Resource Type: Assignment
Instructor: Jennifer Geskie
Title: Assistant Professor
Department: Educational and Community Programs
Course: ECPSE 805: Culturally Responsive Early Intervention (Birth – Age 3)

Description

Early Intervention (EI) in the Community is an assignment in which early childhood special education (ECSE) teacher candidates identify and experience community-based settings as part of the provision of EI services. The context for this assignment is ECPSE 805: Culturally Responsive Early Intervention (Birth – Age 3), a graduate course that prepares ECSE candidates to work with infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.

This assignment aligns with the mission of EI, specifically, that EI is community-based, creating opportunities for full participation of children with disabilities and their families in their communities by ensuring services are delivered in natural environments to the maximum extent appropriate, and that EI services are coordinated with the full array of early childhood, health and mental health, educational, social, and other community-based services needed by and provided to children and their families (NY State Department of Health Bureau of Early Intervention, 1998).

This assignment resource engages Queens/Place by cultivating teacher candidates’ awareness of places, spaces, and organizations in the community that serve young children and families and by building their understanding of how effective EI services support children with disabilities and their families to engage as members of their communities.

This assignment resource supports the following learning outcomes:

1. Candidates demonstrate knowledge of culturally responsive EI services.
2. Candidates communicate clear, comprehensive, and objective information about resources and supports that help families to make informed decisions and advocate for access, participation, and equity in natural and inclusive environments (Division of Early Childhood EI/ECSE Standard 2.2)

Assignment Instructions:

1. Complete the NYC BEI Online Training Module 1- The Mission of EI & Family Centered Best Practices and read (TBD).
2. Engage with class guest speakers (i.e. EI Ongoing Service Coordinator, EI Provider, representative from a community-based organization, etc.), to learn about the community places and spaces that serve and are meaningful in the daily lives of young children and their families. Community-based settings might include, but are not limited to neighborhood parks, playgrounds, libraries, museums, music classes, activity gyms, food pantries, faith-based organizations, etc.
3. Visit a community-based setting you learned about from the class speaker(s) or identified on your own (allot 2 hours for your visit, including travel). As part of your visit, collect multimodal field notes where you document details and impressions such as:
   • When you visited (time of day/day of the week).
   • How you traveled to/from the setting and what stood out relative to location and accessibility (e.g. public transportation, traffic, parking, etc.).
   • What you noticed about the physical setting, i.e. how the setting looked, smelled, sounded, etc.
   • What you noticed about the energy of the setting, for example, how the space made you feel.
   • What you noticed about how children and/or families used the space.
   • Any wonderings or questions that came to mind.
4. Create a product through which you provide key information and impressions about the community-based setting for an audience of your peers. Your product can be any of the following:
   • Infographic
   • Blog post (300-400 words)
   • Video presentation (under 4 minutes)
   • Audio podcast (under 4 minutes)
   • Poem
   • E-picture book
   • Other product as approved by course instructor
5. Post your product on our class (TBD- possibly Padlet page or Google

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