Young Exceptional Children

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A Building Blocks Model for Effective Instruction in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings
Susan Sandall, Ilene Schwartz and Gail Joseph
Young Exceptional Children 2001; 4; 3
DOI: 10.1177/109625060100400301
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Building Blocks Model

for Effective Instruction

in Inclusive Early

Childhood Settings

SusanIleneGailSchwartz,Ph.D.,andSandall,
Ph.D.,
Joseph, Ph.D.,
University of Washington

~ nterestingly,

as inclusion has
become a more common option
for preschool children with disabilities, how we describe these
early childhood programs has
changed. The center of the
conversation has shifted from
,~
instructional strategies
the
~Bt
that are traditionally used in
special education settings
.&dquo;.
toward attempting to understand the complex relation~~t ships between the classroom
ecology, adult behavior, and
child behavior. Sometimes, it
seems, in the excitement over
~~~ inclusion, we have dropped
all discussion of instruction
from our vocabularies and
~~~ our interactions with families, students, and profession~~. als from other disciplines
jjj~~ (e.g., early childhood education). This trend is very troubling for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, specialized
instruction is the cornerstone of
what we do in special education.
A primary goal of early childhood
special education is to attempt to
change childrens developmental

trajectories by intervening early

&dquo;

._

specialized instruction. We
attempting to remediate delays
caused by the childs disabilities
and prevent any secondary disabilities from developing. When we
work with families to develop

with
are

Individual Education Plans

are

making

with them

to

&dquo;&dquo;

~~~

~N
J~
~3!~
~~~
~~~
~N~

we

implicit
provide specialized
contract

an

we have learned
and working
inclusion
through
with
closely
professionals in early
childhood education is that
specialized instruction generally
does not require special places,

instruction. What

special materials,
or special
activities.
~~~~~~~~~~&dquo;

;j

~~~~~.jbe
~ _ ifl

s6&dquo; to

~~te~e~t

P,

or iet ~e ov er i~cl s i~ o
s

d ~~~

d~sG~ oe~b~~a~~e

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iyoo

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reliant on adult support. Too little

support will result in children
being unsuccessful, and may lead
to decreasing rates of participation
and increasing rates of challenging
behaviors.

require is special
planning, special training, and spe-

What it does

cial attention.
As part of the Early Childhood
Research Institute on Inclusion
(Odom et al., 1996) we have been
examining the barriers and facilitators to inclusion. One area of
The Building Blocks
research that we have conducted
Model
over the past five years is to examine how adults provide instruction
The Building Blocks Model
to and support the participation of
evolved from many research activichildren with disabilities in incluties and professional development
sive programs. We have observed
experiences including visits to
in inclusive early childhood proclassrooms, conversations with
grams across five states and talked
parents and teachers,
to teachers, parents, administraand preparation and
In an
akers. in
tors, and policy makers.
cont-1
education
continuing
ize findings
attempt to synthesize
and other
of
tl
teachers
B
oixt
,
B
,
e
o
B
,
B
,
t
e
r
in a manner that isieasily
easily
team members. We
.~~Is to
accessible to
~,~
learned that teach~OY
~,-t
Iers often
providers, stustruggle
Sol
iB1e
a
dents, families,
with issues such
~.CL
pit
.yYB
.yYBB,B,C
and researchers,
~ W
IOOW
B10
~ ~A
ðee
~
we developed the
sufficient
&
e
t
h
;
s
to
&dquo;Building Blocks
instruction
ur p ose
Model.&dquo; The purpose
within
o-f ~
(
~,
of this model is to
;
d
~t~
activity-based
Oft.
SIXV
o,~
~
describe the range of
classro,
classrooms,
matching
Be
~e~

1d
types of support and
and obji
tB1a-t
that
goals and
objectives with
instruction that is necessary
appropriate instructional methods,
to make inclusion successful
and deciding what amount of
for young children with disabiliassistance is needed by a child and
ties. It is important to note that
when to provide such assistance.
although the model appears linear,
The Model is guided by our goal
it does not imply that these differof successful inclusion of young
ent strategies are hierarchical, or
children with special needs in
that a teacher and child must try
community-based early childhood
one before moving on to the next.
classrooms. We sought to identify
The challenge is to figure out how
existing or develop new strategies
much support a child needs with
that meet the standards of practia specific behavior or skill at a
cality and effectiveness while supspecific time given a specific conporting and enhancing a young
text and to provide that level of
childs inclusion.
support. Too much support may
The Building Blocks Model
result in children becoming over
(see Figure 1) consists of four

