Inclusion & Child Development Team(CDT) - National Child Research Center

An inclusive school community broadens each child's perspective and brings added gifts to the program.

NCRC’s inclusion program provides the least restrictive environment for children who require additional supports and adaptations. Our Child Development Team (CDT) - which includes a counselor, occupational therapist, and speech-language pathologist - collaborates with the teaching faculty to highlight children’s strengths, provide early intervention, and develop individualized goals. The methods and strategies that are employed for students with special needs also benefit typically-developing children; our inclusive classroom environment promotes the development of respect, empathy, and compassion.

Inclusion & Child Development Team (CDT)

Meet our Child Development Team (CDT)

Judith Wides

Director of Counseling & Family Support

About Ms. Judith
School Counselor in the Classroom

About Ms. Judith

Judith has been working professionally with children and families since 1992. She loves working collaboratively with parents and teachers to provide children with opportunities to become their most authentic and joyful selves. She supports families in making important transitions such as starting school, potty training, the arrival of new siblings and managing change and loss. In support of her work at NCRC, Judith is part of a research team working out of the Harvard School of Education, Frontiers of Innovation Program, evaluating relationship-based interventions for educators working with young children.

School Counselor in the Classroom

The School Counselor spends time observing the students in every classroom. She works collaboratively with her CDT teammates and the faculty to build and execute interventions and adaptations to meet the needs of all students. Serving as a bridge between a family and teachers, the school counselor facilitates understanding of a child’s development within the context of the home and school environments.

Julie Mishkin

Occupational Therapist

About Ms. Julie
OT in the Classroom

About Ms. Julie

Julie has been working exclusively in pediatrics as an occupational therapist since 1999 in school, hospital and outpatient clinic settings. Julie works directly with students to improve fine and gross motor skills, visual perceptual development, self-help skills, social play skills and sensory regulation. Julie also enjoys helping students maximize their abilities to access the school curriculum by creating supports and adaptations for staff and families to implement.

OT in the Classroom

The occupational therapist (OT) observes students in class in order to collaborate with teaching teams in making activity and environmental modifications that serve to maximize student participation. The OT also provides regularly scheduled weekly groups for every class to directly work with students on developing age-expected fine and gross motor skills, visual perceptual skills, self-help skills, social play skills and sensory regulation.

Lea Hay

Speech Language Pathologist

About Ms. Lea
SLP in the Classroom

About Ms. Lea

Lea Hay is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and received her B.A. in psychology, and M.A. in speech-language pathology from the University of Memphis. She joined NCRC as our Speech-Language Pathologist and member of the Child Development Team, after 6 years of co-teaching in an early childhood education classroom for students with varied support needs in the Cherry Creek School District in Denver, Colorado. In addition to co-teaching her class, in her previous role, Lea also consulted in other early childhood classrooms to assist in setting up supports to help students succeed. Lea comes from a family of educators and while she has experience in a variety of settings, found that her passion lies in education.

SLP in the Classroom

The speech-language pathologist (SLP) schedules weekly classroom visits to support speech and language development for all children across early learning, preschool and prekindergarten programs. This language enhancement program incorporates vocabulary and concept building, language expansion strategies, enhancing play, early narrative structure, phonological awareness, and discourse skills to help guide children toward communicative competence.

About Our Child Development Team (CDT)

Who We Are

The Child Development Team (CDT) is an integral part of NCRC's program for children who require additional support. CDT provides weekly enrichment groups for children through the Early Beginnings and Play Pals programs. They also assist in developing Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) and support teachers in providing accommodations and appropriate strategies for all students. Members of CDT also partner with all families in their journey through the early childhood years, by providing parent education sessions, guidance for supporting growth at home, and connections to outside resources when necessary.

What We Do

The Child Development Team:

monitors and supports each student's growth and development through ongoing school observations, small groups activities, and developmental screening tools
helps to create and implement all-school curricula
meets with each teaching team frequently throughout the year to collaborate and to discuss ways to support both the strengths and challenges of each individual student
makes referrals for evaluations and therapy when appropriate or deemed necessary
works collaboratively with outside specialists, but does not provide individual therapy
is available to talk with all parents to help guide their child through the amazing journey of childhood

Our Commitment

Each child is unique, and we take great care to meet each child where she or he is.

