This article describes an authentic, social, inclusive writing activity for young children (preschool to second grade) with and without disabilities engaged in what the second and third authors called "Big Paper." In addition to detailing the activity, recommendations for maximizing the participation of all students and monitoring…

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…

The goal of prompting a child is to prevent him or her from making errors while learning a new skill, and to decrease the amount of time it takes to learn the new skill. As a child shows improvement in performing the skill, adults can fade the amount of assistance provided until the child reaches his or her level of independence. Several prompting…

Early intervention takes its form from a variety of fields. It has its obvious roots in the fields that primarily provide early intervention services--special education, allied health, and early childhood education. Early intervention also draws from public health as a coordinated approach to addressing the biological, psychological, and social…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has documented that 1 in every 88 children is identified with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD; CDC, 2012). Autism is now recognized in children at an earlier age because most researchers agree autism can be reliably identified by the time children reach 24 months (Cox et al., 1999; Stone et…

The purpose of this article is to introduce and describe a model of social power and influence developed by Erchul and Raven (1997). This model describes the decision-making process a consultant would engage in to choose, implement, evaluate as well as the use of strategies that they might use to influence another person to act in a particular…

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 author begins by stating that Mark Wolery has probably done more than anyone else to remind the field that teaching children is the most important thing practioners do in classrooms and that there is research on what good instruction looks like. However, the author asserts that he has a different take on the new (although it began "a…

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…

This article highlights four key behaviors that typify authentic leadership. Authentic leaders (1) exercise influence to reach shared goals; (2) engage in continuous learning; (3) build and nurture relationships; and (4) model behaviors they want others to display. Although the behaviors are presented as distinct, they are inextricably linked and…

Educational research will likely never be able to keep pace with technological innovation. It therefore will become increasingly important that early childhood professionals rely on existing knowledge to effectively evaluate and integrate emerging technology in the natural environment rather than waiting for a broad platform of research to inform…

Challenging behavior is often a source of frustration for parents. Challenging behavior is defined as any behavior that interferes with children's learning and development, is harmful to children and to others, and puts a child at risk for later social problems or school failure (Bailey & Wolery, 1992; Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2003). Children's…

The purpose of this article is to provide a framework that offers a way for early intervention (EI) service providers to better meet the needs of the culturally diverse children and families they serve. This framework was created to organize existing research and literature on cultural responsiveness in a way that fit the unique context of EI. The…

In this article, the author focuses on diversity and working with families in the early childhood field. She has chosen to look to the potential for improvements in the future. It is impossible to predict the future, but there are strategies that can help ensure that practices in early intervention and early childhood special education (EI/ECSE)…

When teacher preparation is disconnected from classroom practice, preservice teachers are left to try to make this connection without the guidance and support of skilled mentors. Practicum or field experiences are essential for effective personnel preparation. Practicum experiences can provide situated learning for preservice teachers to…