Dr. Lydia Carlis, the Director of Education at AppleTree Institute, talks about the importance of RTI in early childhood programs (running time: 2 min., 00 sec.).
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Narrator:
This RTI national online forum is presented by the RTI action network a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Funding is provided by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.
Interviewer:
And Lydia, why do early childhood programs and our children need RTI, that’s my first questions, and I’m going to follow up with another.
Lydia:
Well if you look just at reading, at the research on reading, five to ten percent of children who come to kindergarten ready, need intervening services after, but sixty-five to seventy percent of children who come to kindergarten and they are not prepared for kindergarten need intervening services throughout their school career.
Interviewer:
Ok, and we’re kind of looking for some context here. Don’t all young children develop skills at different rates?
Lydia:
People definitely develop skills at different rates, but there are developmental guidelines for what we know children should be able to do at different ages. And as a social justice issue we really want to ensure that it is not certain children who are not ready and prepared. And right now we see through data across the nation that African American students and children who are English language learners are disproportionately represented in special education and other areas where they’re not getting the services that they need early on so response to intervention in early childhood can support that.
Interviewer:
So it’s not to say that they have special education needs they’re just not getting all the resources.
Lydia:
They have not received the supports they need early on to mitigate some of those deficits.
Interviewer:
Ok.