Early and accurate identification of special needs, coupled with an appropriate course of treatment and educational plan, is important to academic progress, in particular for economically disadvantaged children with fewer family resources to catch up if they fall behind. A first step in improving mechanisms to promote early identification is to…

Plans to improve literacy instruction (N = 1,504) developed by teachers and early literacy experts in coaching sessions (N = 280) conducted in 31 Head Start classrooms were examined to describe a general trajectory of coaching with regard to content coverage, pedagogical emphasis (instructional material, teaching behavior), and progression (new,…

The majority of eligible children cannot access early intervention services in Turkey, often because they are not assessed. The authors adapted the "Ages and Stages Questionnaires" (ASQ) for Turkish children ages 3 to 72 months. Study participants consisted of 375 children who were classified as at risk for developmental delays, 564 children…

An exploratory case study was undertaken to investigate the perspectives and experiences of six early intervention providers as they adopted and implemented a collaborative consultation approach to home visiting in urban neighborhoods. Survey, semistructured interview, and focus group methods were used over a 2-year period to obtain data about…

In great demand are efficient mechanisms for delivery of evidence-based interventions for promoting social-emotional development and early positive behavior of all children, and especially for those with or at risk for disabilities. The rise of Internet use has created potentially new avenues for intervention delivery, which, when paired with the…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of functional communication training on elopement when consultation support is delivered via desktop videoconferencing. An ABAB design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of functional communication training to reduce the elopement of a preschool student with autism. Intervention development,…

Progress monitoring and data-based intervention decision making have become key components of providing evidence-based early childhood special education services. Unfortunately, there is a lack of tools to support early childhood service providers' decision-making efforts. The authors describe a Web-based system that guides service providers…

Use of a case-based hypermedia resource (HR) was examined in a Web-based early literacy coaching intervention with pre-kindergarten teachers of at-risk children. Web usage logs, written records of coach feedback to teachers on their instruction, and a teacher questionnaire were the primary data sources. Visits to the HR content pages were unevenly…

This study utilizes students' journaling and video-recording of field experience teaching sessions as vehicles for inquiry into the development of the process of productive reflection within the piloting phase of an experimental course, designed by the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (NCRECE). The NCRECE course is…

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), LitTECH Outreach was a 3-year technology-based preschool literacy project conducted by staff at the Center for Best Practices in Early Childhood, a research and development division of the College of Education and Human Services at Western Illinois…

Eighty-two Head Start preschoolers were assessed with a peer rating measure of sociometric status, the Social Skills Rating System for Teachers (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), an Overt Aggression scale culled from items from the Aggressive Behavior subscale of the CBCL-TRF (Achenbach, 1997), and teacher ratings of relational aggression (Crick, Casas, &…

Early Head Start services are typically offered through home- or center-based delivery models. A formative evaluation of an example of each service delivery model was conducted. The purpose was to examine the issues involved in the implementation of these two service delivery models relative to the content of services, intensity of services,…

Analyses of the peak and predominant toy play of 17 preschool children with mental retardation and 17 preschool children without mental retardation are presented. Groups were matched on developmental age and sex and observed during both a home-based independent play situation and classroom-based free play. Results are presented for 1) a comparison…

Individualized family service plans (IFSPs) should reflect the concerns and priorities of the families for which the plan is written. Families with low incomes that live in rural areas may have unique concerns and priorities due to their financial circumstances and where they live. In this study, qualitative methods were used to examine the…

Educators have continually sought to achieve a balance between a phonics-based, code-emphasis program and a more holistic, meaning-based approach to emergent literacy instruction. This article describes an integrated phonics and literature-based approach to developing children's emergent literacy skills. These skills included alphabet knowledge,…