Parent-mediated intervention can enhance parents' competence in supporting parent-child social interactions. Research and current policy have highlighted the importance of building family capacity in supporting parents to help children with autism develop social communication abilities. Parents who experienced parent-mediated interventions have…

Advancing Social-Communication and Play (ASAP) is a classroom-based intervention targeting the social-communication and play development of preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder. We used a multimethod approach to measuring intervention fidelity, including adherence, exposure, treatment differentiation, and quality of treatment…

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…

This review traces the evolution from 1971 to the present of a national technical assistance (TA) program to support the creation, expansion, and improvement of services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs. From its beginning as a TA resource for demonstration projects, to linking outreach projects' expertise with state…

The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center was charged by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs from October 2001 through September 2006 to develop, implement, and evaluate an approach to technical assistance (TA) that would result in sustainable systems change in state early intervention and…

Perceptions of the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process for children with disabilities were assessed in a statewide (North Carolina) survey of approximately 600 child service coordinators. Divergent viewpoints about the usefulness and process of developing the IFSP emerged, depending on the program with which the child service…

Describes Partnerships for Inclusion, a North Carolina statewide project providing technical assistance (TA) to communities as they develop and coordinate inclusive services for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities and their families. Outlines the model's development, the project's core services, strategies for promoting…

The philosophical, legal, moral, economic, and empirical bases supporting educating teachers to teach both typically and atypically developing infants, toddlers, and preschoolers and to work with their families are presented. Content for such integrated teacher education curricula and certification standards are recommended. Efforts by…