At Crystals Childcare and Preschool, we believe that all children have a right to quality education and care, regardless of any special needs they may have. As an inclusive preschool, we welcome children with a diverse range of learning differences and disabilities. Research shows that inclusive classrooms provide social, emotional, and academic benefits to all students by promoting understanding and acceptance of differences. Our specially trained teachers work closely with families and therapists to develop customized care plans tailored to each child’s unique needs. We strive to provide the supportive environment children need to reach their full potential.
Our Inclusive Philosophy
Our inclusive philosophy is grounded in the belief that all children can learn, participate, and build meaningful friendships when given the proper support. We work with families and local school districts to provide individualized accommodations and interventions based on each child’s needs. Every child receives plenty of positive praise and opportunities to participate in all activities alongside peers. This fosters higher self-esteem, peer role models for academic and social skills, and a supportive community of friends.
At Crystals Childcare and Preschool, you’ll find children with and without special needs learning, playing, and laughing together. We celebrate each child’s unique gifts and strengths while providing positive behavior support when needed. Our ultimate goal is for all children to feel valued, confident, and fully included.
Collaborating Across Support Teams
To ensure each child has what they need to thrive, our inclusive director collaborates across support teams, including:
– Parents and caregivers
– Therapists (speech, occupational, physical, behavioral)
– Teachers and teaching assistants
– Special education coordinators
– Healthcare and mental health professionals
Together, these support teams share observations, discuss goals, and develop accommodations tailored to each student’s needs. This input is used to create customized education and behavior plans for the classroom. Plans are updated continually based on the child’s progress and any emerging needs.
Accommodations and Interventions
Our inclusive classrooms seamlessly integrate therapies and learning interventions within normal preschool routines and activities. Types of accommodations and modifications provided include:
– Schedule/Routine: Adjustments to class schedules, activity transitions, or daily routines to limit stress. Children may also have picture schedules, warnings before transitions, or separate quiet spaces when overwhelmed.
– Environment: Changes like noise-reducing headphones, focused workspaces with fewer distractions, specialized seating equipment, weighted vests, or sensory tools matched to the child’s needs.
– Materials: Custom manipulatives, pencil grips, larger print, audiobooks, tablets/apps, or adaptive arts and crafts supplies tailored for special needs. Augmentative communication devices are provided as needed.
– Instructions: Multi-step directions broken down visually or into simpler steps, allowing extra processing time. Gestures, modeling, visuals, timers, and peer buddies help support communication and comprehension.
– Engagement: Children receive positive reinforcement for efforts and extra encouragement during challenging activities. Interest areas promote independence while allowing teachers to facilitate peer interactions.
– Social Skills: Direct coaching on appropriate behaviors, play initiation, responding to others, turn-taking, coping strategies when frustrated, and reading social cues. Social stories, visual rules, and role-playing help children practice.
Specialized Staff Training
Our inclusive director and teaching staff have specialized training in working with children with diverse learning needs. Annual professional development keeps staff knowledge current on best practices related to:
- Specific disabilities and special needs, like Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, sensory processing disorder
- Understanding behavior as communication
- De-escalation techniques and positive behavior supports
- Special education practices and interventions, such as applied behavior analysis (ABA) ● Adapting activities and modifying instruction for different learning styles ● Fostering peer interactions and teaching social-emotional skills
- Collaborating effectively with therapists and families
We continuously refine our inclusive practices to remain a leader in early childhood special education. Our staff training ensures we can nurture the abilities of all children while meeting individual needs.
Benefits of Our Inclusive Preschool
Research overwhelmingly shows that inclusive early learning produces better outcomes across developmental domains when done right. All children in our classes make tremendous social emotional, cognitive, and language advancements by learning together in an inclusive community of peers.
Benefits for Children With Special Needs:
– Promotes strengths by focusing on abilities rather than limitations
– Builds confidence and higher self-esteem as skills develop
– Fosters friendships and social-emotional growth through peer interactions
– Develops language, cognitive, motor, and self-help skills more rapidly through observational learning
– Provides communication partners to practice speech, language, and social skills – Prepares children for more inclusive classrooms in elementary school years
Benefits for Typically Developing Children:
– Enhances understanding and acceptance of individual differences
– Develops more positive attitudes toward those with disabilities
– Builds skills interacting cooperatively with special needs peers
– Becomes comfortable with and learns how to help those with differences
– Shows improvements in self-esteem, social cognition, and problem-solving – Experiences fewer disabilities/special education referrals later on
By nurturing an inclusive community where all children belong, we set our students up for the greatest success now and in the future.
One Size Does Not Fit All
While inclusion works wonderfully for most children, some students require more specialized settings tailored to their needs. If one of our students does not show adequate developmental progress, we collaborate closely with families and the child’s support team to find solutions, which may include:
– Changes to the inclusive plan: Amending accommodations, therapies, or interventions.
– One-on-one or small group instruction: Brief pull-out sessions targeting specific skill deficits while remaining mostly in the inclusion class.
– Specialized private services: Recommending private therapies, specialists, or assistive technology.
– Transition to special education: If needed, referring families to suitable center-based or partner school programs catering to the child’s needs. Throughout this process, we fully support families in an advisory role to ensure the best outcome.
Contact Us to Learn More
Does our inclusive preschool sound like an optimal fit for your special needs child? Reach out to us today to learn more or schedule a visit. Seeing inclusion in action is the best way to determine if our supportive environment is right for your child. We look forward to welcoming your special needs learner into our warm, nurturing classroom community!
To learn more, contact us at:
Phone: (432) 687-5904
Email: info@crystalschildcare.org
Website: www.crystalschildcare.org