Cara''s Kit for Toddlers: Creating Adaptations for Routines and Activities

To make sure all toddlers in your early childhood program are participating, learning, and thriving, you need to master the art of choosing and using effective adaptations. Practical solutions are in CARA's Kit: a guidebook and CD-ROM brimming with step-by-step ideas for adapting environments, activities, and materials for children 18 to 36 months.

A follow-up to the bestselling CARA's Kit for Preschoolers, this real-world guide to successful adaptations is aligned with recommended practices in early childhood special education and early intervention. You'll use this complete kit to

• implement adaptations in key areas: environment, daily schedule, activities/routines, materials, and requirements or instruction
• increase engagement and participation for all children, including those with disabilities, challenging behaviours, and other special needs
• create and use adaptations anywhere in a home, a child care centre, or any other type of early childhood setting
• improve every aspect of toddlers' development, including physical, social, emotional, communication, and cognitive growth
• help toddlers make progress toward program standards by creating an environment where all children learn
• make daily activities run smoothly by addressing children's everyday challenges
• select and use the least intrusive adaptations to help a child participate

Includes adaptations for

• play time
• music time
• art and sensory experiences
• story time
• active movement
• circle time
• community outings
• drop off/pick up
• toileting
• nap time
• meal time
• cleaning up
• transition between activities

With CARA's Kit, you'll have a reader-friendly, full-color quick guide with invaluable tips and suggestions, a clear six-step process for planning and implementing adaptations, and dozens of possible solutions for increasing child participation in activities and routines. You'll also get a multimedia CD-ROM with everything you need to make adaptations work:

• a how-to audio presentation in English and Spanish
• suggested adaptations
• more than 25 PowerPoint slides for preparing a group to use CARA's Kit
• an instrument to assess activities/routines
• printable forms for generating ideas and recording notes on your chosen adaptations and their results.

Great for self-study or professional development group sessions, CARA's Kit is a must for early childhood teams across a wide range of settings. You'll use it year after year to ensure the best possible learning environment for young children with and without special needs.