Child Development Center

CDC School Program

The UCI Child Development Center School program consists of several components that were designed to take research to practice to help children with ADHD survive in the classroom:

Academics

Each class is taught by a credentialed teacher and supported by behavioral specialists. The Orange Department of Education operates the school’s academic component as a general education program which has been modified to accommodate the unique needs of children with attention and behavioral problems.

Behavior Modification

Point System - Students earn points every half hour throughout the day for their behavior in the classroom, during the group socials skills session, at recess, and at lunch recess. In the classroom, they are given feedback on the number of points they earned during each 30 minute period. Children can earn points for getting started, following directions, attending to assigned tasks, interaction with peers and adults, and following classroom rules.

Daily Reinforcement - Each child’s percentage of points for the day are tallied prior to the last 30 minutes of the day. The percentage of points earned is used to determine the types of positive reinforcement activities in which the child may participate.

Daily Behavioral Report Card - A daily report card is sent home to inform the parent of their child’s progress.

Weekly Reinforcement - In addition to daily reinforcement, children earn a weekly reinforcement activity known as "Funday Friday." In order to earn weekly reinforcement, children must earn 90% of the weekly points possible.

Level System - A level system is used to motivate children to maintain a high level of appropriate positive behavior over an extended period of time. Level Privileges are awarded and more responsibility given to children in higher levels.

Parent Participation

Parent Training - Parenting a child with ADHD and related behavioral issues can be challenging. Parents of children in the program are required to take a Parent Training Class. The parent training class is to designed to empower parents to be proactive in addressing parent-child problems through the use of skills learned in the class. The parent training class also serves to extend into the home the behavior modification techniques which are practiced in the school.

Multiple Family Groups - Following completion of Parent Training, parents attend bimonthly multiple family groups, which encourage information sharing, mutual support, development of parenting skills, discussion of common problems, and facilitation of communication and co-ordination between parents and the school staff. Meetings are held during the day so parents can meet with clinical and educational staff and observe their children in the school setting. Cooperative family group sessions are arranged for parents to practice and perfect their use of the behavior management skills learned in the parent training class.

Social Skills

Social Skills Program - Children receive intensive social skills training for one hour each day in small group sessions in order to enhance social interactions with peers and adults. Groups are led by trained social skills counselors in combination with behavioral therapists. Examples of social skills taught are good sportsmanship, co-operation, following directions, problem solving, sharing, and participating successfully in a group.

Group Rewards - The Big Deal chart is a group reward system is used to reward groups of children for "Big Deals" - for overcoming difficulties, and demonstrating desired, appropriate behavior. Parents are encouraged to give big deal points for using appropriate socials skills and other targeted behavior at home.

Transition

The goal of our program is to provide parents and children the skills to adapt to the challenges they will face in their neighborhood school or private school. For this reason, transition is an important component of our program. When a student shows indications that he or she would be ready to transition out of the CDC School, usually after one to two years, the transition process begins. The purpose of the transition process is to find the best, outside placement; one that will meet all of student’s needs. Because of its comprehensive nature, the transition process can be lengthy and so may begin well before the student is completely ready to transition.

The first step in planning a transition is to identify the placements you would like to explore for transition. This is either the public or private school. If you are planning on transitioning to a public school, we will contact a representative of the district who is aware of all possible placements within the district. We will make the call to the district to identify an appropriate team from the district to begin the process. This meeting should also include your home school. We include a representative of the district who is aware of all placements so that the options for finding a good match for your child are greater. If we only discuss transition with the home school, we limit our options for meeting your child’s needs and may get the false impression that the district does not have anything that can meet your child’s needs. Depending on your child’s unique needs, we may request specialists from the district to attend the meeting.

The first meeting is a brainstorming session with our staff and the identified district staff. We generally do not have parents at this first meeting. This initial meeting is for the purpose of sharing information on the specific strategies that would need to be in place in the classroom to maintain the gains that the student has made at the CDC. Providing the district with a specific description of what a classroom that meets your child’s needs would look like, we can better evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed placement. It gives the district a blueprint for success. We inform the district team that it is our goal to help them find a placement or combination of resources that will meet the child’s identified needs. A meeting between our staff and the district staff allows for an open discussion of alternatives. The goal is to come up with a successful plan for transition that clearly meets all of your child’s needs. Once the UCI and district team come to a consensus as to the classroom and combination of resources that would best address the identified needs of the child a second meeting with the parents is scheduled to present the proposed transition plan. At this point parents add their input and ask questions concerning the proposed plan.

If it is determined during the parent meeting that there are additional resources within the district that are needed to address the identified concerns than special education testing may be requested. The reason to request special education is because it adds a resource that your child would not otherwise access. Be careful what you ask for because you may get it and it may not be at all what your child needs. If in the second transition meeting it is determined that we do not need special education resources and we have identified a classroom teacher, a visit is arranged to the classroom. The purpose of the visit is to assess whether the strategies that are recommended to meet the child’s needs are in fact being implemented. Parents are encouraged to objectively view the classroom to gather information to determine if the classroom setting matches the child’s needs. On some occasions a psychologist from the center or teacher may visit the classroom to assist in determining if the classroom is a good match with your child’s needs.

If your child is being tested for special education the second meeting should occur after the testing is complete. We need to allow enough time (50 business days) for the testing to be complete so a meeting can occur with enough time to plan transition.

Once a classroom teacher has been identified and parents agree that this is a good match, a plan is developed to practice facilitate transition. For example, the CDC teacher will develop a Daily Report Card (DRC) that has feedback only 2 or 3 times a day on no more than 5 behaviors. This will be sent home to the parents and the parents will provide the end of the day reinforcement. The child will no longer get reinforcement at school. The DRC will be based on a system that is agreeable to the transition teacher. We will also explain to the transition teacher the social skills terminology and how it can be used to prompt the child to make better choices. Once everything is in place we establish the best time for transition to occur.

Search

UCI Resources

CDC School Program