'Hi!'He talked to everyone. It was fantastic. Heknows there are some things he's saying whichpeople can't quite undertand, but he won'tgive up until he gets his idea across. And he'slust not afraid of anything. His kindergartenteacher told me Teddy has one of the most

,sophisticated senses of humor she's ever seen, in a child of his age.. To me, that's confidence.

"Without this program, I'm quite sure Ted-dy would have gone to school at the Newing-ton Hospital for Crippled Children. toingfrom a protective home environment into anormal kindergarten class would have beentraumapc for him. This program provided thebridge he had to have."

And -then, of course, there arc all the otherchildren . . Brett, a bright child with littlelanguage at.four . . . Beth, with poor motorabilities and slow speech . . . Bobby, a classi-cally hyperactive child . . Michael, with

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The pre-school program says In a direct way thatgaining important leacnyng skills can be fun.

multiple problems, now functioning in kinder-garten without an aide... . Mike's brotherJonathan, disoriented in large space and trou-bled in sorting information ... and all the rest.

For each, the process i5 the same: total involvement by the parent (nearly always the'mother), total commitment OS/ the staff. Con-stant observation by all members of thi team,searching for the' child's unusual l'' ming',style. And the design 'of materials and tivi-ties which take advantage of those pert 'vedstrengths and which gently nudge the childinto success tasks in his problem areas. Theon-going definition of Kals, objectives andstrategies to lead the.child toward his fulllearning potential. .

Never is the child asked to adjust to a fixedprogram. Rather, the program is constantlyadjusting to the needs of the child. In no sensedo parent or teachers consider this a "fix-up"program designed to identify and eliminate alearning handicap. It is, rather, an effort togear the learning experience to a child'sunique learning style, and to help him com-pensate for defiencies 'which inhibit his abilityto function well.

14

1 ). WOA nd this," said Sheila, "is the kind of pro-M, gram mothers would fight for."

It so happens that is not mere supposi-tion, but a statement of fact.

In its first year, the pre-school projectwas wholly supported by Title III funds. Butas a test of merit, Title III funding requiresthat a,local community assume one-third of aproject's cost in its second yeal'; two-thirds ofthe cost in the third year, and all of the ex-penses thereafter.

Thus' as it was formulating its ,1972-73budget, the Cheshire School Board was for thefirst time faced with the necessity for puttinglocal funds into the innovative program. TheBoard had consistently expressed interest inand support for the pre-school effort butlike School Boards everywhere, it was underenotmous pressure to hold the line on'spend-ing, if not, indeed, to cut back significantlywherever possible. Was this expensive, creative,innovative approach to learning for very youngchildren an educational necessity? Not an easypueslion to defend before beleaguered tax-payers.

Pre - school parents sensed that their pro-gram might be in jeopardy, and the respOnsewas imme ate and compelling. Board m,em-bets Were, in effect, petitioned to meet theparents on their,home turf in the pre-schoolsetting itself.

One School Boar number later called thisgive-and-take session with the parents "one ofthe most useful, infarnflative--and meaningfuleducation meetings I've everitttended."

The financial comrrhtment from the Boardwas soon forthcoming, and Board support hasremained strong since.

So the parents have_emergwd as the stroni-est, most articulate spokesmen for the educktional value of the prograni in which they areso intimately involved...

Such forays into the financial/politic,11 in-tricacies of public education are not, in theparents' stew, where the action,reallyi is. Theaction is in the classroom, working with thechildren

The support of the consultants is important.The guidance of the professional staff impera-

r

Under Joy Wulke's expert tutelage, mothers In aworkshop learn to tle-dye. Ms. Wulke Is at center.

tive. But it is the mothers who make the pro-II

gram work.And as their children' are approached as

unique indiyiduals, so, too, are the mothers.Some prove in a remarkably short time to be,natural, gifted teachers, with a great capacityto give to many children. Others requiremonths to learn the art of objective assess-ment.

"TM 1- OF 11111

' The pre-school program was called by oneevaluator "a gift of time" fo' to, children, aperiod in their lives when a learning experiencewas adjusted to their needs, and' they were notexpected to meet the challenges of a morestructured order.

To a very large extent, it is the motherswho come bearing this gift.

4 036

There is, first, the orientation period. Oneor more teachers visit mother and child in thehome, perhaps several times. Slowly, thebeginning of the year, mothers and childrenare phased into the classroom setting.

In evening meetings, in workshops, in one-on-one discussions with the staff, in meetingswith the consultants, in frequent review of theobjectives for the children and the formulationof new objectives, in the making of new ma-terials, in countless hours spent. observingtheir child and all the children, the mothers'become fully capable of engaging in a diag-nostic/prescriptive role. They come to knowthe full ralige of materials available for theiruse, and the value of each. They understandand speak knowingly about the use of space,color and light.

In sum, they collectively make an importantcontribution to the discovery process whichis at the heart of the pre-school program

-each in her own way, at her own pace, withinher own unique abilities.

It is a people-changing program. That fact;s 3S true of consultants as it is of parents, ofteachers and of the children -themselves.

"It would be difficult to imagine a more de-egotizing process," one perceptive mothercommented. "The frankness and candor ofour discussions, mother-to-mother, mother-to-staff, staff-to-consultants, and on and on, hasto be experienced to be believed.

"It has never been written into a grant pro-posal, and not included in any of our de-scriptive literature, but through a natural pro-cess we've all come to understand the absolutenecessity for complete, total honesty in ourdealings with one another. This honesty under-lies all of our perceptions about our children,and affects our ability to deal with themcreatively and constructively. It is crucial inour constant attempts to assess the strengthsand weaknesses of what we are doing, of our-selves as people, parents, teachers, of our pro-gram and of our children. It is a process I

would recommend to anyone."It is often difficult for a mother to sort

out her emotions from her ability to make ob-lectiveissessments. But it is critically impor-tant that she learn to do so, if her child is torealize his full learning potential."

the mother is a central figure in the pro-

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Lois Rho meets daily with the mothers.

gram. But so is the father, in a less-obviousway.

Some fathers are able to occasionally stealtime from busy occupation to come into theclassroom itself, and work with.their childrenmuch as do their-wives.

But their most important contributioncomes in two other ways:

First, fathers are an important part ofgeneral program orientation. Virtually all areon hand for evening meetings, and they bene-fit from information programs arranged bythe consultants.

Their most essential role, however, is in thehome, where .it is critical that the essence ofthe pre-school-program be continued. Fathershave on many occasions designed activities fortheir children, and made modifications in thehome environment, which are compatible withthe in-school effort.

Only complete understanding of the pro-gram's goals, as they relate' to their child,makes such adjustments possible. And themothers, the staff and the fathers themselveswoo( hard to instill this understanding in thehome setting.

