The Program for Infant/Toddler Care

Format: 3 hour session, 30-40 participants, lecture, experiential learning activities, video, discussion.

This session provides trainers with information and techniques they can use to help caregivers to be more comfortable, knowledgeable, and open to working with children with special needs. Participants examine their own attitudes toward inclusion and disabilities through engaging reflective activities, learn how to adapt toys and materials so that children with disabilities can use them, and participate in a group activity of simulating exclusion to experience of either being excluded or excluding others. Issues expored in the session include:

· Participants' knowledge base about inclusion
· Participants' feelings about inclusion
· How to create an atmosphere of inclusion, both emotionally and physically
· Adapting the environment to include children with special needs
· History of the disability movement within the civil rights movement
· Adapting materials for different kinds of disabilities

Related Module(s):
III Learning and Development

Related Resources:
Article	Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Article	Positioning
Handout	Considerations in Enrolling an Infant or Toddler with Disabilities
Handout	Considerations in Sharing Concerns about Development with Families
Handout	Does Early Intervention Help?
Handout	Rainbow Stew
Handout	Resource List- Special Needs- When Children Soar with the Wind
Handout	Training Strategies from When Children Soar with the Wind
Handout	When Children Soar with the Wind
Handout	When Children Soar with the Wind (Early Head Start Version)
Handout	When Children Soar with the Wind: Quotes
Handout	Why Inclusion?