Virtual Learning for the Early Childhood Special Education Population is Falling Short
My name is LeAn Shelton and I am an ECE professional in Nevada. I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but early intervention and school district early childhood special education services are being delivered online during the COVID-19 crisis. I realize that this is the safest way to work with anyone during this time, but the cost is great to young children with special needs.
Can you imagine, as a parent of a three year old with a genetic disorder that has caused global delays, getting that child to sit in front of a computer screen, logging into whatever platform you have been instructed to use? Then, keeping the child on your lap or next to you for a full 30 minutes (sometimes more), helping the child to understand that their therapist is not just a TV show but an interactive person? And then choosing a goal to work on and completing an activity? This is what parents of children with special needs are dealing with. Some have thrown in the towel and have decided to forego services while schools are virtual and resume services only when it’s safe for schools to reopen.
After a 25-year career, I retired from the state and started my own company to consult with parents, advocate for children, and coach teachers. Since I am a private developmentalist, I made the decision to focus first on children aged 3–5 who were receiving virtual services from their school district. I chose to provide services to children in person at their home or child care setting (if the parents were essential employees and were still utilizing child care). Each of my parent clients signed a release allowing me to provide developmentally appropriate, in-person support. Some of these children had not received services for at least a full month. I’ve been in business for myself since late April of 2020 and these are some of my observations from just one client:
My first client had a chromosomal duplication that impaired him globally. He was 2 months short of his fourth birthday and after completing a full assessment, he was measuring between 22 and 34 months in all developmental domains. I requested his IEP and all medical records, collected history from the parents, worked 1:1 with him 2 times a week for a month, and looked at his current goals and strategies. According to documentation from the school (mostly dated January of 2020), he had regressed by nearly a year in fine motor skills and social/emotional development. In just a few short months off of his school and therapy schedule, he had forgotten some skills that had been achieved.
The first thing I did after completing a thorough developmental assessment was to reconvene the IEP to update his multidisciplinary team on his situation and add more services. His IEP offered speech therapy for 20 minutes per week from the school, with no other services for this globally delayed child with a medical diagnosis! His parents had no idea that the school could offer Occupational or Physical Therapy services if he needed them. IEPs will be the subject of a completely separate blog post, as issues have arisen with all of the IEPs I have examined.
Ultimately, I helped the parents get private, in-person speech and occupational therapy services at a local clinic and I continue to see him twice per week. This child has made amazing strides in just a few months and by the time he starts school in the fall (if schools open in the fall), he will be more successful in his prekindergarten year. I can’t imagine how behind he would be if his parents had waited for the fall and simply suffered with virtual services.
I have received some criticism for seeing children during a pandemic, but I use every precaution that I can to serve children safely. I sanitize all of my materials after each use, and maintain the health and safety precautions required by each home or center that I enter. Parents sign off and know the risk but we have found that the benefits have far outweighed the risks. Virtual education in this population is often nothing more than a chat with parents about their child. Then it is incumbent upon parents to work on strategies that they may or may not fully understand. If anyone has ever tried to teach their own child anything, you’ll understand why parents have opted for services like mine. Working on goals in a virtual space might work okay for older children, but it is not effective for young children.
How many young children are being left behind?