The influence of the mothers ripples outthrough the school system and into the com-munity.

They were, for example, largely responsiblefor establishing the Drop-In Center which thestaff is conducting during the 1974-75 schoolyear.

Sensing that many other Cheshire parentscould benefit from expert counsel, mothersurged Mrs. Rho and her teachers to find a wayto reach out to them. The Friday morningDrop-in Center resulted.

And the mothers' perception proved to beright. Scores of mothers, young children-in_hand, come by to talk about reasonable expec-tations for the young child, discipline, lan-guage problems and dozens of other concerns.They are welcome to return as often as it'shelpful, to obtain literature, advice or simplyfriendly reassurance from a knowledgeablevoice.

tce ror c ITh dre rm.

One of the pre-school rooms as it might be arranged early in the school year. Center right isthe observation room, provided with one-way mirrors. Lower right is a storage area with easyaccess. As year progresses, so does the complexity of the space.

42 38

I T'S SO DARK!"1 That's the initial comment heard most

frequently by members of the pre-schoolstaff from the numerous visitors whocome to observe their program.

And indeed, light is subdued and directedthe two classrooms which house the pro-

gram.But as one's eyes adjust to the low light

level, other striking differences between thisphysical space and the typical kindergartenclassroom or nursery school come into sharpfocus, as well.

Large, low tables set off different parts ofthe room. Colorful, comfortable-looking cush-ions are scattered about. An abundance ofmaterials encourage youngsters to paint,climb, swing, throw, play in water, stringsmall beads, and much more.

After careful, perhaps lengthy observation,a sense of order and purpose begins to emerge.And it becomes apparent that an enormousamount of thought and work has gone intocreating this special place for children.

A major contribution in designing this spacehas come out of the mind and creative ener-gies of Felix Drury, the program's architec-tural consultant. But one would be quick toadd that every other consultant, every pro-gram patent, every teacher has also played animportant part in developing the space as itexists today.

Mr Drury expresses the rationale for changein (1 provocative way:

"Yes, we do in fact find ourselves in oppo-sition to many of the standard attitudes to-ward school architecture.

"Our goal is simply to create an environ-ment in which this program can function.And the environment that we need isn't agenuine concern in the construction of aty pical school building, or in the operation ofa program within that building.

"All ofus generally consider a school build-ing as largely the product of a certain profes-sional's thinking as that thinking may, bemodified by budgetary, :dministrative andother concerns. The building is made to standin its Licata term through time, and the com-munity sensos an obligation to preserve it inas pristine a condition as possible Indeed, inmanv ways a school is really a monument to acommunity. Ind a community's monumentto itseI t. And of course it represents a %I/able

39

43

investment."The end result is that a school is not often

designed for growing. It is conceived in theisolated mind of an architect who most oftendoesn't live in the community which will usethe school, it is not subject to very seriousmodification, and in its construction it simplydoesn't encourage modification.

"My concern is not with modifying part ofa building over a period of years, but changingparts of the building so they will grow with achild from September through June.

"When a first grader enters a school inSeptember, he is a very different person thanwhen he leaves that school in June. So his en-vironmental needs as well as his educationalneeds are going to be different. And yet thetypical first grade room remains pretty muchthe same through the year, while the childchanges within it."

But change should be thoughtfully con-trolled, offers Dr. Streff, as he joins the con-versation. "Certain strong, basic aspects of the*pool ought to remain the same, to serve asreference points for change. But many of thethings which relate to these reference pointsought to be changed, and be adaptable. Ideal-ly, a child should initially enter a relativelysimple environment, and that environmentshould increase in complexity, slightly in ad-vance of the child's capacity to understand it,so that he will grow in it."

A substantial part of the problem, Mr. Dru-ry feels, results from the general conception ofarchitecture as an art form. The equationgoes something like this: The more money youhave to spend, the better architecture (i.e.,art) you'll get.

Mr. Drury disagrees. "I claim architectureisn't an art form at all, but only another armof the physical environment. Nature providesone environment. Man, in the things he builds,provides another. And, from the moment offirst consciousness, we're all involved in thelife-long process of relating to what's outthere. Architecture is simply part of the worldthat's out there. What we're trying to do inthis program is understand and develop anout there' that children can relate to and inthis case, we're talking about children whoare having difficulty getting to the 'outthere.' "

And, John Streff points out, "out there" isalso other people and the physical environ-ment creates the back _hop against which all

t,

Flexibility in arranging the physical space is a hallmark of the pre-school program: Such itemsas the Temple, the stairs by the window, and the box arrangements prove invaluable in helpinga child develop spatial orientation. Room is sometimes completely re-arranged to better servethe needs of a single child. The central idea is to provide for each child, whatever the natureof his problem, an environment which is comfortable, and which invites individual expressionthrough play.

44 40

inter-personal relationships go on.Ultimately, then, this carefully constructed

environment in the p -school program simplyseeks to move a child- g a road he findsdifficult to travel. In doing so, it veers offdramatically from established principles inclassroom design.

Many agree that the child with learningproblems most often wants to work only inthe areas of his strengths a fact which maylead him into a tiny corner of existence, cut-ting him off from the skills and abilities whichcould enrich every aspect of his life.

The pre-school environment does, in fact,enticA, cajole and sometimes even gentlypush the child to function in ways he findsdifficult to do. At the same time, it strives toremove from his environment those octivitieswhich would make it easy for him to againwithdraw into a limiting corner of existence.

Both adding and subtracting from an indi-vidual child's environment must be done withgreat awareness and sensitivity. Such manipu-lation, successfully done, represents one cen-tral theme in the pre-school program.

Those closest to the effort agree that for thechild to become functional, he needs a basicsense of being in balance with himself in hisenvironment so that:he can begin to lookoutward, with decreasing concern for hisinternal discomfiture. That means, said theproject director, Mrs. Caruthers, that "thereought to be enough variety in a place like thisso that a child, coming into it, can immediatelysee a place where he can feel at rest and besomewhat comfortable. And that place, wher-ever it is, ought to be connected in a varietyof ways some very direct, some quite subtle

to all of those other areas where the childisn't operating very well."

The child who needs a soft, slightly raisedplace to feel comfortable will, then, easilydiscover it. He can get on it, and observewhile the life of the class goes on around him.He may, of his own volition, be drawn intoother activities. Or the teacher or his mothermay encourage him to leave his comfortableplace, however briefly, to venture into moredifficult areas. But if pressures build, he canquickly and safely retreat to his special place,and restore the balance so essential to mean-ingful learning.

IN THE- BE_GINNIN6

In the beginning, the space was empty.

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45

Four walls, a floor, a ceiling.A second empty room was added in the

second year, when the program was expandedto include three-year-olds.

