Applying Universal Design to Birth — 3 Content Pages
The newest content pages that have been added to Goalbook Toolkit have been designed to support the caregivers of children ages Birth — 3 who work in various contexts from home to classroom settings. The content pages prioritize helping children reach developmental goals. We believe early intervention is critical to defining a positive educational trajectory for students with significant developmental barriers.
Our content pages, up to now, have covered grade levels spanning from Pre-K to grade 12 and have covered the following content areas: Reading, Writing, Math, Behavior & SEL, Pre-Kindergarten (3–5), English Learners, Autism, Speech & Language, Transition, Alternative Academic & Life Skills, Occupational Therapy, Success Skills, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Adapted Physical Education, and Blind/Visual Impairment.
With every content offering in Goalbook Toolkit we’ve been very intentional about applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to strategically address the barriers that teachers and caregivers face, this release is no different. Our partners have been requesting this content for quite some time and we took our time to make sure that the UDL principles were embedded in even the most foundational developmental goals.
Designing a Different Kind of Content Page
Our team focused its attention on creating content pages that address the most critical developmental areas from infancy to early childhood as specified by the CDC’s Act Early Milestones. The newest pages help caregivers address the following areas:
- Movement and Physical Development
- Cognitive Development
- Language Communication Development
- Social & Emotional Development
We’ve discovered that a basic application of Toolkit content pages in the instructional design process for many teachers is using the goal text to inform Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). Children age birth- 3 who require early intervention require goals for Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) which differ from IEPs in that they focus specifically on helping kids access developmental skills versus academic skills.
Because of the effectiveness of instructional content pages in our partner schools and districts across the nation, we wanted to apply the benefits of our approach to designing rigorous developmental goals. A portion of our current user base is already relying on adapting the current pre-k content that is present in Toolkit to work on the developmental goals of the toddlers they work with, the challenge is most of that content is geared toward academic success and not explicitly aligned to functional developmental skills.
Applying the UDL Framework to Developmental Milestones
One example of the difference between developmental Content Pages and instructional Content Pages can be found above. It addresses the area of Language and Communication. The core purpose of the milestone is for the infant, toddler, or student with significant developmental challenges to respond (verbally, physically) after hearing own name. This goal is not connected to an academic subject area in the same way that most pre-k to 12 content pages are which means that all of the scaffolds and strategies within the content pages are explicitly oriented toward that developmental goal.
The Acoustic Highlighting Strategy equips caregivers with varied means of engagement and the Preferred Modes of Expression strategy helps caregivers identify developmentally appropriate means of expression as they track whether or not the infant, toddler, or student is adequately and appropriately responding their name.
Our goal with any and all of the content in Goalbook Toolkit is simple, we want to empower educators to help all of their kids succeed and that is the case with these new content pages. Success in the areas of early development is critical to long-term academic success and we strive to provide the highest quality support to prove the possible for the most challenging circumstances.
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