Learn More About CDT

Early Beginnings Program

NCRC’s Early Beginnings Program is an interdisciplinary play-based intervention program serving up to six children enrolled in an AM Early Learning classroom. It offers specialized instruction to children who have been identified as needing additional supports and adaptations as well as family and caregiver support.

About the program:

Children participate in an interdisciplinary play-based group one morning a week from early October to early May. Directing teachers and the CDT work together to engage the children in small group instruction targeting all developmental domains—social-emotional, communication, self-help, fine/gross motor, and cognitive skills. Weekly parent participation is required for this program through a series of parent education opportunities including a weekly parent group meeting with the School Counselor. The focus of the parent meeting is to discuss child development, parenting strategies and resources in the community. During this period of Covid 19 precautions,the weekly parent meeting will occur in the evening over Zoom.

program components:

Home Visits
- In order to promote generalization of current curriculum targets in the home environment, Early Beginnings families are scheduled for home visits (this year in compliance with CDC guidelines the visits will be virtual) in approximately three to six week intervals. For each home visit, a representative from CDT teams up with one of the Early Learning teachers to engage both parent and child in games and activities that follow the classroom themes, enrich speech and language skills, and reinforce sensory motor skills and social play.
  
  Although home visits are not considered therapy sessions, they do offer parents an opportunity for extra support in promoting their child’s development. Families are encouraged to share not only their triumphs, but also their challenges so that home visits can be tailored to meet immediate needs.
  
  Once a child transitions from the Early Beginnings Program into NCRC’s preschool tier they will typically be invited to attend the weekly Play Pals program.

Play Pals

The Play Pals program is a weekly, multi-sensory/enrichment group designed and implemented by the Child Development Team. It is supported by a generous endowment and is free for all participants throughout their years at NCRC.

The group is for Early Beginnings alums as well as others who benefit from additional support with social interactions, motor skills, speech and language development, or self-regulation. Some of the children attending the group have an ILP (Individual Learning Plan) or Action Plan. There are targeted goals for each unit that are adapted for each child’s individual needs. CDT sends group photos and a summary of skills addressed regularly. They are intended to be used at home to facilitate discussion between parents and children about the day’s events and skill carryover to home.

Preventative Screenings

Speech & Language Screenings

Speech and language development happens on a continuum with children reaching communicative milestones at varying paces. NCRC’s speech-language pathologist employs speech and language screening procedures to promote early identification of children at risk for speech sound disorders, developmental language disorders. Screening referrals can be made by the CDT, a child’s teaching team or directly by the family.

Occupational Therapy Screenings

Young children learn to process sensory information from the environment and within their bodies at different rates. Sometimes a child’s behavior or motor performance may interfere with his or her ability to participate in all aspects of the school day in an expected way. An occupational therapy screening helps to assess the underlying sensory processing and motor skills that may be contributing to any observed difficulties. NCRC’s occupational therapist employs sensory and motor screenings to promote early identification of children at risk for developmental delay. Screening referrals can be made by the CDT, teaching teams or directly by the family.

Schoolwide Developmental Screenings

CDT oversees schoolwide developmental screenings using the Brigance Screens III. This screening procedure provides a snapshot of children’s skills across several developmental domains, including language development, cognitive development, physical developmental (fine and gross motor), self-help skills, and social-emotional development. The Screens III will provide the CDT and teaching teams with a baseline of each child’s skills to ensure that the curriculum is tailored to individual needs.

Throughout the year there will be evening opportunities for parents to come together with faculty and/or outside experts to discuss issues important to family and school life. The topics are identified by the community and faculty collaboratively. Previous events have focussed on, building an anti-racist community for young children, healthy child sexual development, child safety and first aid, effective communication with child care providers, etc.