Illinois Early Learning Project

Illinois Early Learning Project is an interview podcast from a project housed in the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and funded by the Illinois State Board of Education. Its guests are mostly researchers and practitioners, and its questions are mostly practical. In recent episodes Natalie Danner opens by reading out each guest's background, then moves through questions about what something is, how it works with young children and what adults can do with it. The mood is warm. She affirms often, and guests answer in organized, usable pieces. 'Cozy Corners in the Classroom' shows the pattern well. Caroline Hiskey and Grace Lady, both studying early childhood special education at Vanderbilt University, are the guests, and Hiskey breaks the teaching into three routines: when to go to the cozy corner, what to do once there, and how to return to class activities. The conversation warns against sending children there as a consequence, which risks turning the space into a timeout spot with a negative association. Then come smaller ideas, such as a sentence strip reading 'I feel' with a blank, a birthday cake poster for practicing breaths, portable cozy corner boxes, and family events where parents make their own for home or car rides. That conversation also points back to an earlier episode, 'What is the Pyramid Model?', which makes a sensible companion. The math conversation moves differently. Its guest, who leads the Early Math Collaborative, insists that early math is not easy just because it is early, that sorting and sets come before counting, and that preschool math lives in words, actions and things children can see and touch rather than written symbols. A dramatic play table becomes the hinge between counting plates and the social question of whether there is enough for everyone. 'AAC and Belonging: Communication and Friendships', with Dr. Susan Johnston of the University of Utah, frames augmentative and alternative communication as individualized, able to work alongside a child's existing speech, and bound up with attachment, friendships and fewer frustrated moments. The wider list of titles maps a broad field. Literacy appears through 'The Science of Reading in Preschool: What Is Helpful in Pre-reading?' and 'Building Literacy Through Reggio Emilia Inspiration'; classroom philosophies through Montessori, the Project Approach and nature-based preschool; health and screening through food allergies and developmental screenings. Inclusion is the thread that keeps returning, from 'Anti-Ableism in Preschool: How Do We Talk About It?' to episodes on autism characteristics, infants and toddlers with disabilities in child care, and the itinerant teaching model. A group of 2020 and 2021 episodes looks at the pandemic through parents, a preschool teacher, a director, the director of a program for infants, toddlers and expectant parents, and a mother of four. The show also turns toward the adults and the room itself, with episodes on coaching, on teaming in the PreK classroom, and on teaching where many languages are spoken. It suits anyone responsible for a young child's day who wants specific moves rather than slogans.