The DEC Recommended Practices provide guidance to families and professionals about the most effective ways to improve learning outcomes and promote development of young children, birth through age 5, who have, or are at-risk for, developmental delays or disabilities. "Assessment: Recommended Practices for Young Children and Families" is…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on prevention and intervention in kindergarten through grade 2 is optimal because reading difficulties become expensive and challenging to remediate as students become older. The Individuals with Disabilities Act of 2004 allows districts to do just this, with 15 percent of…

Early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) practitioners participating in the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) process must understand age-expected development, the ages at which children typically acquire different skills. This resource provides answers to commonly asked questions about age anchoring as it applies to the COS…

Early childhood professionals: looking for an effective way to ensure coordinated, family-centered services for young children and families? Discover the why and how of the primary service provider (PSP) approach to teaming, the widely used, evidence-based model that more and more states are adopting to strengthen care and services and improve…

Research shows that a child's social and behavioral skills affect the development of cognitive and physical abilities. Set students on a path to success and have fun doing it with this activity-packed second edition of "Wanna Play". The authors provide hundreds of activities that help children learn how to behave appropriately and make friends.…

This article on professional roles in early intervention introduces the concept of expanding roles to include collaborative reflective inquiry within communities of practice as one way to reform professional practices. It suggests that reflection within communities of practice extends the understanding of individual professionals but also holds…

This article discusses ways that early intervention team members can improve their communication, qualities of effective teams, roles that members assume on teams, a step-by-step process for creating a transdisciplinary team, verbal and nonverbal skills necessary for successful communicative interaction, and behaviors that serve as barriers to…

This 43-minute videotape demonstrates a six-step family-centered transdisciplinary arena approach to assessment and service plan development for young children with disabilities. The early intervention transdisciplinary team consists of the family and professionals from various disciplines, working together to share information and skills across…

This article describes techniques, used in a family-centered early intervention project, that both assist in accomplishing the goals of the Individualized Family Service Plan process and create opportunities for families to display their present competencies and acquire new ones to meet the needs of their children with communication disorders.…

This article discusses the importance of using a family-centered approach in early childhood intervention and practices that integrate child assessment within the context of the family. Strategies for developing an integrated approach within the different components of the assessment process are described. Principles for assessments with family…

This guide was developed to accompany a 43-minute video that introduces early intervention personnel to the transdisciplinary (TD) assessment process. The transdisciplinary team consists of the family and professionals from various disciplines, working together to share information and skills across disciplinary boundaries in assessment, program…

This paper presents the requirements for family participation on multidisciplinary teams under Public Law 99-457, reviews literature on family participation on teams working with handicapped children, identifies factors that influence team functioning, and suggests how team members can facilitate family involvement. (Author/JDD)

This article describes an observational assessment procedure designed for infants, toddlers, and preschool children. The procedure is intended to link assessment with intervention by determining what supports and what compromises a child's performance, through a holistic team assessment involving a speech-language pathologist, motor specialist,…

This keynote address states that early intervention services must consider more than professional analyses in their planning. It describes findings from focus group discussions with Latino families of children with disabilities, emphasizing the need to match early intervention services with parent expectations and goals, and the need for services…

This training guide is a product of the Family-Centered Interdisciplinary Training Project in Early Intervention (Wisconsin), a project that is addressing the need for preservice training of professionals to serve infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities and their families. The project is focused on students from the disciplines…