This article explores the responsibility of early childhood educators to advocate for young children as both individuals and family members, reviewing legal and administrative guidance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and exploring possible conflicts between family and professional opinions of the child's best interests. The…

This paper describes how the graduate certification and degree program in early intervention and early childhood special education at West Virginia University has incorporated Web components into its existing distance education model, enabling Americans living abroad to enroll in and complete the program. Courses, practicum experiences, program…

This article describes hearing screening procedures and discusses implications and limitations of passing screening tests, being referred for rescreening, and failing the test. Follow-up intervention and evaluation that may be needed for children with hearing loss are discussed, and practical advice for professionals involved with screening and…

This article draws on empirical data and anecdotal examples to support teaching parents of young children with developmental disabilities naturalistic language intervention strategies. It also identifies the skills that parent educators need to be effective and discusses a model for preparing professionals to teach parents. (Contains references.)…

Analysis of transcripts of interviews with 16 Taiwanese mothers of babies with Down syndrome identified two themes. The first theme highlights ways in which mothers talked about the abilities and limitations of their babies; the second describes what appear to be two distinct frames of reference (pessimistic and optimistic) with respect to having…

Coaching in early childhood is an interactive process to promote a parent's or other care provider's ability to support a child's participation in everyday experiences and interactions with family members and peers across settings. This article provides guidelines for early childhood professionals serving young children with disabilities and their…

This review defines service integration in early intervention with young children with disabilities and synthesizes the interpersonal and structural factors that determine its success as documented in the early intervention literature. A table summarizes results of 17 studies on factors that determine or impede successful service integration. The…

This article first reviews the literature regarding temperament and outcomes for children with developmental disabilities and explores methods for integrating temperament information into early intervention practice. It proposes that children with developmental disabilities who present extreme scores in specific domains of temperament may benefit…

This article discusses self-determination for young children and provides a framework for looking at self-determination across routines in a variety of early childhood settings. A self-monitoring set of questions is presented to help practitioners and families in examining contextual and multiple factors, specifically: (1) the child's current…

This article describes medical problems that occur more frequently in young children with Down syndrome. These include common cardiac, hearing, and vision problems and less common thyroid and celiac diseases. Guidelines for preventing dental and obesity problems are followed by suggestions to early interventionists for watching for leukemia, neck…

This article proposes use of birth defects registries in facilitating early intervention. It reports results of a survey to identify state programs that are using, or planning to use, birth defects surveillance systems to identify and refer children and families for services. It provides four case examples and recommended steps to encourage use of…

This study examined the prevalence of otitis media with effusion (OME) in 14 children (ages 8-66 months) with developmental disabilities attending center-based childcare. Although younger children had more OME than older children, children with Down syndrome had the highest incidence of OME regardless of age. Implications of OME for fluctuating…

This article describes the Harris Infant Neuromotor Test (HINT) and reviews investigations into its reliability and validity, normative data, and the sensitivity and specificity of parental opinions of their infants' movement and motor development. It concludes that the HINT is a quick, noninvasive screening tool with potential for the early…

This article examines the clinical aspects of etiology-related behaviors in young children with genetic mental retardation syndromes. Discussion of the concept of behavioral phenotype leads to consideration of how interventionists can best provide more focused and more effective interventions for children with different genetic disorders and…

This article describes two studies that examined the concurrent and predictive validity of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS DP), a measure for identifying children less than 24 months old who are at risk for communication disorders. Findings support the use of prelinguistic predictors and the important…