This Practice Brief was developed as result of the roundtable dialogue that occurred at the 2019 PBIS [Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports] Leadership Forum in Chicago, Illinois, for the purpose of exploring how all classes on school campuses can meet the developmental needs of students, specifically our youngest students.

The four major components of developmentally appropriate practice (curriculum, adult-child interaction, relationships between home and program, developmental evaluation) are used as the framework for analyzing differences and similarities of recommended practices in early childhood education and early childhood special education. (Author/DB)

This paper chronicles the development of two children with severe disabilities who were fully included in a community child care center that implemented a developmentally appropriate play-based curriculum. Data indicate that the children made progress in all areas of development over the nine-month school year. (Author/DB)

This final report discusses the outcomes of a federally funded study of nine toddlers and preschoolers (ages 29-63 months) with a variety of disabilities. The project investigated the effectiveness of embedding systematic instruction within inclusive, developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), play-based environments to teach young children with…

The use of naturalistic teaching procedures in developmentally appropriate early childhood settings was evaluated in two single subject studies. Acquisition and maintenance of skills within developmentally appropriate play contexts were demonstrated by a preschooler with Down's syndrome and one with mild developmental delay. (DB)