The paper presents the Seventh Annual Report of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to Congress on the status of handicapped children in Head Start programs, including the number of children being served, their handicapping conditions, and the services being provided to them. An overview of Head Start policies on services to…

The article examines service provisions for preschool-aged handicapped students in terms of two legal issues: what constitutes an appropriate program in terms of the intensity/frequency of program length; and how the least restrictive environment provision should be applied to this population. (Author/DB)

Effects of a peer-mediated versus an antecedent prompt condition on the rate of independent movement and appropriate behavior of five handicapped preschool children during three classroom transition periods were evaluated. Results indicated that the antecedent prompt condition was superior. (Author/DB)

The paper describes an ecological-developmental model for planning a child's transition from a preschool special education program to a public school classroom. The model stresses interactions between the various environments in which the child functions. A description of a preschool transition program based on the model is also included.…

A functional model of social competence for handicapped infants and preschoolers involves stimulus situations, behaviors, and outcomes. Socially competent behaviors are assumed to be affected by functional capacity, social awareness, temperament, and learning history. Four outcomes are requirements for socially competent behaviors: behavioral,…

To examine the effectiveness of natural environment language training on social competence, teachers introduced delays during predetermined opportunities with three disabled preschoolers. The number of vocal requests initiated by the Ss increased substantially, and their social competence was enhanced. (CL)

Data were collected for 2,752 students from 22 school districts in two states. In one state, approximately 30 percent of the graduates were placed in regular classrooms while in the other state, 16 percent were found in regular classrooms. Approximately 80 percent of severely disabled preschool graduates were placed in self-contained special…

Questionnaires completed by teachers in mainstreamed preschools and parents whose children attended mainstreamed preschools indicated no significant differences among teacher responses based on type of mainstreaming setting, but there were significant differences concerning the value of preschool mainstreaming, the social interaction of the…

Examples are provided of ways in which gross motor activities are integrated into mathematics, language arts, social studies, art, and music and creative movement concepts for preschool- and primary-age children with special needs. (CL)

Impact evaluation of Retrieval and Acceleration of Promising Young Handicapped and Talented, a model program for gifted and talented handicapped preschoolers, revealed that 28 project children in three sites demonstrated statistically significant gains in self-esteem, purposiveness, creativity, and talent area functioning. (CL)

Analyses of play suggested more sophisticated levels in segregated than integrated settings. There were no differences between the two settings in appropriateness of play, type of interaction, percentage of attending to teacher-directed learning activities, or quality or quantity of their language in the two settings. (Author/CL)

In an effort to assist early childhood professionals to better understand special education practices and procedures in New York State that might affect classroom environment, this paper presents an account of one teacher's search for help with a special needs preschooler. Following a year in which only one-on-one instruction with the boy yielded…

In order to investigate what types of training and technical assistance (TA) are needed by Early Head Start programs in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin (EHS Waves I & II), particularly with regard to children with special needs, the Great Lakes Quality Improvement Center for Disabilities (GLQIC-D) and the Region V…

The parent of a nonhandicapped young child describes how his daughter gained in social skills and understanding by serving as a model child in a preschool program for handicapped children. (CL)

A study investigated the differential effects of psycholinguistic training programs on Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) scores obtained by educable mentally retarded, trainable mentally retarded, and culturally-economically disadvantaged preschool and elementary students. (Author/SW)