In order for a child with disabilities to become a full participant in a community preschool, attention must be given to the accommodations necessary to meet his/her needs (Go to our Accommodation page). Children with disabilities may experience physical, sensory, and cognitive challenges, have special health care needs, or present challenging behaviors. Assessments should be conducted to identify potential adaptations and procedures that may be needed to ensure optimal participation, to identify skills the child has developed, and to identify skills and tasks that the child will need to learn. Accommodations must be considered to ensure the child will have access, will be able to participate, and will develop independence. The steps in determining supports needed are as follows:

1. An environmental assessment should be conducted before the child enters the classroom and then periodically once the child is participating in the program (Read more about environmental assessment in our Guidelines).

The environmental assessment is a collaborative effort among the parents and the professional team working with the child. The parents can provide valuable information by observing the community preschool program (Go to the page "Placement Options Visiting Notes"). They can then offer their suggestions for adaptations, their knowledge of the child"s strengths and needs and current procedures the child uses. Completing a questionnaire may provide guidelines for getting parent input (see parent questionnaire example below). Teachers and related service staff must also look at the environment to determine possible accommodations for the child's instructional, social and physical participation (see environmental assessment example below).

2. The child should be assessed by an evaluation team. The Individualized Education Program (IEP), including the child's strengths and needs based on standardized and non-standardized testing, will be formulated before beginning the school district's educational program. Curriculum based assessments such as the Carolina Curriculum for Preschoolers with Special Needs, Assessment, Evaluation, Programming Systems for Infants and Children (AEPS) (Buy a book about AEPS from the publisher's website), and the Hawaii Early Learning Profile (HELP) provide additional information on the skills that the child can perform and those that should be addressed.

3. The next step is to identify the performance discrepancies or potential problem areas as compared to a typically developing peer's participation in the environment. Thompson, et. al. suggests consideration of the following components when making those identifications:

• Strategies for accommodating the child's needs for specialized positioning and handling approaches and techniques.
• Adaptive equipment initially needed in the setting. Keeping in mind that the adaptive devices should only be used if they are necessary, are developmentally appropriate, function in a consistent and predictable way, are easily cleaned and stored, are pleasing in appearance and color, and are economical to obtain and replace.
• Classroom and facility routes for arrival, departure, playground, bathroom and transitions within the classroom.
• Accommodation for snack and other mealtimes, such as food substitutions, feeding techniques, adapted eating and drinking utensils, and food preparation.
• Toileting routines, procedures and assistance.
• Strategies for including the child's objectives and needs into the existing classroom routines and activities.
• Special health care routines and procedures.
• Assistive devices that might support the child's inclusion and issues related to the use, introduction and care of equipment.
• Playground participation including adaptation to equipment, routines and activities.
• Modification in the child's daily schedule in relation to the typical classroom schedule.
• Strategies and approaches to support and teach socially appropriate behaviors.
• Overall level of ongoing support needed by the child to be a full participant in the classroom in the most natural manner. (Thompson, B., Wickham, D., Wegner, J., Mulligan-Ault, M., Shanks, P., & Reinertson, B., 1993).

4. Once the needs of the child are discussed, action plans should be developed. Specific strategies should be designed for participation. Some of these strategies to be considered include:

• providing a paraprofessional who provides adult support to the child as well as the entire class.
• training staff in child specific needs such as tube feeding or positioning.
• providing related services with in the classroom ( i.e. the speech pathologist planning a dramatic play activity for the entire class).
• implementing a peer buddy system.
• assessing partial participation strategies.
• modifying skills or activities.
• Modifying the physical environment.
• using adaptive devices.

• Download a PDF version of Parent Questionnaire here.
• Download a PDF version of Environmental Assessment here.