Early Childhood Professionals Advance Skills, Services

Fifteen early childhood professionals received Master of Education degrees from the University of Maine in May as part of a federally funded program designed to increase the number and quality of personnel serving children birth to age five with disabilities. The graduates completed research and projects designed to build capacity and better serve children and their families at agencies and organizations around the state.

The Training Options for Early Intervention Personnel (TOP) project is supported by a U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services grant and coordinated by Assistant Research Professor Sandy Doctoroff of CCIDS. The UMaine College of Education and Human Development awards the degree.

The TOP project offers graduate study in early intervention/early childhood special education for practicing professionals in early intervention, early care, education, and related fields. Participants can pursue programs leading to an endorsement as a Maine Teacher of Young Children with Disabilities—Birth to School-Age Five and/or to a graduate degree. The program is designed to help students gain competencies in leadership and administration, as well as skills to provide effective direct services to young children and their families. Courses are offered at locations throughout Maine.

During a recent recognition ceremony at CCIDS in Orono, TOP graduates presented an overview of projects designed to expand the capacity of the service delivery system for young children with disabilities and their families or to meet needs of the agencies or organizations they work with to better serve children and families. Students include:

Heidi Finson of Charleston is a teacher for Penquis CAP Head Start. The focus of her project was to revise the Penquis Child Development Operations Manual to make program procedures more family focused, user friendly, and efficient. Theresa Giglio of South Portland is a teacher in a program for preschoolers who are deaf. She worked with the Kids’ Project of the Pine Tree Society of Maine whose mission is to provide high-quality, affordable adaptive equipment for children with special needs.

Karen Thomes of Bangor is the inclusive preschool program teacher at Indian Island School. She developed an informational booklet about the services, procedures, and parental rights within the Child Development Services system for Indian Island parents. Michelle Taylor of Dedham is a behavioral consultant for early intervention programs and public schools that serve children with autism and related disorders. She developed an early intervention to special education transition guide for families, early interventionists, and public school educators.

Karen Hopkins of Scarborough is the coordinator of Early Childhood Family and Community Services at the Baxter School for the Deaf. Her goals were to develop and refine the role of her agency in serving infants and toddlers with hearing loss and foster stronger collaboration with the other primary agencies and professionals serving these children and their families. Kate Kline of Thomaston is a developmental therapist who serves children birth to age five with disabilities in homes and preschool settings in Knox County. Her project helped the Toy Library Center in Rockland weather a fiscal crisis and find funds to continue a program that provides social, play, and learning opportunities for children and parents.

Karen Kohlmeyer of Holden is a physical therapist who has worked for United Cerebral Palsy of northeastern Maine and other programs serving children with disabilities. She is starting a community fitness center for children that will provide an inclusive and developmentally appropriate motor development program to benefit children with special needs and their typically developing peers. Diane Nicholson of Cape Elizabeth is director and owner of Ledgemere Country Day School, an inclusive early childhood program in Cape Elizabeth. For her graduate project, she arranged and coordinated a workshop on therapeutic yoga for parents and professionals who serve young children with disabilities. She also obtained corporate sponsorship to purchase and distribute to workshop participants a book and video on yoga for children with special needs.

Debra Crump of Vassalboro is a developmental therapist with Southern Kennebec Child Development Services (CDS), working with children birth to age five with disabilities in their homes and in community preschool and child care settings. She field-tested an expanded professional role that merged some service coordination and developmental therapy responsibilities. She also developed a job and procedures description to guide her agency and other CDS sites, in implementing the model.

Janice LeBlanc of North Waterboro is a developmental therapist with Easter Seals of Maine, who provides home-based services to children birth to five with disabilities in York County. LeBlanc developed and evaluated a pilot peer-mentoring group within her agency for professionals who wanted to gain competence in implementing developmental approaches to intervention with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Donna Casavant of Hampden is a developmental therapist who provides home-based services to children birth to age five in Penobscot County. Casavant carried out case study research on the use of a model transition portfolio she developed to facilitate the transition of a deaf child from early intervention and preschool services to public kindergarten. Tera Kennedy of Morrill provides consultation for developmental therapy services for Knox County Child Development Services and works part-time as a special education teacher for Searsport Elementary School. She developed a customized “Welcome to Our School” book for incoming kindergarten children at Searsport Elementary.

Three graduates from Windham, Tina Cannon, a teacher at Children’s Odyssey, an inclusive early childhood program in Portland; Susan McCormick, co-director of Children’s Odyssey; and Sarah Hill, formerly a service coordinator with Cumberland County Child Development Services, co-coordinated the 2nd annual Maine Division for Early Childhood One-Day Conference: Parents as Partners.

— Kay Hyatt
Adapted with permission from the
College of Education and Human Development Web site