And, wel! before the first 'child arrived, themeetings began, sitting on the floor in theempty room. Most often, the gathering in-cluded the consultants, Felix Drury and JohnStreff, the program teachers, Lois Rho andDiane Gamble, the project director, and schoolpsychologist, Gwynette Caruthers. And ahandful of the Yale architectural studentswho had already made an impact on severalschools in the Cheshire system. Of those stu-dents, John (Jake) Foley was to become theprogram's special tutor and audiovisual spe-cialist in the second year, and Joy Wulke itseducational materials specialist.

The conversations were far ranging, as thisgroup, time and again, probed and ponderedthe special needs of special children.

There was quick agreement on the need toobserve the children in a non-distracting way.An observation room, large-enough for a half-dozen people/and with a large one-way mir-ror, was built. The mirror came as a gift fromthe parents of a learning disabled child ;n theelementary school. In the second year, aclosed-circuit TV and videotape system wasadded to permit simultaneous observation inboth the three-year-old and four-year-oldthorns.

As the conversations continued, a series ofmeaningful decisions were made and imple-mentation of these ideas began. Among themost important:

LIGHTINGWhat is the response of the organism to

light? It's pretty basic, says John Streit.:Plants grow toward it, babies turn to it. It nur-tures every living thing.

It is, then, a powerful force, and a forcewhich should be understood and respected asit affects a child's ability to learn.

The lighting most often found both in oursupermarkets and in our schools is of thefluorescent type, with properties which mayseriously inhibit learning.

Fluorescent lighting is, first of all, a brokenspectrum a series of disconnected colorranges, difficult for the eye to handle. And itsgeneral color range is significantly harsherthan other forms of light.

It's also an oscillating light, going on and

Toward year's end, the pre-school environment has become more complex to both interest andchallenge the children. While the space initially tended to utilize the center of the room forlarge motor activities, this arrangement is more integrated. Lighting is more focussed, and sev-eral new materials appear, including a cone climber, foam cylinder and trampoline climber.Photo on page 44 shows this arrangement from a low angle. Despite obvious changes and in-creasing complexity of spas', important constants remain to enhance the sense of security andstability for the children IF7 the room.

46 42

off with great rapidity, so that for some peo-ple, all movement under fluorescent lightingis stroboscopic.

The result is that fluorescent lighting makesconcentration difficult a fact that may notconcern owners of supermarkets, but whichposes problems for children in school.

In the average classroom, the attempt ismade to distribute the same quality of (fluo-rescent) light, of the same intensity-, overjheentire room. And that room is a whole w4rldto the children in it, for a large part of eachday and a big part of each year. Said Dr. Strelff,"It's as though we are saying, starting tomor-row, that our sky will be fluorescent lit, frohorizon to horizon, uniformly, so there willbe no direction of light. All shadows will 6eeliminated. Which simply ignores the; fact thakwe can only see things well if one side is darker\than the other."

In the pre-school space, light has been usedto create light-shadow walls around the room.Emphasis has been created on areas of interest \through the careful placing of lights. Andlighting has been brought down to the task athand.

"A teacher asks a child to put rings on apeg," said Dr. Streff. ';He may be looking atthe task with eyes that don't work that wellanyway. The bright light source which attractshis attention is way above him. In simple wayssuch as this, we're making his problem muchmore difficult than it need be

"In the program, we've just brought the/'light down to where the action is, and let theareas around the action go darker. That tendsto screen out visual distractions."

Head Teacher Lois Rho has observed the ef-fect of lighting on children many times. "Sub-dued, controlled lighting has a noticeablyquieting effect on all children," she has no-ticed. "It is a marvelous tool in dealing withthe hyperactive child, who is constantly facedwith the problem of screening out peripheralinformation. But controlling light is as usefulwith all children in establishing the tempo ofactivity in the room."

All agree there's much more to be done inusing light to its optimum effect in the pro-gram. "When children are working with three-dimensional items, it's important that thelight model the object to enhance its three-dimensionality," said Mrs. Rho. "In like manner, when they're working with flat objects,such as paper and pencils, flatter lighting is

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47

more appropriate. We're constantly seekingways to gain greater control over our use oflight."

COLORAssume your eyes are OK. If you have a

friend who's an optometrist, here's a simpletest which will tell you something about thespatial qualities of color.

Place, an 81/2 x 11-inch sheet of white paperon a wall, with a six-inch blue border aroundit. Stand 20 feet from the paper, and thenmeasure the focus of your eyes from the whiteof the paper to the blue of the border (that'swhere you'll need your optometrist friend).The difference will be enormous somethinglike 15 feet.

Eyes in good working order and brainssorting information quickly and accuratelymake those kinds of accomodations constant-ly, with no conscious effort. But color cancreate serious difficulties for the child withproblem eyes or imperfect perceptions.

While colors have spatial values, they haveemotional qualities as well which we ex-press in the descriptive words of "warm" and"cool." Any child (as well as any adult) willreact to the emotional impact of color. Andthe emotionally disturbed child (whose emo-tional problem may be linked directly to hisvisuzl perception problem) can be expected toreact, as well.

Interestingly enough, the troubled childmay react to any such stimulus light orcolor in exactly the opposite manner ex-pected. In so doing, he reveals a great dealabout the nature of his problem and under-scores the cardinal rule that a program de-signed to meet his special needs must be total-ly individualized.

Color, thn, has been introduced into thepre-school setting with great care. Many ofthe large, permanent structures are of naturalwood a neutral color.` And "wood offers achild a second option, beyond the naturaltone: the interesting pattern of grain.

Active, intense colors (the "warm" ones)are used s;)aringly, and only to accomplishthe end of introducing action., Rather, the em-phasis has been on providing the child withan essentially neutral background, and invitinghim to introduce his own colors into it tomake his own mark on his environment.

R ANNY IN 11iL (I ASSROOMSend a child into a backyard with an apple

"

Photograph shows one of the rooms arranged in a manner similar to the third drawing in the series.

tree in it anil watch him for 10 minutes. Ofclause he will attempt to climb the tree. Thedesire to attain height h expected of ourchildren out-of-doors.

But w 11\ not In/lours? What educational%Attic-, if ,tn\ , is achieved b\ the young childthr,(righ ilimhing

I hese w cie questions which consultants anti,teachers talked about at length before a singleone id the Llinthing structures were put inplace in the pre-school class, 00111

these \ CrsdllOns Went along,- re-called Mr 1)rin , it became atipaient to usthat the teachers were expiessing the tyranny,1)1 the single surtacc the floor. lour wallsand a How simpl\ clicIn't constitute d suitt-uent )111d111 for the natilial interests ot kids.\Vc at lust m()% ed things around hot i/ontallv.\Ve mu\ ed the large table into the center utthe roomind made the loom Seem halt asloge \nd then wt.' picked up on an idea wehad tried in the clenicsittai \ gr,(des, with some,d,Less it we were going to make hori/ontalchanges, we should make eitical changes,to() and bust the t\ lann\ of the single stir-ta.c

What came, at first, was a series of "sub-ceilings" a system of boxes that permittedchildren to get into and climb on top of. Atour-by-four-by-two-foot box remains one ofthe mast-used materials in the space, servingsome children as a small room, and others asan observation tower.

