Meet Shirley Koo

Social or play-based solutions are desirable because they capitalize on children’s natural way of learning. Embedding intervention strategies within daily routines makes regular practice more realistic and possible. For example, using universal design for learning to reduce invisible barriers might involve breaking up a long show and share session into two shorter sessions to allow for movement breaks, following a young child’s developing attention span. It may mean using props or puppets to act out a story to help support developing language skills or sensory needs. Such strategies have been shown to make learning accessible for more children. To help with the development of hand strength and pressure, some play-based suggestions are to provide regular opportunities to play with playdough, pushing or hammering golf tees into styrofoam, pushing the walls of the room as a group exercise “to make the room bigger” or playing on monkey bars. For building scissor skills, cutting playdough or giving paper fringe hair a ‘haircut’. To help a capable child who didn’t know how to engage with peers yet sought attention, the suggestion was to assign her a small task to help the class such as giving out notebooks. Helper roles could rotate daily and involve all children in the class to be inclusive. This strategy would encourage belonging and contributing, social interaction, altruism and empathy, and help build self-esteem. To help a young child with expressive language, we proposed the use of visuals with photos of real items in the centre such as toys, meals, and the playground to encourage request-making. When she pointed to a photo, we would respond by saying that word, making sure she could see our face, before letting her have her request. We also encouraged watching for and responding to any communication attempts by going closer and showing her our face, while responding with one or two simple words. Strategies begin with determining the child’s present level through observation and discussions, then build upon the level one step at a time. If something is not working, then we would find an even smaller step that could act as a bridge between the steps. For example, a child was relating well to adults but not engaging at all with peers. The service plan was for the child to do a preferred activity, such as colouring a picture, with an adult. The adult would invite a peer to join them at the table, colouring on a separate colouring sheet. Then the adult would invite the peer to colour with them on the same sheet. Next, the adult would gradually withdraw herself from the activity and leave the two children colouring together at the same table. The aim would be to take small steps toward the desired goal, practicing each step until it becomes comfortable for the child before moving on to the next step.