All children benefit from intentional interactions and instruction to become socially and emotionally competent. Over the past 30 years, evidence-based intervention tactics and strategies have been integrated to establish comprehensive, multitiered, or hierarchical systems of support frameworks to guide social-emotional interventions for young…

Special education placements for more than 69,000 preschoolers with disabilities were examined within and across five southern states. Data were gathered from the 2007 December 1st Child Count reported to the U.S. Department of Education. All states examined offered state-funded prekindergarten programs. Analyses compared disproportionate…

Parents of young children participating in either Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C early intervention or IDEA Part B-619 preschool special education programs were surveyed to obtain a consumer science perspective of the practitioners who were the children's primary service providers. Parents were asked to make judgments of…

This study focused on the practices used by specialists and early childhood education personnel that contributed to the successful inclusion of 7 young children with significant disabilities who were served in typical community settings, such as preschools and childcare centers. Analysis identified 4 elements common to each of the research sites:…

A study investigated the interplay among language, culture, and disability in 112 children in inclusive preschools. Results found a lack of language goals on Individualized Education Programs, interaction of language with disability, the influence of communication skills on peer interactions, and the need for more training for service providers.…

Play represents an important component of early childhood education and is linked to the development of communication and social skills, particularly for children with developmental disabilities who often lack play skills. Structured teaching is a systematic method that entails visually arranging and organizing the learning environment. Although…

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) academic skills supports their future opportunities. For example, early number sense skills are predictive of future mathematical success for all children including children with ASD. Yet, research on foundational early childhood mathematics skills of children with ASD is limited. This study…

Adopting an "act-in-context" approach is helpful to researchers investigating situational variability in children's active engagement in preschool classrooms. Aligned with this approach, we propose an empirical pathway and a conceptual model to support examinations of contextual factors hypothesized to impact active engagement as well as…

Data indicate that children with disabilities typically display lower levels of proficiency in mathematics than their nondisabled peers, with this difference remaining stable over time. Although literature exists regarding school-age children, few studies have examined early numeracy skills of preschoolers and child characteristics associated with…

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between 32 typically developing preschoolers' attitudes and play behaviors toward their classmates with disabilities or developmental delays. Children's attitudes toward peers with disabilities were assessed using three methods: child interviews, sociometric peer ratings, and a social acceptance…

Mathematics and numeracy are valuable cognitive learning areas that need to be addressed during the early childhood years. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an intervention strategy comprised of creating opportunities, prompting, providing consequences, and prompt fading when teaching preschool children with…

Quality literacy instruction in preschool can be critical to the future academic success for all children, but may be even more so for children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine progress in emergent literacy skills of young children with disabilities, compared with their typical peers, in an inclusive preschool setting.…

A decision model was used to systematically construct function-based interventions for the disruptive behaviors of three young children (ages 3.75-4.75 years) receiving special education services in inclusive preschool settings. The study was conducted in three phases. In Part 1, descriptive functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) were conducted.…