14-1 Individualized Teaching
A – Considering Individual Children
When we think of individual children and their strengths, challenges, and needs, we can begin by asking ourselves what we know about them:
- Where are they developmentally? Consider each domain.
- What are their strengths?
- In what areas are they challenged?
- What is their cultural, linguistic, and family background?
- What is their educational history?
If there are questions that you don’t have a ready answer for, perhaps you can observe children’s behavior in the early learning environment, talk with them, or use family engagement strategies to learn the answers.
Adjusting Teaching
We teach in early learning settings, where we are responsible for many children, each with unique needs.
It can be difficult to focus on each child as well as the group.
Educators can use a variety of teaching practices to individualize their instruction throughout the day. These teaching practices allow educators to support each child’s needs.
Reflection Point
Start thinking about how you recognize and support individual children’s needs while also supporting the class as a whole.
- What materials and approaches do you use to engage children in the early learning environment?
- How do you use these to individualize instruction and meet children’s needs?
B – Ways to Individualize
There are many different types of individualized supports. Depending on the need and the activity, one type of support may be more effective than another.
- Environmental support: Physical, social, or temporal supports embedded into the environment, such as visuals like squares that provide a visual cue about where to stand when lining up, an engaging activity that involves sharing, or extra time for a child who is finishing a complex model when it is clean-up time
- Material adaptations: Supports used to adapt materials, such as thick pencils or markers for children who are having a difficult time holding writing utensils
- Activity simplification: Breaking activities into small parts or reducing steps. For instance, a child who cannot make a pattern yet can match the materials to an outline of a pattern
- Child preferences: Using a child’s interests, such as developing a transportation theme for the dramatic play area
- Special equipment: Adaptive equipment, such as a wedge seat cushion on the floor that allows children to wiggle.
- Adult support: Support that involves an adult being present to intentionally help, such as an adult playing in the dramatic play area and using new vocabulary.
- Language support: Supports that target oral language development and supports for children who are dual language learners, such as using gestures while speaking
- Peer support: Support from peer interactions, such as pairing a child with well-developed language skills with a child who is working to develop their language skills
- Invisible support: Purposeful arrangement of naturally occurring events, such as arranging a child’s turn after several other children’s so that child has many opportunities to see the steps
Individualized Supports
As you watch the two videos below, think about these questions:
- What needs did you see educators support?
- How did the support meet children’s needs?
Video: Small Change, Big Impact (3:00)
The video Small Change, Big Impact introduces the purpose of curriculum modifications, or simple changes that educators can make in early learning environments, and gives some examples.
Video: Adjusting in the Moment (1:33)
Video Debrief
What needs did you see educators support in the two videos? In what ways did the support meet children’s needs? (click to toggle expand or collapse)
Possible Answers
- Showing children where to sit and where their bodies should be using carpet squares for them to sit on
- Holding the paper still with tape so children who struggle to draw or write don’t also have to hold the paper
- Physically guiding a child’s hand to a railing so the child can climb the stairs of the playground structure
- Children’s home environment and the degree of support that is available from parents or guardians
- Their school or child-care environment and the degree of support and individualized care that is available
- The opportunity to work through their trauma with supportive adults
- The opportunity to play and feel safe
Video: What Would You Do? (2:59)
In the video What Would You Do? you’ll notice educators may have more than one way to support a disengaged child and that what the educator does is not necessarily the only or correct way to support a child.
Video Debrief
- It is important to recognize and support each child’s unique needs in the early learning environment.
- Specific strategies, such as scaffolding and prompts, may help support children’s learning and encourage participation.
C – Activity: Create a Support Table
Try this activity to think about children’s development and learning needs and the types of support that adults can give.
Instructions:
Read each example and brainstorm what support the adult is using and what the child’s need is. Download the handout [DOCX] for this activity to fill in the table.
| Example | Support Type | Child’s Need |
|---|---|---|
| Ask a child to share what the child enjoyed about a field trip. Take time to wait for the child to reflect and respond. | ||
| Verbally remind a child to put away the toys they used before moving to a new activity. | ||
| Suggest that a child watch how a peer holds a pitcher to pour a drink before doing it on their own. | ||
| Physically help a child grasp and hold a coat zipper. | ||
| Make a Shh sign with your fingers and hand to remind children to be quiet during a story. |
References
Berk, L. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). Pearson.
Boat, M. B., Dinnebeil, L. A., & Bae, Y. (2010). Individualizing instruction in preschool classrooms. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 38(1), 3-11.
Cultivate Learning (Producer). (2017). Adjusting in the moment. University of Washington. [Video File]
Cultivate Learning (Producer). (2017). Small change, big impact. University of Washington. [Video File]
Cultivate Learning (Producer). (2017). What would you do: Disengaging from a difficult task. University of Washington. [Video File]
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning. (2014). Curriculum modifications: An introduction [Presenter notes]. [PDF]
EarlyEdU Alliance (Publisher). (2018). 14-1 Individualized teaching. In Child Development: Brain Building Course Book. University of Washington. [UW Pressbooks]
