This article provides practical strategies and techniques that early childhood educators can implement in their classrooms to effectively manage challenging behaviors. The specific strategies addressed fall under the following categories: (a) classroom management, (b) reinforcement, and (c) communication. Suggestions are made for how parents can…

This article provides a compilation of 12 characteristics of resilient young children (Table 1) drawn from research, followed by nine global classroom intervention categories (Table 2) found to be effective in supporting students in developing resilience. In this article, the analysis of resilience research is presented to provide educators with…

The purpose of this article is to provide tools for preschool professionals to plan for transitions between daily routines, to identify challenging transitions during the day, and to offer strategies to support transitions in classrooms to prevent challenging behaviors from occurring due to frequent changes. Specifically, the authors answer three…

Promoting independence in all students is one important part of education. It can be difficult for educators to identify meaningful tasks that students with severe disabilities can complete with full independence. By incorporating visual supports into a student's independent work, the teacher is providing the student with an opportunity to…

This study investigated whether curriculum modifications predicted student and teacher behaviors related to the general education curriculum and if there were differences in ecological, student, and teacher variables depending on the presence of such curriculum modifications. The study observed 45 high school students with disabilities during…

The need to reduce unnecessary referrals of culturally and linguistically diverse learners continues to challenge practitioners in today's schools and classrooms. Discerning learning difference from disability is fundamental to reversing the trend of misidentification and misplacement of diverse students in special education. One effective way for…

This article focuses on early childhood classrooms in which young children with disabilities are enrolled, ideally inclusive classrooms. A foundational assumption about which most early intervention professionals would agree is that young children with disabilities learn from: (1) their experiences (interactions) with their physical environments…

The purpose of this article is to offer preschool teachers strategies for preventing challenging behavior and supporting the development of social skills and emotional competencies. This article is framed in a question and answer format using questions from teachers who the authors have worked with in the past. These questions and strategies are…

This study explored beginning special education teacher quality and the role that knowledge and skill for teaching reading plays in defining quality. The authors examined the relationship between beginning teachers' knowledge for teaching reading and their classroom practices during reading instruction and, further, relationships between classroom…

In this article, the authors present a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework that both special and general education teachers can use in evaluating existing class structures and developing comprehensive classroom management plans for the purpose of managing challenging behaviors. They applied the concept of a three-tiered model of support at…

In recent years, the response to intervention (RTI) model has not only gained popularity as an alternate approach to identifying students with learning disabilities but also offered general education teachers a framework for problem solving at the classroom level. The model emphasizes ongoing progress monitoring of student performance to make…

Becoming a culturally responsive educator has been at the forefront of the movement to reduce inappropriate referrals to special education and disproportionate representation of students of color within special education. However, for many educators, working with a diverse student population can be more difficult when the student comes from a…

Students with an emotional or behavioral disability (EBD) are sometimes judged and feared based on their label before teachers even meet them. These students are different than other students that walk into a classroom, but they should never be feared. They have had more "loops" in their roller coaster ride of adolescent life than the average…

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how itinerant specialists (service providers who provide special education or related services in community-based early childhood settings) can support the implementation of child-focused intervention strategies by classroom teachers, parents, and caregivers between itinerant visits. Implementation…

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with and at risk for disabilities evidence the greatest need for quality instructional programs of all students in our schools because of disproportionate academic underachievement, special education referrals, and disciplinary actions. Authorities on culturally responsive instruction…