"We found, as we went along, that alteringa child's vertical environment by an inch is theequivalent of altering his honiontal environ-ment by a foot. In other words, raise a childtwo feet off the floor and you're really puttinghim in another world," Mr Drury concluded.

-Through long and careful observation,teachers and parents are convinced that the

tical climbing spaces in the mom (right upto the ceiling 'low) are 'invaluable to thechildren

"11 is having tertertible tiouble !elat-ing to the space," said Mis. Rho, "you canoften watch his anxieties chain horn him tihe has the chance to climb above his prob-lems, ind ()the' ve quietly 1c)i a period oftime there's somedmig vox' sccute aboutbeing high up, out of the swirl of the group.the child can watch the ebb and flow of the

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acticit in a detached way. And he'll returnto it when ho's settled and ready."

UNDE RUS1_D SURFACLS

rile staff and consultants identified twoother "vastly underused" surfaces, and pro-ceeded to make them part of the children'scm, ironment They are the floor and the ceil-ing

Most adults ignore the floor, because bythe time they are old enough to teach child-ren, they are attuned to table-top learning.The floor has grown out of their close-orderfocus. But not so for children. The floor iseery much in ciose-order focus, and as such ithas the potential to be a terrific learning sur-face. Much of the pre-school experience takesplace on the floor.

The ceiling is another matter, posing spe-cial problems (such as fire and building codes).

Lamenting lost wisdom, Mr. Drury notesthat in ancient days, "the ceilings of cathe-drals and palaces were the most elaborate ofall surfaces, attempting to offer the releasewhich the sky does. But in bur hung ceilingsin today's typical classroom, we have thisuninteresting, relentless Acoustical tile, witha grid pattern which rarely fits the site of theceiling." ,

The problem has been partially overcomeby using the strength of the ceiling to hangthings from a ne' and imaginative hookingsystem was being made as this booklet wasprepared. The goal in the immediate future isto make the ceiling a surface where things hap-pen, "We want children to be able to get upto the ceiling, and do something once theyare there," said Mrs. Rho. "Perhaps they'llput a fabric on it, or work on a fresco. Th,ey'llbe able to come down, look at their work, andgo back up to make changes or continue. Whynot?"

A DISCOVE.RY PROUSSDesigning the pre-school space has been,

then, a discovery process. The staff and con-sultants first identified the variables they hadto work with light, sound, temperature,space, structure, color, etc. fashioned thesevariables in a creative way, and proceeded toobserve, minutely and continually, the child-ren's reactions to the stimuli being offered.

The fact that it is indeed a process ratherthan a package points up the necessity forchange and change is one of the program'sconstants. What is this child responding to?

45

What might produce a better response? Howdo we produce that item and put it to work?

As we noted, in the beginning the spacewas empty.

The first item introduced ihto the roomwas a foam climber (it's still there, much inuse).

Every item since introduced has been re-lated to the special needs of one child, asthose needs were perceived by the parent andthe ,sta ff.

Virtually all of the materials have been"custom made" 'by joy Wulke, .the educa-tional materials specialist, by the millers andby the teachers. ''

The process works something like this:Philip was a seriously disturbed, autistic

child, with no sense of boundaries. He wasfearful 'if getting off the floor; he simplycouldn't bring himself to take that first stepupward.

Philip was the topic of many hours of dis-cussion. The result: a huge innertube, encasedin a macramae climber which reached to theceiling, was put in place.

It took time to involve Philip with thiss'cle-.

vice created solely to meet his specijil needs.But eventually he found a sense of security,of a boundary, seated atop that innertube,and eventually he began to climb up the mac-rame cargo net. Still later, several childrenwere able to climb in the device with Philip;the first step in socialization for this disturbed

_child had begun..Brianna is strabismic, and, before entering-

the program, .experienced numerous tempertantrums each day. During one visit, JohnStreff observed her carefully as she jumped,along with other children, on HighlandSchool's trampoline. She approached the playfreely, and jumped with enthusiasm, laugh-ing, arms outstretched to help keep her bal-ance.

And the observant Dr. Streff noticed thatas Brianna jumped, especially as her weighttended to shift backward and her arms flaileda bit, her eyes straightened.

Within a day that Important observationwas translated into new activities for Brianna.A new, triangular macramae sling whichshe took to with great enthusiasm kept herin somewhat of a backward-leaning position,arms out. For most of the time she is in thesling, her eyes are straight. A whole new ser-ies of games was designed for Brianna, as well

49

A hove, while mother and school psychOlogist observe, Mrs. Rho works iwith a child In the DropIn Center. Below,lon's expertise on the trampoline focuses the activity for all the children and their mothers.

.

50 . 46

While their mothers attend a workshop, children prepare for musk. Mirrors help give focus to the activity.

games which mother can play with her at!borne as well at school. Most of ihem getBrianna in the familiar "tug-of-war"..position

weight back arms ou t -- and eyes straight.remember the e% ening converstrHon'

between Lois Rho and Diane Gamble aboutjon's special motor problems? That talk re-sulted in the Lteation of a'"truck" foi Jonrwmarkablt similar to the device first envi-sioned. Pulling himself along the lope track,using his right side and his left side much as,Diane sLispeLted he would, has become one ofhis tAorite activities

There are many other examples of materi-,i1s designed' and introduced in the spacespecifically to meet the needs of one child.

In most every instance, a new material ex-ceeds its origina4 purpose: Philip's innertubeclimber has since become a favorite place formany children. Other specially designed ma-terials may arouse the. interest of youngstersin a way which is surprising and revealing tothe staff. For despite the-most careful judg-ments of adults, the Program children likeall children remain unique individuals, al-ways capable of expressing themselves inoriginal, unexpected ways.

It has been an axiom since thp program'sfirst day that the child's learning experiencemust be complete that it must extend be-yond the classroom walls to the nearby play-

tt story time, children experience difference between the concrete and representational as they match figures tostorvhook Right, storking with baker's dough, they enjoy tactile sensations.

47

51

a

ett, mothers ( mated outdoor activity which Brett and Bobby find intriguing. Right, new play area was created inlinanna', home to/ losing a visit by Mrs. Rho and Mr. Thum.

ground, ind hum the pia\ ground into eachL liunc I his sties, on wholeness and,s,mtmiut% 111 e \perience is a Lential reason

)1 introducing the motile' into the Llass-!(,oill she 4.ir ()vides the bridge between home'And ,,,h4,u1 whiLh Lan be obtained in no (ohowno.

