Naturalistic Curriculum Model

Goal: to increase the infant/young child’s control, participation, and interaction in natural social and physical environments. This is a process model with content and instructional techniques derived through environmental analysis.

Content of instruction: goals are developed on an individual basis, reflecting the sill demands of natural, age-appropriate environments. The content is responsive to the requirements of the increasing number of environments that children will participate in.

- Noonan & McCormick p. 134

Naturalistic Curriculum Models

Reference curriculum to the unique needs and lifestyles of the child, family, peers, and community.

Plan instruction that can be implemented naturally in daily family routines.

Emphasize skills that are functional now and in the future.

- McDonnel & Hardman (1988)

Content of Instruction Age-appropriate skills

Skills for participating in present and future environments:

Ecological inventory Survival skills

Instructional Focus

Newborns: parent-child interaction Procedures: observation and specific

descriptive feedback Infants: parent-child and broader social

experiences (including objects) Procedures (Dunst, et al. 1987), :

•Sensitivity to child behavior• Interpretation of “intent”•Responsiveness•Encouraging initiations•Supporting and encouraging competence

Instructional Focus Focus: appropriate social-communication

interactions in natural environments, self-help skills, cognitive development

Procedures: Promoting socialization within and outside of

family context Responsiveness to child’s interests and

communicative attempts Developing routines around everyday tasks Promoting problem solving abilities

Instructional Methods

Environmental arrangement Guided learning Violating expectations Responsiveness to child initiations Encouraging ongoing activities Supporting and encouraging

competence

Approaches to Naturalistic Teaching

Milieu : focuses on bridging the gap between the training environment and the natural environment

Nurturant-naturalistic: moves from direct instruction to education in which the child takes the interactive lead and to naturalistic contexts.

Joint-action: establishes structured interaction routines through which to teach skills

Transactional intervention program: focuses on the quality of the interactive behavioral match between children and their primary caregivers

Natural language teaching: developed for children with autism

Environmental Adaptations

Design: amount and arrangement of space

Materials: smaller manipulative items

Equipment: furniture and large items

Grouping Scheduling

1. Physical setting2. Temporal characteristics3. Social context4. Activity system5. Relationships6. Child7. Adult/teacher

Environmental Systems

Time of Day

Preceding Activities/ Scheduled Activity/ Subsequent Activities

Individual Child’s Schedule

Group’s Schedule

Adults’ Schedules

Perspectives of Time

Map the Child’s Day

• Describe the flow of activities in which the child participates across the day.

• Identify the times when he/she is available for teaching in conversation alone or in small groups.

• Identify group times when language goal might be embedded in a larger group activity.

• Identify key conversation partners and assess their availability as language teachers or conversational partners.

Analyze the Child’s Day

• Identify highly preferred activities and partners.

• Analyze identified teaching times in terms of the child’s communication goals.

• Examine the child’s day in terms of the child’s communication goals.

• Examine the child’s day in terms of supports for communication (models of language, access to listeners, support for total communication and emergent literacy).

Map the Adults’ Days • Begin with your daily schedule. Note who you

talked to, what you do, what your teaching and classroom management agenda looks like.

• Note group sizes, goals of activities, support provided by others in the classroom, transitions, etc.

• Think about goals and priorities for each activity. Use your intentions as well as what you accomplished in mapping the day.

Analyze the Adults’ Days Identify the times in which skills are currently

being taught formally or informally. Identify additional times for teaching that

emerge as you analyze the day from the teacher and child perspective.

Note the strategies the teacher currently uses to teach language skills including specific target language, concepts, social interaction skills, emergent literacy skills, direction following, etc.

Note the types of talk the teacher generally uses in the classroom.

Activities & Skills

Activities Skills

1.

2.

3.

4.

Children: Setting: Date:

Steps in Naturalistic Curriculum Ecological assessment Set priorities Determine present levels of performance Establish instructional objectives Develop instructional plans Establish an instructional schedule Instruct Evaluate

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