Early Intervention Services

Early Childhood
Ages: 3 through 5 years of age
Campus-based @Overbrook School for the Blind

The Early Childhood program is the campus-based division of the Early Intervention Program (EIP) here at Overbrook School for the Blind. The program is designed to give our students a fun and educational pre-school experience with a special focus on meeting the needs of children with visual impairment and possible additional challenges.

Our motto in the EC Program is “WE PLAY, WE LEARN, WE HAVE FUN!” The Early Childhood Program helps children (ages 3 to 5 years) who are blind or visually impaired learn specialized techniques that will enhance their growth and development. Two of the major objectives of the program are to prepare the children to enter school programs that are appropriate to their abilities and needs, and to become as independent as possible.

Students are grouped together by age and need in a classroom with a teacher and at least one para-educator. The school day runs from 8:15 AM to 3 PM.

Learning Through Play

Children learn through play. The Early Childhood staff teaches children academic subjects and functional skills in a play-based environment that is designed to be imaginative, flexible, innovative, and fun.

In many ways, the Early Childhood Program is similar to any nursery school -- students visit the zoo, go on class trips, march in parades, and present a Holiday show, just to name a few. But all activities provide opportunities to work on skills the children will need for success in further schooling and in day-to-day life.

A fun activity such as an indoor beach party can enable the staff to reinforce skills like vision and color recognition and foster other skills such as feeding, gross motor, and pre-math.

In specialized classes, the staff works with the students on achieving the following skills; sensory stimulation; gross and fine motor; language and communication and daily living skills, such as feeding, toileting, dressing, and washing. The students also have the opportunity to engage in activities such as physical education; music; mobility; art and computer awareness - all in a supportive social environment.

An innovative aspect of the program is the integration of speech, occupational, and physical therapies, orientation and mobility and and audiology into the educational program. Therapists work with students in the classrooms so that teachers can observe interventions that further the students' therapy goals and learn how to implement therapists' suggestions throughout the school day.

Learning to Communicate

To fully experience and enjoy the world around them, children need to learn how to communicate with others. One of the major components of the Early Childhood Program is the development of a communication system for each student, one that will serve the child immediately and provide the groundwork for continued development.

The need to establish a special communication system is determined by a student's ability to receive and express information. Some children can speak and listen without difficulty, and for them standard speech methods are appropriate. Others may need to use an object system, in which various objects serve as concrete representations of different activities; a system of tactile signals, in which physical prompts/touch cues such as tapping on the body provide information; or a symbol system, in which the use of symbols or pictures allows children to express themselves.

The staff also teaches students who are deafblind (children who have both a visual and hearing impairment) to use basic sign language. Other students who have problems verbalizing are taught to activate computerized language boards, through which they are able to "speak" electronically by pushing appropriate message buttons.

The Creative Curriculum® for Preschool

The Creative Curriculum® is the curriculum used in our Early Childhood Program and is aligned with the PA Early Learning Standards. . The Creative Curriculum® is built on the philosophy that young children learn best by doing. It is built upon theories of development in young children that all children learn through active exploration of their environment and therefore the environment plays a critical role in learning. The goal of The Creative Curriculum ® is to help children become independent, self-confident, inquisitive and enthusiastic learners by actively exploring their environment. The curriculum also allows the teacher to take a closer look at each child’s unique abilities, interests and needs.

The Creative Curriculum® identifies goals in all areas of development: Social/Emotional, Cognitive, Physical and Language. The planned activities for the children, the organization of the environment, the selection of toys and materials, planning the daily schedule and interacting with the children, are all designed to accomplish the goals and objectives of the curriculum and enable your child to be successful.

The Creative Curriculum® shows teachers how to integrate learning in literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology throughout the day. It also gives the teacher a wide range of teaching strategies -- from child-initiated learning to teacher-directed approaches -- to best respond to children's learning styles, strengths, and interests.