I he pr(w,t,tni staff emphasr/es the minor-tali,: to the home emnonment, in home acti-\.IIICN And 11(1M1.: Iel,itiontihlps In a number of\An., I lead teacher Lois Rho and one or moreof the hlassroom teachers isn child old m.oth-et in tire homo se\ eral times before the childinitialk enters tiv.--piogiam. Suggestions-aremade to mothers hequeittly about thingswhich the can do in the home, and changes

-

which they can make, which- will help theirchild deal more effectively with his learningproblem.

And, upon invitation, Mi. Drury, the aichi-tectuial consultant Ind Mrs. Rho will visit inthe home lin the specific put pose of suggesl-mg changes which will he helpful to the child.The "Ar chitec tufa, Ret:ommendations basedon Educational Planning in School" whichgoes to the mother is an impressive document,well worth quoting.

Linda is the mother of Brian/la, the strabis-mic child with temper tantrums. The memoto Linda following a home visit noted, first,that the goals for Brianna ,tt school have been:

1) To reduce the high level of frustration

hildten 1 special relationship in weekly swimming sessions. Right, overhead prole( for is ideal way( thenheli throtrqh.spati(1/

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52

/1

, .tvhith builds up in Iltiatma when she triesto tallow normal patterns ut sfiuce andtime

2) I() help Miami(' develop a sense ofpersonal placettlent in space.

3) lo help Brianna and Linda work outa Molt' rela\ed relationship.

) Ii) help litiannaTeduce .the intensityand trequenct of her temper tantrums.

. f he methods of reaching these goals inschool \sere listed as' .

,

/) /() mclAvse, Briannu's awareness of()hie( is and spacetto her lett by such means ik

as an trn,stirtt ( nurse SS /th tactile experiencetm the' lett.

2) 1; tier lltiatma's posture outwardand backwatd by use at the trampoline,the hand car, and the curgo net.

?) I o help litianna recognize custancein iclationship to het position in space byhitting the ttther butt and dancing andlumping in front of the large mirrors.

t) I o help Htiatma develop p sense oftime through music and sequential 'now-meat, tether ball, anti tope swing.

.3) I o proLide operational aciommoda-tion tot those pasture's t'llIcIl seem to allowHI WOW to ac t Casllt WO in balance by us-ing the trampoline, the Maccame llUMMOC ksand the «Pao net.It mis suggested to Linda- alter the home

sisit that she follow-through on this programat home in this manner

I) Reduce the .number of object; in'Manna's bedroom and clear as tnuch floorarea as possible..Pluce the bed along thewall instead 01 prolecting out from it.Leave one wall open. Simplify decorationand reduce the amount at pink in the room,It would be best to pur?it the walls of the

liloom li it beige.2) ke the small table so that Briannu

can make drawings in the room while beingable' to we other drawings she has 'nudehanging on the opposite wall. Always haveher hang up her drawings.

3) Hang a tether bull from the ceding ofhet room and put fr few bright green "press-applt dots on it. Bull should be free to hitat least one wall. Colo( of dots should bechanged et et t' month Or so.

) Mere ,should be u low mirror on oneot the walls so that she co)) watch herselfplat and dress

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53

uN

Spadal ansformations will help thi child. deal with'reversals in latir education.

5). Use soft lighting such as wall lumps. over the table and bed. Use low light even

during 'the day. The natural light comes in-to th'e room too high.

'6) Use adjoining walls for sequencing bytaping a strip of paper (zih to 6" wide)along the walls at Brianna's eye level. Runthe strip on two walls in the bedroom andaround one door jamb onto a wall outsideher room. Paste cut-out figures. on thestrip, such as people walking or animals.Such recommendations the collective

thinking of the entire team have proved tobe important to many of the participatingmothers who are working hard to bring theexperiences and rewards of the classroom intotheir own homes.

I III ()I.; I (tt -1)00R5,In the program's third year, all those inti-

mately involved in the program can observewith some objectivity, what has been createdwithin the four walls, the ceiling and floor oftwo classrooms. And the realization came asonly a moderate surprise: they have to somee \tent re-created the out-ol-doors. It is alltime, in modified form: hills and vallipys andplains and trees and-sky.-A natural environ-ment, indoors. Perhaps tnat is why it is so at-trac tise to children.

Gvsynette Caruthers Lois Rho

Or. Robert Adams pion Gamble

F, AS HAS BEEN DESCitIBED, THEI pre-school progran( is ,"a symphony of

learns ig," then the professionajs are itsconductors.

And, because of her key role as theteacher supervisor, perhaps Lois Rho's

baton rises a bit higher than all the rest.Professionally, the position requires a per-

son with a strong background in early child-hood education, who understand specialneeds.

But having such knowledge is one thing;being able to share it effectively, both withher teaching colleagues and with the parents,can sometimes be another. It is crucial, in help-ing the mothers find ways to deal effectivelywith their children, that she find methods tocommunicate this knowledge in a meaningfulway, related to the dynamics of the classroom.

* 4 -0 40

r

D&John Streff Fellx Drury

John (lakfif Foley Emily Thoch

AN_

wo,

In doing so, she must be able to assess thestrengths of individual parents, so that eachcan fully participate in the program in her ownway. The pervasive attitude of mutual, coop-erative effort is essential to the program'ssuccess. -

And there is more. The teacher supervisoris uniquely positioned to assess the contribu-tion which individual consultants can make tothe program. It is l*gely up to her to effec-tively integrate their abilities into the totaleffort.

With her teaching staff, she writes and de-velops

Al'

curriculum for, both individuals andgroups plans the parent program, helps withthe overall assessment of children at mid-year and year's end. With the project director,she shares responsibility for communicatingthe program's goals and concepts to the en-

5450

.47

tire school Community as well as to the gen-eral public, and acts as the program's liaisonwith the school principal

The special education teachers support theteacher supervisor in many of these endeavors,emphasising once again that it is the team ap-proach which brings worthwhile results.Other members of the team.

The School Psychologist, who in Cheshireis also the Title III protect director. Mrs. Caru-thers plays a key role as a consultant i -theobservation booth with individual parents,

. and with many visitors.She is responsible, toe, for screening child-

ren for the program, for pre-and post-testingof the children, and, in collaboration with aresearch and evaluation specialist, in selectingan overall research design.

Mrs. Caruthers is always available forconferences with program parents, and shenukes a point of interpreting all test datawith each parent individually. She worksconstantly with the staff, as well, in assessingindividual children's progress and in designingobjectives and strategies for each child.

It is fair to say that without GwynetteCaruther's curious mind, her persistence andtenacity, and her commitment to finding abetter way, the pre-school program might nothave been more (ban an interesting, passingidea. No one is more aware, or convinced, ofthe program's potential for broad applicationthan she.

