So I’ve become a late convert to the Early Years sector and to the Early Years programming. I’ve spent my entire career in special education, and K to 12 school programs, testing, diagnosis, support plans, individual education plans, that whole jargon and industry that we drive. And the reason I’ve come – to become a fan of the Early Years is because it’s pre-emptive to my work. The only threat to long term employment for someone with my discipline is quality early childhood education programs. Universally accessible quality programs for these children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we’re dealing with children in the K to 12 school system who predominantly – in special education – who predominantly have issues with reading disabilities, behavioural issues, mental health issues, and we know that if we had quality programs the language would be optimized as it develops. So the children won’t be falling further and further behind. We know that if we focus on self-regulation in the early years children show up at school prepared to participate, prepared to be active engaged learners. And they won’t end up becoming seen as a behavioural problem or getting referred to special education. They won’t need someone to support including them. They will be part of their own environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believe that Early Years programs can actually prevent the enrollments in special education. If you look across the land, every single ministry of education are dealing with mushrooming referrals into – for support services, higher rates of autism, higher rates of reading disabilities, more behavioural problems. Speak to any educator, among the first three issues around education in 2017 is disruptive students in the classroom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well we know that the three big benefits of Early Years is self-regulation, language development and social skills. They are transferable skills that prepare children to come to school, that levels the playing field that optimizes the potential that prepares these children to become engaged in the school system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So if we have children in the quality programming for at least two years prior to grade one, they come prepared. And the referral rates will go down. We’ll always have children who have, you know, exceptionalities who will require supports. There will always be autism, there will always be, you know, cerebral palsy, attention deficit disorder or whatever. But the impact of those children, the demands for services for those children will be significantly reduced if we start working with these children in the early years and working with their families. The transitions to school will be much smoother. The movement of knowledge and skills and programs will be streamlined. And by the time these children land in traditional classrooms, you know, at six, seven years of age, they will be ready to move forward. And the referrals will start to decrease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always say the alphabet’s the least of my worries. Letters and numbers are not my concern, really? Teach them how to regulate their behaviours, teach them how to play interactively and appropriately with one another and manage their emotions and their impulses and their – you know, the consequences of their actions. Optimize the language and promote positive prosocial skills. The letters and the numbers will come readily enough. Even though we know that immersion in the early years boosts reading and numeracy scores, they’re not really my interest. My interests are the transferable skills. The big three, right? They’re the ones that will have the lasting impact. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So I’ve become a late convert to the Early Years sector and to the Early Years programming. I’ve spent my entire career in special education, and K to 12 school programs, testing, diagnosis, support plans, individual education plans, that whole jargon and industry that we drive. And the reason I’ve come – to become a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-text-only.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2524","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2524\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.scienceofecd.com\/transcript\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}