Universal Design for Learning: From the Start

by Bonnie Blagojevic, Deb Twomey, & Linda Labas

It is circle time, and the preschool children in Karin's classroom are attentive and engaged. Sitting on the edge of the rug, they enjoy singing familiar songs together. During one song, they use the rhythm sticks - up high, down low, and side-to-side, listening to Karin's instructions and following her visual and auditory cues. They read a new story, then act out a familiar one. Two children are seated on inflatable "Disc-O-Sit” cushions, one fully inflated and one partially inflated, to match their particular sensory and muscular needs. This support helps them participate successfully in the group activity.

As circle time concludes, Karin offers activity choices that support the current curriculum topic, how we are alike and how we are different. Children can use markers, finger paints, glitter glue, or a computer drawing program to make a self-portrait. Later in the day, children have an opportunity to dictate, draw, or use a computer program to share with classmates what they enjoy doing, or a picture of something they like. The computer program allows children to choose items from a picture library and create a composition that can be printed out. The child can click on each picture and it will say the word out loud. Tommy who has a speech delay, Mara who is learning English as a second language and Betsy who is visually impaired, are also accommodated by the computer program which can record children's speech, or a song they may want to sing or hum to accompany their drawings.

Karin's many years of teaching experience have contributed to her ability to design curriculum that supports each child’s achievement. Her materials and approaches consider the needs of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners. Activities and routines allow for alternative ways of participating in tasks based on each child's way of attending, organizing information, interacting and understanding of the English language (CAST, 2002). Karin's curriculum reflects key components of a new educational paradigm: universal design for learning. Universal design for learning suggests that instead of creating a curriculum, and then adapting it to meet the needs of individual children in the program, it is better to start off with an instructional design which provides learners with a variety of ways to access and process information and demonstrate what they have learned.

The concept of "Universal Design" originally evolved in the field of architecture. As buildings were retrofitted to accommodate users with disabilities, adding features such as ramps and elevators, two things became obvious. It is not only economically more efficient to build these features into new buildings initially, but it is also aesthetically and functionally better. These special features are useful to the population at large, benefiting people using strollers, shopping carts and bicycles as well as wheel chairs and walkers (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

In the early '90's, educators realized there were similarities between the difficulties accessing buildings and the difficulties many children faced accessing learning through books. Their work, moving from the more limited traditional book format to more flexible multimedia and hypermedia software, helped illustrate that digitizing tools could reach more learners. By altering font size, page contrast, and utilizing audio and read-aloud capabilities, video clips and other features, material is more accessible to students with diverse abilities. These educators realized, as architects had with their building experiences, that applying universal design concepts to curriculum materials from the start is more cost effective than trying to use expensive equipment and adaptations to access information from books, and that many learners would benefit (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

After applying Universal Design concepts to books, the next step was to extend this process to curriculum design, educational materials, and assessment. The phrase “Universal Design for Learning” (UDL) was adopted by educators at CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) to reflect the important difference between universal design for access, which makes information and materials available to children, and universal design for learning, which takes into account an actual gain in knowledge or skills (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

Reading about Karin’s circle time, one might ask: What is new here? How can Universal Design for Learning impact our work as early childhood educators? Isn’t this what best practice in early childhood education should look like? To answer these questions, we must consider what we are doing now, and compare that experience with what Universal Design for Learning suggests is best for children.

Learning theories currently impacting early childhood practice favor multi-sensory approaches and incorporate hands-on learning, authentic assessment and other practices one would expect to see in UDL. We know that even prior to birth babies use their senses to access information about their world, which stimulates their growing brains. Immediately from birth, we should create environments that are rich for exploration through all the senses: touch, taste, sight, sound and smell.

We know that it is important to set learning goals and to design activities which provide many opportunities for children to exercise, explore, and grow in the various domains; language and communication, cognitive, social-emotional and physical. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and the concept of the “hundred languages of children” described in the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education suggest the power and strength of children's ideas, and recognize that children have various intelligences and ways of expressing themselves. Vygotsky’s work highlights the importance of social constructivism, providing opportunities to construct knowledge with others. In authentic assessment, what children have learned is measured in a variety of ways.

What Universal Design for Learning suggests is that all of these early childhood theories and practices be considered and utilized to design, from the start, an environment, curriculum, activities and assessment system that will meet the needs of the greatest numbers of learners. The story of Karin's circle time and activity choices illustrate what an early childhood setting might look like when Universal Design for Learning principles are in place. Karin has considered how to include all the children in her group through thoughtful design of her learning goals and curriculum. An understanding of Universal Design for Learning principles would help Karin utilize what she knows about best practices in early childhood education and more consistently apply these concepts to reach the greatest number of learners.

Where does one begin? If teachers find they are spending a great deal of time preparing a general curriculum which they then must modify for particular learners, proponents of UDL would suggest they consider those modifications and look carefully at the current learning program. Perhaps learning goals need to be altered, or more variety needs to be added to learning activities. Flexibility can be added to the program by offering not only a range of activities and learning materials, but by taking advantage of learning materials which are flexible, like software programs which can provide visual, auditory, and kinesthetic opportunities. Books for young children that also include textures or simple switches activating sounds or voice responses are of interest and improve learning for all young children.

Universal Design for Learning suggests that it is the right of all children to be included and engaged in the general curriculum. This can only happen if there are skilled early childhood educators working in supportive educational environments. While concepts of Universal Design for Learning provide great promise for young children, they also provide a great challenge as we consider ways to make Universal Design for Learning a reality.

References:

CAST (2002). Universal Design for Access and for Learning.
Retrieved September 20, 2002 from http://cast.org/udl/UDforAccessLearning9.cfm

Rose, D. & Meyer, A. Universal Design for Learning Column. Center for Applied Technology (CAST). Journal of Specialized Education Technology: Associate Editor Column. Retrieved September 20, 2002 from JSET Online. (http://jset.univ.edu/15.1/asseds/rose.html)

For more information, here are some related web sites:

Access to the General Education Curriculum for Students with Disabilities http://ericec.org/digests/e615.html

Accommodating All Children in the Early Childhood Classroom (not on universal design, but useful ideas) http://www.circleofinclusion.org/english/accommodating/index.html

Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Connecting with Kids http://aac.unl.edu/yaack/toc.html

CAST’s Three Principals of Universal Design for Learning
http://www.cast.org/research/udl/

CLAS Early Childhood Research Institute
http://www.clas.uiuc.edu/

Curriculum Access and Universal Design for Learning
http://ericec.org/digests/e586.html

Designing for All Children by Vicki L. Stoecklin (Note: This resource has the words "from the start: a ready to learn resource for K-2 educators" on their web site, this was not noticed until after the article was written- it didn't inspire the title of our piece.)
http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/designforall.shtml

Eric Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Popular Topics- Reggio Emilia
http://ericeece.org/reggio.html

Issues: Adapting the Curriculum to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/prek2/issues/702issue.shtm

National Center for Early Development and Learning
http://www.ncedl.org

National Consortium on Universal Design for Learning
http://www.cast.org/udl/index.cfm?i=359

National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
http://www.nectac.org/default.asp

Theory of Multiple Intelligences
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/ResearchMI.htm

Universal Design for Learning
http://jset.unlv.edu/15.1/asseds/rose.html

What is Universal Design for Learning?
http://www.cast.org/ncac/index.cfm?i=372

Young Exceptional Children http://www.dec-sped.org

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org

This is an official publication of The University of Maine
A member of the University of Maine System

Updated: 01/11/2007