~~~

000-..Oto

i~19
~~
oigw~a- cB1iBa
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~~~~~~
~
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a child
~~e~,ge
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~

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eeds
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components, or blocks. Our model

shares characteristics with other
frameworks for guiding instruction
in early childhood education.
Bredekamp and Rosegrant (1992)
provide a continuum of teaching
behaviors to describe the range of
behaviors (from nondirective to
directive) used by early childhood
teachers in their interactions with
children. Odom and Brown (1993)
offer a hierarchy of intervention
approaches for teaching social
skills. Bailey and McWilliam
(1990), in an article based on the
normalization principle, describe
how environmental arrangements,
teaching strategies, and family
focus can vary within early
intervention programs but that the
criteria for quality programs are
effectiveness and normalization.

High Quality Early

Program

Childhood
Sean is a

four-year-old boy

with a severe communication

disorder. Although he has
difficulty interacting with his
peers in activities that require
much verbal interaction or
have complex rules, he is
very interactive and successful during recess and other
gross motor activities. In

fact,

his mother reports that he

&dquo;swims like a fish&dquo; and is one
of the stars of his swimming
class at the local community
center.

This example reminds us that

just because children have an
identified disability does not mean
that they need specialized
instruction or special services in

T~~Alberto often chooses t~as

but has difficulty using
paintbrushes, scissors, and
area

other tools that are available

in this centey So, his teacher
made some changes to the
center with Alberto in mind.
She added a tabletop easel,
paint pots with tops on them,
loop scissors, and made some
of the crayons and markers

larger by taping foam

around them.

i~-

make
and
modifications, adaptations,
accommodations to their classroom activities, routines, and
learning centers in order to
include children with disabilities
and other special needs and to
enhance their participation in the
classroom. In our example,
Albertos teacher adapted some of
the classroom materials and added

Teachers and others

Figure

Building Blocks Model for Effective Instruction

1: The

every aspect of their lives. For

many children with disabilities,

during some
will be able

part of their

to

day, they

participate fully and

successfully in a high quality program designed for all children

their age. For most young children
with disabilities, however, high
quality early childhood programs
are necessary but not sufficient to
promote participation and learning. For these children we need to
begin with a high quality program
and add additional support and
instruction.

Defining quality in early

childhood programs is a complex
and difficult task. It requires that
adults consider the social and
cultural contexts of childrens
lives and develop programs that
are

refer you to the many outstanding

documents produced by the
National Association for the
Education of Young Children
(NAEYC) on this subject (e.g.,
Bredekamp & Copple, 1997;
Neuman, Copple, & Bredekamp,

2000).

adaptive equipment. Her

intention was to use relatively
simple and nonintrusive

Modifications and

modifications
enhance

)j

)1
)=

and
rele-

describe the components of

high quality program here,

we

some

Adaptations

safe, engaging, responsive,

culturally and linguistically

vant. Rather than attempting to

can

Alberto is a four-year-old boy

enrolled in a mixed age,
mixed ability preschool classroom. He has global developmental delays and uses a
walkey One of his IEP objectives is to use tools such as
crayons,

to

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~,-a-.yYBt(1.s It~. ,-e(B B,B,i,-essocv.
&dquo;t1

De

markers, eating

utensils, and so forth. During

free choice time, the art
center is almost always available and is one activity area
that could provide learning
and practice

opportunities.

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Albertos
center

participation in the art

and, thus, to increase his

skill with the sorts of tools used by

young children. The key consideration of a modification or adaptation is that the change is to the
ongoing activity or materials in
order to achieve and maximize
the childs participation. The
underlying assumption is that by
increasing access to activities and
materials and by increasing opportunities, the child will take advantage of such opportunities and
consequently develop and learn.
Wolery and colleagues (1994)
surveyed general early childhood
educators and found that teachers
reported that modifications were
an acceptable instructional strategy
in inclusive classrooms. To identify
the types of modifications that are
actually made, we conducted focus
groups in five states with more
than 100 participants including
teachers, therapists, and directors/

1. Environmental

SupportAltering the physical, social,

and temporal environment to

promote participation, engagement, and learning.

