Tess is a joyful eight-year old girl with epilepsy, frontal lobe dysfunction, and dyspraxia, as well as delays in language, fine motor, and gross motor skills. However, despite her disabilities, Tess happily embraces life. With assistance from a few support professionals, Tess currently functions successfully in a regular education second grade…

The promotion of language and social skill development for young children occurs in multiple contexts with a range of empirically validated methods. One specific intervention strategy used to promote language and communication would be to arrange the environment so that it is structured to elicit a range of communicative functions, such as…

Transitions--from hospital to home, early intervention to preschool, child care to school--are times of major change for children and families. The resources presented in this article can be used to build the capacity of family members, professionals, and administrators to understand and support transition practices that are thoughtful,…

As professionals and families work together to identify and celebrate the strengths and resources unique to each family, new and innovative ways to describe and discuss family characteristics are needed. The eco-map, borrowed from social science disciplines, is one method used to describe family strengths and resources. The eco-map was developed…

Many teachers and other service providers struggle with trying to address the many skills that are important for young children to acquire during the preschool years. Early Literacy Initiative project (Project ELI) is a comprehensive, two-tiered, early language and literacy intervention model that includes activities for all children as well as…

The home is the most frequently used location for providing early intervention supports and services. However, practices to address child development outcomes have shifted from direct, hands-on "treatment" to supporting families through collaboration and consultation so that they can promote their child's development by using identified…

Home visiting is a common method of providing early intervention services to families. The reason home visitors in early intervention programs begin working with a young child and his or her family is usually because the child has a developmental delay, diagnosed disability, or is at risk for developing a delay. It seems reasonable for a home…

Learning about mathematics begins in the early years. Through their everyday activities, young children build important foundational knowledge and understanding of mathematics, especially when adults provide specific opportunities to learn and practice concepts and skills. Young children develop early on an informal understanding of important…

Curiosity, wonder, creativity, questions, initiation by the child, and framing by the teacher--all these characterize the project approach. Projects can be an invaluable part of any curriculum, providing opportunities for children to study subjects they find interesting in detail. Project work is not a method one uses after the "real" teaching has…

This article describes the use of Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) to assess child and program outcomes. IGDIs do not provide all information needed to plan and implement effective services for infants and toddlers, but they do provide frequent data that can be used to make good decisions about interventions. Even though IGDIs…

Many individuals who work with young children between birth and age 8 assume that literacy activities must be planned and executed as elaborate, formal lessons. The increasing pressure seeping through national accountability measures and the renewed focus on early literacy is trickling down to this age group. The Division for Early Childhood of…

Early movement successes for young children are related to performing activities of daily living without assistance or with minimum assistance, recreational opportunities, and overall health wellness, growth, and development. As children are provided with frequent opportunities to participate in everyday fun and engaging physical activities, they…

Early literacy development is the gateway to reading and future academic success. Learning about sound-letter correspondence and basic decoding strategies are but two fundamental skills that have been found to support this later success. In addition, an emphasis on environmental print (e.g., McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Shell) and functional print (e.g.,…

The individualized family service plan (IFSP) is the cornerstone document that guides supports for infants and toddlers receiving early intervention through Part C of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The outcomes included on the IFSP reflect what everyone in the child's life values as important for the child right now. The…

Like individuals, families undergo transitions. In fact, families have been described as going through stages of development that are reflected in changes in the family's role and functioning. In addition to the transitions experienced by families with children, families of children with disabilities often undergo additional transitions. The focus…