Twenty-eight children with and without disabilities were observed during free play in integrated early childhood programs, and associations among program quality indicators and children's play were analyzed. The study attempted to predict dynamic/process measures of program quality (teacher behavior) from global and structural measures of quality…

This article describes a demonstration project that utilized 28 community early childhood programs as intervention placements for 30 preschool-age children with disabilities. Results suggested significant developmental gains for all children. Service delivery characteristics identified as necessary for the effective implementation of intervention…

This paper highlights the need for effective social skills interventions for preschool children with disabilities, reviews available intervention procedures and packages, discusses factors affecting the impact of social skills interventions in early childhood special education, and reviews research efforts to increase the impact of these…

This study, based on observation of 28 children with autism in an integrated preschool, explored whether differing levels of autistic behavior were associated with the presence of nondisabled children or with the presence of other children with autism. Results indicated significantly decreased levels of autistic behavior corresponding to the close…

This study of 86 children (ages 30-67 months) attending a community screening clinic found that 2 factors--parents' concerns about speech, language, or cognitive skills, and parents' ratings of the child's activity on a temperament scale--accounted for 27% of the variance in the likelihood of referral to early intervention services. (Author/JDD)

This review of the literature on functional assessment and treatment of challenging behavior in children and adults with developmental disabilities first discusses functional assessment methods and then research issues, including informant assessment, direct observation assessment, and experimental (functional) analysis. The implications of this…

This article describes a hospital-based education program that provides early intervention services to infants with chronic health impairments and developmental disabilities and their families during hospitalization. Emphasis is on family-centered care and transition to home/community services. An additional benefit is education of other health…

PEECH (Programing for Early Education of Children with Handicaps) is a center-based program combining child-initiated and teacher-directed activities for children with mild to moderate disabilities, ages 3-5. Results of an evaluative study at the demonstration site and replication sites revealed participants' improvement in receptive and…

This paper presents a theoretical model illustrating L. Siegel's revisionist conceptualization of learning disabilities and then presents an alternative underachievement model. The paper argues that the alternative model applies standard regression procedures which would lead to a more appropriate definition of learning disabilities and applies…

This paper reviews the recent history of psychoeducational testing, examines attempts to link assessment with instruction within the information processing domain, and presents a model of a general assessment-instruction procedure that classroom and specialist teachers could use in effective remediation and instruction practices. (JDD)

Interviews with 27 regular class elementary teachers confirmed that teachers hold consistent and coherent belief systems about the needs of at-risk and exceptional students and the teacher's role and responsibilities. Teachers with "preventive" beliefs had higher self-efficacy scores than those with a "restorative" (assuming that problems reside…

This paper argues for the role of an applied cognitive science perspective in education. It discusses the relevance and inadequacy of the brains metaphor and the computing metaphor, the parallel distributed processing nature of learning, and the importance of situational variables. Contributions of applied cognitive science to mathematics,…

This paper reviews the rationale and behavioral interventions commonly used for teaching compliance to individuals with mental retardation and the role of ethics in the use of such interventions. The paper examines issues in deciding whether compliance is an appropriate objective for an individual and whether interventions designed to achieve…

This study of the development of friendship found that adults (n=9) with developmental disabilities living in small group homes and a nondisabled comparison group (n=7) had similar numbers of close relationships, whereas disabled residents of large facilities (n=11) had fewer close friends than either of the other two groups. (Author/JDD)

A panel of experts identified 13 seminal literature contributions in the area of educating persons with severe disabilities, and the 13 works were then rank ordered by a self-identified panel. The study also conducted content analyses and examined the particular journals publishing the classic articles. (Author/JDD)