Preschooler Marin Smith spends her days at the First Presbyterian Preschool in Atlanta, learning the basics of reading and writing and playing with her peers.  

She had help from College of Education student Sabrina Henry, who came to the preschool once a week and helped her maneuver around the classroom and on the playground. The stroke Marin suffered as an infant affects the way she moves, and Henry was there to hold her waist and guide her around the classroom.  

Henry, who will graduate from the College of Education's Birth Through Five Program this spring, worked one-on-one with Marin last semester as she learned alongside her peers. By keeping her in a general education classroom and working with her individually on her daily tasks - an educational approach known as inclusion - Henry showed Marin how other preschool students respond and participate.   

Henry and several other students in the college's Department of Early Childhood Education see this inclusion approach firsthand through their internships with the Adaptive Learning Center.  The center places student interns at one of four preschools in Atlanta, where they spend one day a week for five weeks working with a child on their daily activities. These COE interns also learn how to interact with children with special needs and their parents, to help set goals for each child and to communicate the children's progress with the lead teachers.  

College of Education students have been benefiting from these ALC internships since fall 2009, when Kelle Laushey, special education liaison for the COE's Birth Through Five Program, was looking for internship opportunities where her students could work with infants and toddlers. She sat down with Kathy Ward, ALC program manager, to discuss the possibilities of working with the Adaptive Learning Center.  

"A lot of the schools the ALC partners with have the same approach and I thought it would be good for our students to see inclusion in practice," Laushey said. "It's a different approach than what they would see elsewhere."  

To continue reading about these internships, click here.  

 Photo caption: Kelle Laushey, special education liaison for the COE's Birth Through Five Program, works with the Adaptive Learning Center to place her students in inclusion classrooms in the metro-Atlanta area.