2. Materials AdaptationModifying materials so that the
child can participate as inde3.

4.

S.

6.

supervisors (Sandall et al., 2000).

We asked questions related to
the modifications used in early
childhood settings that allow
incorporation of childrens IEP
objectives into ongoing classroom
activities and routines. Participants
offered numerous descriptions and
examples, which we grouped into
the eight categories listed following with their accompanying

descriptions:

7.

Embedded

of steps.
Using Child PreferencesIdentifying and integrating the
childs preferences for materials or activities so that the
child takes advantage of available opportunities.

Special Equipment-Special or
adaptive devices that allow a
child to participate or increase
a childs level of participation.
Adult Support-An adult intervening or joining the activity to
support the childs participation and learning.
Peer Support-Utilizing
peers

to

increase

childs

participation.
Support-A purposeful arrangement of naturally
occurring events within an
activity.
The effectiveness of a particular modification is evaluated by
8. Invisible

observation of the target childs

Does

participation

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Learning

Opportunities

Jasmine

is

five-year-old

child with autism. She is

enrolled in a half-day, inclusive preschool classroom.
also receives home-based services. While she has begun to
use verbal expression to make
requests at home, she remains
quiet and passive at school.
Her classroom and home
teachers devise a plan to
encourage Jasmines verbal
requesting at school. First,
teacher will name the
food, toys, or materials.
Then, the teacher will wait

She:I

pendently as possible.
Simplifying the ActivitySimplifying a complicated task
by breaking it into smaller
parts or reducing the number

participation.

increase? The next step is to evaluate whether or not the child then
takes advantage of the activity or
routine to practice and expand on
existing skills and knowledge
and/or to learn new skills. If not,
other instructional strategies are
warranted.

the
&dquo;

II

expectantly for Jasmine to

for something. If Jasmine
ask for something, the
does
teacher will comply with the
request and praise her. If
ask

does
words
jasmine
request, the teacher will
not

use

to

provide a prompt by commenting on the items again.

While there

are

many nat-

urally occurring times during ,

the school day to prom pt
verbal requests, the teachers

decide to concentrate on
snack and small group times
and to try to embed at least
ten opportunities within
these activities each day.
&dquo;

Early childhood teachers identify the opportunities most salient

to the individualized learning
objectives for the child and take
advantage of the childs interests
by embedding short systematic
instructional interactions into the
existing classroom activities and
routines in order to enhance the
childs learning. We call this
approach embedded learning
opportunities (ELO). In the example, Jasmines teachers identified

high probability learning times,

incorporated a relatively simple
but

systematic instructional

egy

(i.e., time delay), and imple-

mented it

on a

regular

strat-

and

consistent basis.

The key characteristics of ELO

that the instructional interaction is planned and embedded
within an ongoing activity or
routine. The individualized,
targeted objective may be different
from or more specific than the
general goal of the activity or
routine in which it is embedded.
Similar approaches have been
advocated by a number of writers
(e.g., Bricker & Cripe, 1992;
Davis, Kilgo, & GamelMcCormick, 1998; Noonan &
are

McCormick, 1995; Wolery &

Wilbers, 1994). Bricker and Cripe
(1992) call the approach &dquo;activitybased instruction.&dquo; A growing
number of research studies (e.g.,
Fox & Hanline, 1993; Grisham-

Explicit Child-Directed

embedding instruction with

generally positive results.
The steps for implementing
of

ELO in the classroom

Instruction

Emily

are as

Down

follows:
1.

to

determine the childs current

level of performance.
3. Use an activity matrix or other
type of planning form to select
activities, areas, or classroom
routines in which instruction
can reasonably be embedded.
4. Design the instructional
interaction and write it on a
planning form, such as an &dquo;IEP
at a Glance&dquo; (adapted from
McCormick & Feeney, 1995).
S. Implement the instruction,
providing the number of

6.
7.

change.

Hemmeter, 1997; Horn,

ties in her classroom to

these materials,

use

Emily cannot

with scissors and cannot

write her name. The kindercut

The purpose of ELO is to

increase the teaching and learning
opportunities provided to the

have examined the effectiveness

Brown &

ti

despite repeated opportuni-

weeks or whenever you believe

that the child has achieved the
objective) conduct a probe to
monitor the childs progress.

