Teaching Preschool Children with Developmental Delays Critical Concepts in Fire Safety: a Sociocultural Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to teach fire safety concepts to preschool children with developmental delays. Participants included 14 preschoolers enrolled in two central Oklahoma special education classrooms. All students were categorized as having a developmental delay. Six of the participants were also categorized as Deaf/hearing impaired. An adapted fire safety curriculum was implemented in the students' classrooms for 10 days. Students' scores on a pre- and post-test assessing their fire safety knowledge along with students' occurrences of reflective dialogue were recorded and coded to test the hypotheses. Participants did demonstrate increased knowledge of the fire safety concepts presented. Participants from Classroom Two evidenced significant increases in their reflective dialogue. Confounding variable, such as excessive absenteeism and a wide range of expressive language were evident and are best explained through discussion of the sociocultural environment represented in both student characteristics and classroom variables.