The School Social Worker, Marvin Perlin,meets weekly with parent groups to discusstopics of mutual concern, and is availableupon request for conferences with individualparents. He too, is a constant source of in-formation to the staff about the special needsof each program child.

The ability of a talented person such asjoy Wulke, the Architectural Design Specialist,to translate important observations about thechildren into original materials to meet speci-fic needs has been an important contrilution,on a week-to-week basis.

The principal role of the Architect, FelixDrury, is to interact with the staff and optom-etrist and to adapt the physical environmentto the perceived needs of one child or of allthe children. Hi.; important role as a consultantin the home has been noted. He has, as well,

'completed plans for a pre-school building (seeSummary, page 57) which incorporates manyof the concepts le,arned in the program to this

51

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time.The program's consulting Optometrist, Dr.

john Streff, continues his work with bothparents and staff in defining conceptual de-velopment through physical movement. Hisability to make abstract concepts meaningfuland workable, and his flashing insights intothe needs of chVren must be regarded as key-stones in the pr ram's development.

And Dr. Robert Adams, the consultingPsychiatriSt, is something of an in-house devil'sadvocate. A regular observer of the dynamicsof behavior within the program, he is con-stantly challenging the staff to explain its ap-proach to a child's problems. He plays a keyrole in establishing parameters for the effort("Don't try to play psychiatrist. Don't letthe mothers forget ,they're mothers, notteachers.".

He also often meets with parents to dis-cuss many topics of concern: dying, discipline,aggression and much more.

The Evaluation and Dissemination Special-ist, Emily Thach, collects data for evaluation,helps in the overall research design, aids inwriting grant proposals and evaluations, andpromotes program public relations throughthe media.

Add the mothers to the team and it is animpressive group, each in his and her own wayhelping give shape and form to the learningprocess. Each would be quick to point outtAt the program provides few, if any, defini-tive answers. But the process itself is well-thought-out, well-defined.

And it works.

wawa, '11110

"Or

Off'.Marvin Perim loy Wulke

There are so many aspects of the Cheshirepre-school program which resist 'statis-tical analysis. The parents have regis-tered their own evaluation in a subjectivebut highly meaningful way: it is a pro-

gram, they feel, worth fighting for.But what of its spin-off effects? Its long-

term potential? Can its substantial costs hejustified? And finally, what hard evidenceexists that it is indeed making'a difference?

The man who has been something of a mo-ther hen for the program, providing an incuba-tor m which it can grow and flourish, isHighland School Principal Chester W. Crow-ley, Jr. He is convinced that the program hashad a strong, beneficial impact throughoutthe school system. For a number of reasons.

"On this pre-school team, we have threeteachers who have really learned how to diag-nose, prescribe and prognosticate when deal-ing with the special needs of children," he ob-served. "And they are doing it very accurately:,with good methods and they are not doingit alone, in isolation. They are doing it withparents. That is the key factor.

"Two-thirds of a child's education goes on1Aorne. That, to me, means parents must betotally invoked in the educational process."

In the pre school program, Mr. Crowley be-lieves, parents haye reached a level of involve-ment which is totally new. "They are, as aresult, becoming extremely knowledgeableabout the learning process, and about howschools function. As they do, they are forcingteachers and other professionals to also be-come more li.nowledgeable. It is a circle Ofreinforcement."

The potential? "I'm hopeful that we canincorporate the parental aspect of this pro-gram through out third grade level at least. Inthe process of moving toward that goal, teach-ers are going to have to acknowledge thatparents can make a real contribution in theclassroom, too

Bs 1980, Mr Crowley hopes as many as 50per cent of the mothers of children throughthe third-grade level will be coming to schoolregularly with their children. "If we can attainthat goal, we' will never again have a problem

Mr. Crowley

getting support for good educational pro-grams," he predicts.

There are other spin-off effects from theprogram, as well. Many of the materials espe-cially developed for the pre-schoolers circulatethroughout the kindergarten rooms, empha-sizing the program's total integration into theHighland School setting. And mothers whohave had the rich experience of day-to-daycontact with the program are now, as theirchildren "graduate," moving into the systemas teacher's aides where they bring an extra-ordinary level of expertise to their work.

Mr. Crowley identifies another importantoffshoot of the pre = school effort: the creativeuse of space. "We're setting up space in a moreindividualized manner now in all of our class-rooms, finding siliteresting arrangements fortables and chairnd places for kids to climbinto and on top of. And we're beginning toget rid of those glaring lights. We were movingin this direction long, before the pre-schoolprogram began, but it has, certainly providedgreat impetus for change throughout theschool system."

And what of the bottom line? Can the pro-gram's substantial costs be justified?

Mr. Crowley shuffled through a slack ofpapers on his desk, extracted one, adjustedhis glasses and said: "Yes. In our best judg-ment, the answer is yes.

"There have been to date 11 graduates ofthe program. Seven are functioning well inregular classes. Two are in regular classes withan aide. One is in a learning disabilities classand one is in private placement. Of that groupof 11, in our best and most conservative judg-

/5256

ment, three would now be in private place-ment, it they had not had this pie-school ex-pel lenLe, and two would have required specialprograms.

"It is a 1. umulative thing. The larger thendmber of children, the greater the potentialfinlanoal few ard. Fur example, in our presentgroup ot 15 lour-yeai-olds we believe that9iree would be rn or he headed tot priyateplacement 01 those three, we now believethat, of ter this program, one will move into alearning disabilities class one will require anaide in a regular classroom, and the other,along with of his classm Iles, will be able totun/tion. approptiatel% in the normal class-loom setting. And remember, these ate alltuldr en with strung predictors of learning

cias.ibiloresAll of the children ha% e shown meaningful

growth in the program, and some have regis-tered startling gains. Shawn and Bobby areg,,,ocl examples.

When Shawn's gross mowr skills weretested in 01 tuber of 1973, w hen he was three,he barely got on the scale, registering at abouta four-month level. B% Ma of 1974, he was:rte to the three -year -old level tits gain mother areas was nearly as astonishing. In hisapproach h the materials and common sense,he was at the one-sear-old level in the fall of1973 B% spr mg, he had reached his own agelevel And in social skills, he advanced from2 i %ems in tine tall of '73 to 4.5 years bythat spring.

Bobby 's g' ow th Lame in one dramaticspurt. The hy peraLoye child who could notattend early in the program, Bobby tested onthe infantile level in fine motor skills as heentered the program as a three-year old. Bymid year, he had shown no appreciablegrowth But by spring, Bobby was function-mg %et-% near his own age level. In communica-tion skills in this same period, he advancedhum a 1 7-year loci to his own age group.

