Preliminary Education Specialist Program Standards

Education Specialist (ES) Program Standard 7: Effective Literacy Instruction for Children with Disabilities, Birth Through Kindergarten

ES Program Standard 7 is met as follows: 

Language and literacy development are foundational aspects of early childhood education. The ECSE program aims to support this development through the use of asset based and culturally relevant pedagogy, which is first addressed by asking candidates to examine their implicit and explicit biases around multiple identity characteristics, including native language and disability in EDUT 6200 Cultivating Critical Consciousness. Candidates learn how to design environments and instruction based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is introduced in EDUT 6201 Legal Aspects and Program Design of Special Education. Through coursework and multiple supervised field experiences, candidates learn to design inclusive learning environments using UDL that are responsive to children’s interests, strengths, and needs. 

Candidates are simultaneously  introduced to the five literacy themes (meaning making, language development, effective expression, content knowledge, and foundational skills) and the California  English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework in EDUT 6213 in order to identify the links across topics and learning expectations. In particular, the course focuses on the foundational skills and their application to children’s learning across all literacy themes and integration into content area. To support the development of children from birth through kindergarten, candidates are introduced to  engaging instructional practices that support reading, writing, speaking, and listening in a variety of ways, such as child-initiated activities, inquiry-based learning, direct instruction, and small group learning; they are expected to practice and reflect upon these techniques repeatedly throughout their coursework and clinical experiences. In particular, candidates are required to read the literacy Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), beginning in EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, & Multilingualism to identify their areas of strength and need as they progress through the program. 

Candidates learn to value the collaboration with families and multidisciplinary teams and are provided opportunities to plan and implement literacy activities with them. Candidates implement linguistically affirming practices that rely upon children’s cultural and linguistic assets to develop English language proficiency.

7A: Foundational Skills - In the ECSE program, the foundational literacy skills are addressed in the course EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism. Candidates learn the importance of phonological awareness, decoding, and word recognition and develop strategies to effectively teach these skills to young children with diverse learning needs, particularly in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. Using the book Equipped for Reading Success: A Comprehensive, Step-by-Step Program for Developing Phonemic Awareness and Fluent Word Recognition, candidates learn the importance of these foundational skills and instructional strategies that support their development. Candidates learn to engage young children with a variety of linguistic materials that support the manipulation of sounds and recognition of alphabet letters, including books, games, oral storytelling, and songs. Candidates are introduced to evidence-based strategies that support the unique needs of multilingual children in learning the foundational skills.

In addition, EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs: Infants and Young Children,  EDUT 6203 Theory and Practice of Early Childhood Education: Infants, Toddlers & Young Children, and  EDUT 6204 Theory & Practice in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum and Instruction for Infants and Children with Special Needs teach multiple strategies that support learning of these basic skills, including for students with disabilities and those who are multilingual. These courses emphasize the application of these strategies in real-world settings, providing candidates with supervised practical experience.

7B: Meaning Making - Meaning making is the main purpose of interactions with texts and with others. The course  EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism focuses on teaching candidates strategies to support children's development of comprehension skills across various text types, including literary, informational, and digital texts. Candidates are taught to consider the individual needs of diverse learners, relying upon prior knowledge, to  adapt their instruction accordingly to ensure meaning-making for all students. Candidates learn multiple ways to engage young children in meaning making through questioning, experiential hands-on activities, and discussion, which facilitates development of higher-order cognitive skills, including reasoning, inferencing, and perspective taking. Candidates learn the value and necessity of providing young children a range of print, digital, symbolic (including the Picture Exchange Communication  System, PECS) and high-quality texts that are developmentally appropriate, fully inclusive, culturally and linguistically relevant and affirming.     

In  EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs: Infants and Young Children, candidates study how reading aloud supports literal and inferential comprehension prior to the child’s ability to decode text, and practice reading aloud to support comprehension strategies such as predicting, retelling, and questioning. This course also introduces how to support meaning making using assistive technology and/or AAC devices. 

7C: Language Development - Language development is a key component of the ECSE program, as it is necessary for the social processes of learning and meaning making. Candidates are taught that families are the first and ongoing contributors to language development, and therefore collaboration with them is welcome and necessary. The development of children's language skills, including vocabulary and academic language, is addressed in EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism. The course introduces various instructional approaches and strategies that address diverse learners' needs through print-rich and language-rich environments.  Candidates learn how to effectively support language development in all children, including those with disabilities and children who are multilingual, by providing a language rich environment and experiences with varied forms of language, including language specific to content areas. Candidates learn how to design environments and frame interactions to facilitate language development across multiple languages. Candidates are required to design multiple plans for experimental, hands-on activities that promote language development throughout the program, including an inclusive classroom project (EDUT 6202), curriculum project proposal, implementation and reflection (EDUT 6203) and collaborative literacy unit (EDUT 6213), for example. 

The class EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs: Infants and Young Children supports the use of Dialogic Reading as an evidence-based practice for effective expression and language development. The use of various modes of communication, including functional signs, braille, eye gaze and other forms of assistive technology are included across courses. For example, EDUT 6202 introduces multiple forms of communication and assistive technology  in relation to specific disabilities. EDUT 6213 goes into further detail on assistive technology with the assignment of an  IRIS module, a guest speaker, and technology supportive of students with language and literacy disabilities. 

The course EDUT 6206 Assessment & Intervention for Children with Special Needs teaches how to assess (both formally and informally) language and literacy development, including for students with disabilities and those who are multilingual, in collaboration with families, service providers, and other educators. They also learn how to monitor language development using formative assessment practices and ongoing progress monitoring in order to implement appropriate instruction. Candidates learn how to apply assessment information to determine children’s literacy profiles and to identify potential language and communication difficulties.  

