Restoring Children's Right to Play Outside , by Mary Rivkin, emphasizes the need for every child to play outdoors. Throughout the text, photographs of children with and without disabilities are shown in a variety of outdoor play scenarios. All stakeholders need continuing training and technical assistance as they work to successfully include children with disabilities. Families and providers should be involved in the entire process of identifying training needs, developing a system to meet those needs, and designing, delivering, and evaluating the training and technical assistance. Resources can be pooled by sharing training opportunities among child care, Head Start, public school, and other agencies and programs that serve children with disabilities and their families.
Training provides another opportunity to develop a coordinated system of services.
Training programs should be evaluated and effective practices widely shared. Training and technical assistance systems need to be user-friendly and customized to the specific needs of the community. Administrators should investigate opportunities for distance learning via satellite and on-line services. Distance learning can be particularly applicable for States, Territories and Tribes that deal with many child care providers in isolated rural areas. The instructor and participants are able to see and talk with each other at all sites.