Lieber, Sandall, Schwartz, & Li, in

press; Kaiser, Yoder, & Keetz,
1992; Venn, Wolery, Werts,
Morris, DeCesare, & Cuffs, 1993)

.<

&dquo;

opportunities as planned in
the previous step.
Keep track of the opportunities
provided.
Periodically (e.g., every two

child. The effectiveness of the

approach with a particular child
or objective is evaluated by the
childs progress. If the child is
making progress toward achieving
the targeted objective, the instruction continues. However, if the
child is not making reasonable
progress, it is time to make a

:
attended the same inclusive
.I
childcare program since she
.
was two years old. Like the
other five-year olds in her
I
class, she is very excited
about starting kindergarten
in the fall. Unlike the other
&dquo;
five-year olds in her class and

Clarify the learning objective

and determine the criteria.

2. Gather baseline information

five-year old with

syndrome. She has

is

garten teacher at her neighborhood school considers

these skills very important
for children when they enter

kindergarten. At the transition meeting in the spring the

kindergarten teacher, itinerant special education teacher,
childcare teacher, and Emilys
parents identified these skills
as a priority. Now every day
for ten minutes before free
choice Emily works with a
teacher on these fine motor
skills. She also has opportunities to practice these skills
with her classmates during
free choice and small group
activities. After only three
weeks of explicit child-

~
~

I)

&dquo;
:

, ,

directed instruction everyone,

especially Emily, is extremely

proud of her progress.

Explicit child-directed instruction (ECDI) involves using effective instructional strategies to help

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teachers transform opportunities

for learning into success ful learning interactions. Although the
tools that teachers use to implement ECDI can be embedded into
ongoing classroom activities and
routines, what makes this block of
the model different is the specially
designed instructional times to
teach specific skills and behaviors.
The ECDI strategies are quite flexible and can be used in a number
of different situations. They can be
used in interactions that are childinitiated and in situations that are
teacher-directed. They can be used
whenever an adult has identified a
teaching target and an appropriate
time

to

provide

instruction. For

children with IEPs, one goal of

ECDI is to help them access the
general education program.
Like all instruction, ECDII
takes place within a relationship
between a child and an adult. An
example of what a teaching interaction might look like is provided
in Table 1. It is beyond the scope
of this article to describe the components of effective instruction,
prompting, and reinforcement
strategies that are used in ECDI.
All of these effective instructional

as well as many more,

described in early childhood
education and early childhood special education textbooks (e.g.,
Allen & Schwartz, 2001; Bailey &
Wolery, 1992; Wolery & Wilbers,

strategies,
are

1994).

them in a meaningful
hope that the Building
Blocks Model presented here will
help teams plan and implement
deliberate and successful instruction for young children with disabilities in their inclusive
able

to use

way. We

programs.

Summary
In the past decade we have witnessed an increase in the number

of young children with disabilities

participating in inclusive programs. This increase has presented
us with a new and different challenge : Rather than focusing all of
our energy on creating inclusive
placements and providing access
to these placements for children
with all levels of ability, from different social classes, and with
diverse cultural and linguistic heritages, we now find ourselves in a
position of attempting to provide
the specialized instruction necessary for these children to make
inclusion successful. This instruction must be deliberate, planned,
and successful. Successful instruction is defined as instruction that
results in children learning the target skills and behaviors and being

Building Blocks Model

provides teachers with a framework for planning and implementing instruction. It assumes that the
The

foundation for all effective instruction in ECSE is a high quality

early childhood program, but that
this quality alone is not sufficient
to meet the needs of children with
disabilities. Appropriate levels of
support and instruction for children vary across activities and set-

tings.

In

general,

an

appropriate

program for a child with a

disability will access all levels of
the Building Blocks Model.
Notes

Preparation of this manuscript was supported

by the Early Childhood Research Institute
on Inclusion, Project No. H024K40004 from the
U.S. Department of Education. Our colleagues on
this research consortium include: Sam Odom,
Indiana University; Marci Hanson, San Francisco
State University; Joan Lieber and Paula Beckman,
University of Maryland; Eva Horn, University of
Kansas; and Ruth Wolery, Vanderbilt University.
You can reach Susan Sandall by e-mail at
ssandall@u.washington.edu
in part

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Allen,
Table 1:

Sample Explicit Child-Directed Instruction (ECDI)

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