My Supports

I feel very fortunate because I have a lot of supports in my life. I have a wonderful husband, a terrific family, great friends and colleagues, a beautiful home, and an outstanding supervisor at a job that I love. The people in my life, especially my husband, have been there to celebrate the successes, work through the difficulties, and  support me when times get hard. My home is my sanctuary, and it is the place where I feel the safest, most creative, and most authentic. My supervisor and my job allow me to stretch myself and experience the most amazing things in the early childhood field. If I lost all of these supports it would be extremely difficult for me, especially if I lost everything and everyone all at once! If one or two of these supports were gone, the other supports would help me through, and I would survive. If I lost everything all at once it would be horrible, but somehow I would create another support system and go on.

The imagined challenge that I chose is becoming blind. I believe that all of the support factors that I have in my life would remain, they would just be altered a bit. I would also need to find additional supports such as: an Occupational Therapist to teach me how to negotiate my daily needs, public transportation because I would no longer be able to drive, and The Blind Center to learn how to read Braille. If I were blind and these supports went away I would not only be devastated, I would also be restricted in what I could do. Depending on how long I had these supports in my life before they disappeared I might not know how to do very basic things such as get food from the grocery store or go to work. Having a challenge, such as blindness, can make the loss of a support system even more dire than losing it as a person without a special need.

Expanding Opportunities for Inclusion

In the discussion, I mentioned that I had a wonderful opportunity to be a part of project called Expanding Opportunities for Inclusion. Out of the work some really great stuff happened that I want to share. These are the goals that we accomplished during the project.

Utah Expanding Opportunities for Inclusion Successes

• Awareness and Information Sharing-

• Use DEC/NAEYC Position Statement to determine common language around Special Needs and Inclusion
• Identify and contact appropriate stakeholder agencies to be included in an annual meeting to establish collaboration opportunities and information sharing
• Create a resource page for the Care About Childcare and the Child Care Professional Development Institute (CCPDI) websites that list agencies that support special needs
• Create a white paper that promotes the idea of “ALL MEANS ALL!” for distribution

• Coordinate Professional Development-

Stakeholder agencies will contribute to a coordinated well prepared early childhood workforce, which is knowledgeable and supportive of early childhood development and inclusive practices.

• Professional Development Connections update to CCPDI website
• Online resources available to all providers and parents
• Special Needs Education at Higher Ed level
• Promote Ages and Stages Developmental Screening Training statewide
• Share the 40 Special Needs OCC Endorsement
• Include stakeholders in the development of the Quality Recognition and Information System (QRIS)
• Space that allows all early childhood entities, including those that directly support Special Needs, to advertise their professional development opportunities on the CCPDI website.
• An award for child care providers who are strongly supporting inclusive environments in their child care programs-the All Means All Award

  

Here is a link to QRIS system-go to "Parents-Search" 

www.careaboutchildcare.utah.gov

Here is the letter that childcare programs receive when they earn the All Means All Award. They get this by taking 40 hours of Special Needs Training, having the Special Needs tab on their QRIS inviting families of children with special needs to become a part of their program, and having earned quality criteria on their QRIS Quality Indicators tab.

All Means All Inclusion Award

Congratulations! You have qualified to receive the “All Means All Inclusion Award” for supporting children with special needs in your program! This award is given to child care providers and programs that support the idea that all young children need meaningful opportunities to develop skills, establish a sense of self, and lay a foundation for life-long learning. Child care providers do this by providing access to an inclusive quality programs. They also seek out services that enhance children’s overall early learning and development, and that benefit the child, the family, the child care professional, and the community. This improves the chances for children of all abilities to lead healthy, productive lives. Thank you for remembering to include ALL children!