Response To Intervention Essay

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a broad and systematic approach for using different kinds of assessments during instructional times to guide students in areas of weakness. It has become a system that is used in all grades, kindergarten through twelfth grade. Some preschools have begun to show an interest in RTI, and may use a similar approach within their classrooms. RTI focuses on children who have a specific learning disability in reading, writing or mathematics. The program monitors each child’s progress with assessments and small group interventions. RTI has become somewhat of an innovation for grades K-12. It is a new way of helping children who show an area of difficulty. The traditional model was waiting for children to fail repeatedly in a specific area before referring them for special education services. Now with RTI students can have an intervention in that one specific area. “Just as in the public schools, there is a pressing need in the early childhood field to customize teaching and learning to address the needs of an increasingly diverse population of young children and families” (Buysse, pg. 4). There are lots of children who have a variety of weaknesses, but with a program like RTI, those weaknesses can be addressed quickly and in a way that will better suit the child. Interventions
The program is used to catch students who fall below typical levels for their age and grade. The next step is to put those children in an intervention program with the correct area of need. The purpose of RTI is to utilize assessments as a way to monitor progress. Five Individual Growth and Development indicators are “oral language (Picture Naming), phonological awareness and analysis (Rhyming and First Sounds), alphabet knowledge (Sound Identification) and comprehension (Which One Doesn’t Belong?)” (McConnell, pg. 267). These are easy ways to assess young child enrolled in a preschool