The children's progress is evaluated fromseveral per speLtRes The Stanford-Binet In-telligence Seale Fest is green rn its entirety toeach child admitted to the program duringlune or /illy, md again the following springby Gwy nette Caruthers, the school's psycholo-gist and the program director. It is adminis-tered inch% idu,iI1} in her of ficeind the resultsare shared with the parents.

The Gesell Doelopmental Examination isgreen to each child inch% iduall% by lac kie

53

Michaels. of the Gesell Institute of ChildDevelopment, New Haven, once during thesummer before school and again in the spring.The exam is given at the school.

Additionally, a Teacher Inventory is com-pleted tot each child 111 the fall, and again inthe spring, by the program staff. Those itemsrequiring direct observation may be given tothe evaluation and dissemination specialist,

Thach, to complete while observing inthe classroom.

Patents' views are solicited early in theschool year, and again in the spring, in a Par-ent Questionnaire which asks for detailed ob-servations about their own child.

Finally, a short summary is written by theclassroom teacher, in conjunction with theaide and the teacher supervisor, describingdiagnostically significant highlights of eachchild's first day in school, a summary of hisbehavior and progress in January, and a finalsummar again in May. Continuous reportsare being made, as well, every week of speci-fic classroom observations and current ob-jectives being worked toward by staff andparents. The September, January and Maysummaries are compared, along with continu-ing teacher reports, to identify a child's prob-lem areas and to record his growth in thoseareas.

The results of 1973-74 pre-and post- test-ing show mean growth in excess of onemonth's gain in one month's time, on boththe Stanford-Binet and Gesell Developmental'Scales. The norms set for growth in normalchildren on these tests is a year's growth in ayear's time. Children with special needs mightbe expected to fall short of this growth.

Actually, program children showed 12.4mtknths gain on the Stanford-Binet in ninemonths titre, and 15.7 months gain on theGesell Developmental Scales in 11.5 monthstime. '-

Eight out of 18 children pre-tested on theStanford-Binet Were found to be functioningbelow an age-appropriate level. In post-test-ing, only six of 18 were functioning belowage level, and of these, two were functioningmore nearly at then own age level.

Fourteen of 15 children pie-tested on theGesell Developmental Scales (of develop-mental maturity) were found to he funvon-mg below age level. In post testing, all 15

were [um. turning below age level, but nine ofthe 1 i were functioning more neatly age-

57

appi opoatelY

Results of the Parent Questionnaire andTeacher myentory show.a pattern of studentgrowth, although there are no norms againstwhich to assess their growth. Gross motorskills and the ability to concentrate and attendshowed the largest comparative gains.

1 he gains recorded on the Stanford-Binetand the Gesell Developmental Scales "ex-ceeded expec tations," Mrs. Caruthers said.

And, she added, "the patterns of growthtend to he more import-ant than the summa-tion of growth. These children' tend to makethe greatest measurable gains in areas of theirmore (Anions weaknesses. When the areasshowing minimal gains were examined, it waslearned that in some cases adults had notyerbahred these areas as being of concern.ror example, physical movement and commu-nication for a cerebral palsied child wereImportant areas of concern.

"Constant praise and encouragement dur-ing his progress in physical activities helpedto generate advancement In social skills, aswell. Testing resealed little progress in prob-lem-soly mg or common sense items, whichwere more or less bypassed. This will be anobjectiye for him next y ear.

"The heart of the program lies in thebalanced team study rig and planning for thespecific need of the child."

While gains for these children exceededexpectations, Mrs. Caruthers points out thatthe small number of children both pre-andpost-tested to date "means that the resultscannot be considered statistically significant.But if these same lesels can he maintained foranother year, their statistical significance willhe demonstrated."

Increasingly , the pre-school program isexhibiting a persasive quality Special educa-tion teachers in the Cheshire syCtern are com-ing together with the pre-school staff to shareinsights The Drop-In Center has motivatedmany families in the town to take advantageof the pre school team's sera ices. 1 he pre-school team was inyited to take a maim partin a seminar sponsored by the EducationalFacilities Lahoratory, the Ford Foundationand Columbia linivei Sas As a result. Colum-bia may use the Cheshire model as an on-sitefacility for a doctoral candidate

Most importantly , surrounding towns aree essmg a g; 0% mg interest in the innoyativeconcepts Mans .ire now consider ng some

form of parental involvement in the learningprocess.

"We're convinced that the central programconcepts must be suitable for broad applica-tion, or what we have will simply wither anddie," said Mrs. Caruthers.

"And we don't intend to let it die."

Top, mother of another child gets involved withGreg in a problem-solving task while Teddy offerssuppzt. Bottom, integration for Neil is strengthenedM thft up, in and out as twat, guided by Mrs. Rho.

5854

j/\ irThI

There are new discoveries every day asstaff, parents and consultants observeand work with these special children.The program itself exemplifies the dis-covery process one insight leading in-

exorably to the next step in creating workablelearning patterns.

And yet some discoveries have evolved asbench marks in the program's development,and are now recognized as integral parts'ofthe whole. They include:

It is wise, logical and educationally realis-tic to view children, of whatever age, in termsof their intellect and their level of maturity,rather than to arbitrarily group them by agelevel. Only in this manner can truly meaning-ful educational planning and programming-bedone.

For all young children, Mother can benot only the first but potentially the bestteacher, and she should therefore be en-couraged to enter into the formal learningprocess within the school.

Programming for young children withspecial needs must, to be effective, be all-in-clusive, moving from school to out-of-doorsplay into the home itself.

To accomplish these goals of parentalinvolvement in the learning experience, andan all-encompassing learning environment forthe child, traditional inhibitions and restric-tions must be broken down to not only permitbut to encourage parental involvement.

In dealing with young exceptional child-ren, it is often true that the learning problemis shared equally between child and mother.The frustrations which result from such aproblem are not limited to the child alone.Thus in many instances the mother, and theentire family, will benefit as much from thisspecial programming as will the child himself.

Mothers need outside help to gain a mea-sure of objectivity in dealing with their child'sproblem.

Siblings of pr )gram children often gaingreatly from Mother's participation in the pro-gram i large number have been found to havespecial educational needs, as well.

Perhaps the greatest benefit which the

55

59

program can give to a troubled child is self-confidence in his' ability to succeed at manytasks. This is a crucial first step in learninghow to learn.

The program has demonstrated that inmany instances, the seriously troubled childneed not be placed in an isolated setting seg-regated with children who share similar disa-bilities. Rather, with strong support, he canlook forward to meaningful parti ipation inthe mainstream of the educational e perience.

For the less-seriously trouble child ,the classic "learning disabled" you gster ithas been discovered that learning t e natureof his problem is often the first impo tant stepin compensating for or overcoming the prob-lem. This can most often be accomplishedthrough observation in the play setting.