The curriculum is built around the environment using eleven different interest areas or centers:

• Blocks
• House Corner
• Table Toys
• Art
• Sand and Water
• Library
• Music & Movement
• Cooking
• Computers
• Outdoors
• Discovery

The richer the environments, the more concrete opportunities there are for children to learn by interacting with materials and people. The teacher’s role is to create an environment that invites children to observe, to be active, to make choices, and to experiment.

The Creative Curriculum® encourages parental involvement and works best when teachers and parents work together. The curriculum offers tools for parents to understand, assess, and support their child's development, as well as connect with teachers and other individuals important in their child's development.

Expanded Core Curriculum

In addition to the Creative Curriculum, all students receive instruction in the Expanded Core Curriculum. This includes the concepts and skills unique to children with visual impairments that require specialized instruction. The areas included in the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) are:

•            Compensatory Skills such as braille
•            Orientation and Mobility
•            Social Interaction
•            Independent Living
•            Recreation and Leisure
•            Sensory Efficiency
•            Assistive Technology
•            Career Education
•            Self-Determination
• 
   

Early Childhood Extended Calendar

It is very important that our little ones maintain the skills that they have learned.  The Early Childhood Program runs on an extended 12 month calendar to include instruction in the summer. While the main school year operates a 5-day a week full time program, the summer schedule is modified. During July and August, the program provides a  five-week summer program for our students. The program operates for five weeks, 4 days a week from 8:30 AM to 2 PM. Funding and transportation are provided by the student’s early Intervention Provider/school district.

This program is an extension of their individualized education program (IEP) and provides many fun and exciting activities while assisting the children with achieving their goals. Children who have goals and/or related services for orientation and mobility, occupational therapy, physical therapy,speech and audiology continue to receive these services.

Preparing for Tomorrow

The students in the Early Childhood Program need more than academic learning to prepare them for the future. They also need to learn how to master equipment and assistive technology that will help them successfully meet the special challenges they will face as they approach adolescence and adulthood.

Overbrook School for the Blind regularly evaluates all children in the program, assessing their strengths and needs. The process of continuous evaluation and remediation is a major element in the OSB program. It helps to provide a strong focus on the children's changing needs and thus to lay the groundwork for further education and interaction with the world at large.

When appropriate to help meet a child's needs, the staff works to procure assistive devices - such as electronic communication aids or switches - that will enable the child to master special challenges.

The staff also promotes Community Interaction activities, arranging joint activities with other preschools in the community whose students are not disabled. Through visits to other schools, students with disabilities and those without can learn to socialize with each other and to appreciate their similarities and differences. Such activities help prepare both groups of students to interact in a world with people of varying abilities.

Overbrook School for the Blind serves children who are blind, visually impaired, deafblind or visually impaired with additional disabilities in every program. Every student, regardless of their ability level has an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) developed to meet their specific needs. Each program is aligned with the PA core standards and the Expanded Core Curriculum for students who are blind, visually impaired, deafblind or visually impaired with additional disabilities. Overbrook’s teachers are highly qualified Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments and our therapists have a wealth of experience and professional development working with students with visual impairments. Our cutting- edge educational programs use low and high tech assistive technology to support our students. Staff receive on-going professional development in all areas of visual impairment including Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) as well as in other specialty areas, state-mandated trainings, and core subjects. Our staff share their expertise presenting at state and national conferences.

Parental Involvement

Parental involvement is also a major aspect of our program. This is done through monthly parent meetings, chat n’ chews, storytime and a quarterly parents’ newsletter.

We also offer various trainings for the families throughout the school year.  Braille Basics is a six-week beginner’s braille class for families who wish to learn braille or who has a child using or beginning to learn braille.

We also offer the Hanen Training, a program that teaches parents and other caregivers how to promote children's language development during everyday activities. It provides the knowledge and training you’ll need to help your child develop the best possible language, social and literacy skills.

The training and opportunities Overbrook School for the Blind offers its younger students provide the early stimulation they need to grow to their fullest potential.

Our parent liaison, Rhonda Davis can be reached at rhonda.davis@obs.org

For more information about our Early Childhood Program, please contact Marguerite Bradley at (215) 877-0313, ext. 243