7D: Effective Expression - The ECSE program addresses the development of effective oral and written expression skills in children through coursework and field experiences. In EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism, candidates learn how to provide writing-rich environments through a variety of activities. Candidates learn to engage children in both interactions and conversations that promote effective expression by offering child-led instead of teacher-led activities.  Candidates identify the benefits of varied materials (printed and digital texts, multimedia, assistive technology) and approaches (discussions, experiential learning) to support successful expressive communication. Candidates study the explicit instruction of the skills of letter formation/writing and beginning language conventions (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and decoding skills) for children in transitional kindergarten and kindergarten. Candidates learn to base instruction on assessment of children’s expressive communication. Candidates learn more about supporting young children’s use of assistive technology and AAC, which was introduced in EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs: Infants and Young Children. That class also supports the use of reading aloud and Dialogic Reading as an evidence-based practice for effective expression and language development. 

7E: Content Knowledge - The integration of literacy across disciplines is emphasized in the ECSE program. In EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism, candidates are taught about the reciprocal relationships among academic language, literacy, and content knowledge and the importance of collaboration among educators, specifically co-teaching, to maximize children's literacy skills and content knowledge. Candidates are introduced to the co-teaching model between general and special education teachers in EDUT 6203 Theory and Practice of Early Childhood Education: Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children. Projects throughout the program require collaboration with colleagues, including in a co-teaching manner. 

7F: Literacy Instruction for Children with Disabilities - While EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism shares information and strategies on literacy instruction for students with disabilities, the course EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs specifically focuses on understanding how various disabilities can impact literacy instruction, including exploring appropriate accommodations and modifications. Candidates learn how to support specific development of skills that children may not have acquired incidentally due to their disability, while also learning to determine each individual child’s strengths and needs instead of relying on disability-specific approaches. Candidates learn the difference between characteristics of  emerging bi/multilingualism and learning disabilities so that English learners are not neither over- nor under-identified with disabilities and to provide needed and appropriate  interventions. This course also introduces the California Dyslexia Guidelines, which are further studied in EDUT 6213. 

In EDUT 6201 Legal Aspects and Program Design of Special Education, candidates are introduced to  the Multi-Tiered System of Support as a method to provide universal/initial, supplemental, and intensive instruction in a variety of settings and in collaboration with other teachers, service providers, and families. In particular, candidates learn to rely upon data-based decision making  for determining when to move between the tiers of support as appropriate for children’s age and development. Candidates also rely upon data-based decision making in the  development of IFSPs and IEPs.  Candidates learn to select appropriate assessments of language and literacy development and use data-based decisions for instruction/intervention  in EDUT 6206 Assessment & Intervention for Children with Special Needs. 

In addition, candidates are further supported in literacy instruction for children with disabilities in EDUT 6204 Theory & Practice in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum and Instruction for Infants and Children with Special Needs, relying upon the CA Preschool Learning Foundations. Coursework and supervised field experiences provide candidates an understanding of how various disabilities can impact literacy instruction and learn to adapt, differentiate and accommodate learning for individual children. 

7G: Integrated and Designated English Language Development - The difference between and importance of integrated and designated English Language Development (ELD) for English learner students is emphasized in the ECSE program as instruction at the Tier 1 level. In the course EDUT 6213 Language Development: Literacy, Communication, and Multilingualism, candidates learn how to provide comprehensive ELD instruction that is responsive to children's individual needs. In particular, candidates learn effective practices that build upon children’s cultural and linguistic assets, including home languages, dialects, backgrounds, and family and community experiences.  In addition to the CA curricula for infants/toddlers and preschoolers, candidates rely upon the CA ELA/ELD Development Framework to implement learning activities that support the development of multiple languages and provide access to disciplinary content. The importance of designated ELD for access to and engagement with content learning is emphasized for transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students. Candidates learn the impact of children’s currently identified disabilities on language development in EDUT 6202 Children with Special Needs. The course EDUT 6206 Assessment & Intervention for Children with Special Needs teaches how to assess language and literacy across developmental levels.  Candidates learn to evaluate assessments and only use those which are culturally relevant, in order to achieve an accurate representation of skills. Multiple courses provide supervised field  experiences for candidates that include children identified as English learner students and/or recently reclassified English learner students. We seek placements with English learners specifically for the two student teaching placements in the second year of the program (EDUT 6208 Field Experience in Early Childhood Special Education , early intervention, and EDUT 6209 Field Experience in Early Childhood Special Education, preschool-kindergarten).

7H: Literacy Teaching Performance Expectations and Supervised Clinical Practice - The ECSE program addresses all elements of the Literacy Teaching Performance Expectations, providing instruction, practice, and feedback focused on the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by approved  literacy performance assessments. Supervised clinical practice opportunities are embedded throughout the program, beginning with the Mills College at Northeastern University’s Children's School. Candidates simultaneously enroll in  EDUT 6203 Theory & Practice of Early Childhood Education: Infants, Toddlers, and Young Children and  EDUT 6204 Theory & Practice in Early Childhood Education: Curriculum and Instruction for Infants and Children with Special Needs, taught by the Head of the Children’s School, where they  learn the many elements of literacy and have ample opportunities to apply their learning in classroom settings and receive guidance from experienced educators. In addition, during student teaching, candidates are supported in applying their knowledge of early language and literacy development in early intervention settings and preschool-kindergarten settings through the seminar courses EDUT 6208 Field Experience in Early Childhood Special Education (early intervention) and EDUT 6209 Field Experience in Early Childhood Special Education (preschool-kindergarten).  These multiple supervised clinical experiences support candidates in applying their knowledge of language and literacy development and reflecting on necessary changes to meet their needs of children from birth through kindergarten. 

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