Schedules and daily routines can be modified to promote developmentally appropriate learning and socialization for all children, or adapted to meet a specific child’s needs.

Applying developmentally appropriate practice for all children: Mrs. Johns considers the typical attention span of the three year olds in her Head Start classroom when she plans lessons. Most children in her class can sit attentively for 10-15 minutes during story time. However, they enjoy hearing longer stories, especially ones that incorporate familiar characters. So Mrs. Johns breaks the story into “segments” to read aloud throughout the day rather than reading the entire book during one sitting.

Adaptations for a specific child to increase attention: One of Mrs. Johns’ students, Sakina, is a four year old girl who spent the first three months of her life in a neonatal intensive care unit. Understanding that Sakina has a very short attention span, Mrs. Johns gives her objects and dolls related to the story to hold up at specific points to provide appropriate movement breaks. The teacher also sits next to Sakina so she can turn the pages in the storybook. Mrs. Johns learned these strategies from the Early Childhood Special Educator who consults with her weekly to embed Sakina’s IEP goals in classroom activities and routines.

Adaptations for Jacob to improve verbal expression:

A teacher embeds opportunities for Jacob to verbalize specific words within a story that all children enjoy. (video from Project CONNECT, The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge)