Young children grow and learn when they participate fully in everyday routines and activities. Assess this critical dimension of child development with the MEISR (TM), an easy-to-use tool for creating a snapshot of the functional behaviors of children from birth to 3 years of age. A rich learning opportunity for both families and professionals-and an ideal starting point for talking to parents about their child's functioning-the MEISR helps build an understanding of a child's engagement, independence, and social relationships within the context of common family routines. Completed by caregivers and easy to use with them during home visits, the MEISR helps paint a picture of the child's functional abilities and highlights future learning opportunities. With the results of the MEISR, you can Start important conversations with families about their child's participation in everyday activities Support child engagement-an important prerequisite to learning Empower families to enhance natural learning opportunities Help families choose functional skills to address within the IFSP Help your team determine Child Outcome Summary (COS) ratings Develop individualized intervention priorities

Young children grow and learn when they participate fully in everyday routines and activities. Assess this critical dimension of child development with the MEISR (TM), an easy-to-use tool for creating a profile of the functional behaviors of children from birth to 3 years of age. A rich learning opportunity for both families and professionals-and an ideal starting point for talking to parents about their child's functioning-the MEISR helps build an understanding of a child's engagement, independence, and social relationships within the context of 14 common family routines. Completed by caregivers and easy to use with them during home visits, the MEISR helps paint a picture of the child's functional abilities and highlights future learning opportunities. In this comprehensive MEISR manual, you'll discover how to: * introduce the MEISR to families * implement and score the MEISR * interpret results accurately * review the MEISR with families and develop individualized intervention priorities * integrate the Routines-Based Interview (RBI) with the MEISR * use results of the MEISR to inform federal child outcome reporting * monitor your program's effectiveness with the help of data from the MEISR Make the MEISR a part of your early intervention program, and you'll have a powerful tool that helps families enhance natural learning opportunities and support their child's engagement.

A proven model for family-centered intervention in natural environments, routines-based intervention is the approach thousands of professionals trust to improve the lives of young children and families. Now there's a definitive guide to this highly respected, theoretically sound model straight from the leading authority on routines-based intervention. Putting the wisdom and strategies from his popular workshops into book form for the first time, Robin McWilliam gives professionals a detailed framework for early intervention that addresses families' individual needs and helps children participate in daily routines. With the step-by-step guidance on each part of the routines-based intervention model, professionals in Part C programs will reach their key goals during visits to homes and child care settings: Fully understand the family environment. Get to know the family by creating a helpful visual depiction of their relationships, supports, and resources. Conduct assessment that's truly family-centered. Uncover the whole family's functional needs through an in-depth yet unintimidating interview about daily routines and activities. Write high-quality IFSPs and IEPs. Develop clear, specific, measurable goals that directly address the family's priorities and help children develop skills relevant to everyday life. Provide coordinated, streamlined services. Implement the primary-service-provider model, so families receive strong, consistent support from one provider. Empower families to continue intervention between visits. Coach families on weaving intervention into daily routines, so children have the best chance to learn and retain new skills. Support early childhood educators through collaborative consultation, so they have all the tools they need to teach children effectively. To help readers implement the model successfully and ensure fidelity to its principles, this practical how-to guide gives professionals more than 25 p

This book is a highly practical guide for early childhood teachers using five research-based strategies for improving class-wide engagement.This practical manual for early childhood teachers introduces five strategies for improving class-wide engagement. The amount of time that children spend involved with adults, peers, or materials is critical to real learning in the classroom, and children's levels of active engagement have been found to be highly related to success and positive outcomes.The first classroom engagement or engagement strategy, Zone Defense Scheduling, is a way of organizing classroom staff so that child engagement is promoted rather than lost during routines and transitions between activities. The second strategy, Incidental Teaching, is a method for helping children to expand their engagement over time or their level of sophistication toward a developmental goal. The third strategy, Data Collection, helps teachers to focus on engagement during each routine of the day while tracking what is happening. The last two strategies are Writing Functional Classroom Goals, and Integrating Therapy into Classroom Routines. The book provides explanations of each strategy, as well as instructions for implementation, practical examples, and performance checklists.This book developed out of a federally funded research project called Improving Engagements in Preschoolers with Disabilities and has been used extensively in early childhood classrooms.

This user-friendly book presents research-based best practices for serving families of children with special needs from birth to age 6. Expert contributors demonstrate how early intervention and early childhood special education can effectively address a wide range of family concerns, which in turn optimizes children's development and learning. Tightly edited, the volume offers indispensable tools for assessing families; identifying and capitalizing on their strengths; providing information, support, and coaching; collaborating with parents and teachers to address children's functional needs in the context of everyday routines; and coordinating care. Over a dozen reproducible checklists and forms help professionals immediately implement the techniques and strategies described.

The book will appeal to early childhood professionals, preschool special educators, social workers, clinical psychologists, and other professionals who provide early intervention services to children with disabilities and their families. It will also be a valuable text for graduate-level courses.