A child's environment has a profoundaffect on the way in which he learns.

The full benefits of the program can onlybe delivered to a child through a balancedteam approach professional staff, parents,carefully selected consultants, all working to-gether in the on-going process of observation,evaluation and implementation.

A teacher functions best as a catalyst, aperson who causes educationally worthwhilethings to happen but who is not herself thecenter of action.

Mother and Child sharing a learning experiencethe heart of the pre-school idea.

The "symphony of learning" is a complexstructure, not without problems and al-ways in need of attention. Those whomake the repairs are quick to tell you itis well worth the effort.

The educator exposed to the idea for thefirst timemust inevitably ask, "Can a programwhich so delicately meshes the talents andabilities of so many people hope to succeedwithout a Gwynette Caruthers, a Lois Rho, aJohn Streff, Felix Drury and all the rest?"

The answer, of course, is yes. Perhaps birthcalled forth special attributes, but the programin its design and in its physical trappings is ahighly exportable product. Or it is of no realvalue at all.

Indeed, it does require money. And whilethere will always be programs for the seriouslytroubled child, no matter how expensive, inthese days of acute financial distress it willtake a continuing vigorous effort to keep theneeds of children with handicapping condi-tions before the budget-makers. That is aserious problem.

In the Cheshire program, the combinationof various disciplines has created a whole con-tribution to the child with special needs thatis greater than the sum of each individual dis-cipline. But a deficiency is recognized. Thereis a real need for a neurologist pediatrician asa consulting member of the team, and effortsare being made to obtain the services of sucha specialist. It's a problem.

Another problem is the needs of the mo-thers. The sole criterion for selection of mo-t, ers is they willingness to give the necessaryime to their child within the classroom. There

is, as a result, a broad cross-section of econom-ic, social, emotional and intellectual levelswhich must be considered individually and inrelation t.) the problems of their child, andindeed, of all the children since they interactso freely

This problem has multiplied the demandsoil the staff, who must consider individually

I I the child, 2) the parent and 3) the parent-child combination. In educational circles, itis customary to think of a special educationte,Lhei serving six children. In this program,

60

instead of three teachers serving 26 childreri,there are, in fact, three teachers serving 78individual learning situations.

.

As this burden multiplies for the, teachers,however, so do the benefits. Parents freelyexpress how their gr.-Ater understanding oflearning behavior has benefitted other siblings.Schools report better relationships with Par-ents who have participated in the program.

These are considerations which must beevaluated when funding for such an effort isconsidered.

There are, of course, other problems. Teach-ers outside of the p'togram may view it with acertain wariness, yet to be convinced that amother can function in a positive way withinthe classroom; or perhaps envious of the flexi-bility which the program demonstrates, or ofthe funds which support it. The ofthese teachers must be carefully considered; itis important that they be made aware of theprogram's full educational implicaltions.Withthe evidence presented to them Completely,they could and should become Strong advo-cates for this approach to helping childrenwith special needs.

More problems? Mothers in such a settingmay tend to lose their identities as teachers.Some come to feel (briefly) that the profes-sional staff really isn't needed at all. It is apitfall to avoid.

Teachers must develop a subtle skill inbringing child and mother together in a waythat is meaningful and rewarding to each. It isa skill not easily acquired.

Parents, by whatever means, must alwaysbe made to feel that they are participating inthe program in a very positive manner. Nega-tivism could bog the program down in a mo-rass of self-pity and hopelessness.

Incrementally, as such a program begins,all members of the team must develop open,honest relationships toward the common endof making the program work. There must bean uncommon willingness on the part of staffand parents alike to share, to give of self, todevelop a sense of complete dedication to a

process which may free a troubled child toexplore all that life has to offer, to his fullest

56

potential.It has happened to children in Cheshire.

Some withdrawn, painfully shy, refusing orunable to speak their needs. And suddenlythey are alive, chattering with their little

Cheshire, struggling to retain remnants ofits rural heritage, is today a beautiful,rapidly growing suburb for the cities ofWaterbury, Meriden and Hamden.

It is a community of stately homes,impressive lawns, well-kept gardens. Averageincome is well above the norm.

It is not, by and large a community ofneighborhoods. Children are inclined to im-port their friends, play is most often iestrictecito baik y ards. For most kids, the largestroom they ever see is the family's double-baygarage.

These are the homes of young children, ofteenagers and of children with special edu-cational ;weds. What kind of school can lenda sense of totality to their learning experi-ences?

In Cheshire, the school is in the talkingstage. It is a proposed addition to the High-land School for the pre-school prOgram.

Its four rooms are each exactly the size ofa double-bay garage. Its landscaping will besimilar to the somewhat formal gardens soprevalent in Cheshire. Each of the rooms willhave its own entrance, and each will have aporch lust like home. With Highland School,it will share walk of glass, so children can ob-serve both ways, heightening the sense ofintegration.

In its exterior design, then, the proposedaddition will consciously serve as a comforta-ble, familiar bridge between home and school.

You may be assured that the rooms them-selves will reflect eve' ything that has beenlearned in meeting the special needs of threeand four-y ear-old children with learning prob-lems. There will be an impressive range ofcarefully developed educational materials.Lots of places to climb into and on top of.Lighting whiLh can be precisely controlled.Color intioduLed into the spaces with thought-

57

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friends, shouting their identities for all tohear:

"Brian!! It's me! It's me!"Nothing makes problems melt away quite

as fast as the joy of a young child.

ful care. The effort to replicate the out-of-doors will be intensified: sand and water toplay in, "trees" to climb, valleys to explore.

And of course the balanced team will beat work, continuing its efforts to breakthrough with every child, to adapt its think-ing, its program, its curriculum to still ano-ther unique learning style.

Parents will continue to insist that it is

"their" program, "their" building, and ofcourse they will be right. Increasingly, thevoicer of concerned and informed parentswill dominate educational affairs throughoutthe community.

In the spring of 1975, all of the elementsare in place, awaiting only the funding. Andthe funding seems likely to come.

With validation as a'State Title III model,and national validation being considered, thestaff realizes that it may be called upon totake an active role in organizing similar pro-grams in other communities. Regardless, othercommunities will continue to come to theprogram. hts influence is steadily expanding.It does have a magnetic quality.

Visitors will continue to slip into the obser-vation booth, unnoticed by the children. Withan expert voice to guide them, they willsearch for the essence of this successful edu-cational idea.

The mother in the classroom?Unusual, creative use of space?Constant observation by and reaction from

competent consultants?Unusually skilled teachers?

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In time, if they are patient, they will learnthe answer. It is all of these things, and more.For as the program insists on a totality of ex-perience for its children, so it, too, is a totality

weakened beyond real worth if a single of:ts important elements is stripped away.

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