It is widely believed that early diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder is essential for better outcome. This is demonstrated by the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to screen all 1.5-2.5-year-old toddlers for autism spectrum disorder. However, multiple longitudinal studies of children diagnosed with autism spectrum…

This study utilized a mixed methods design to analyze responses from a nationally distributed survey of professionals' (N = 1,000) experiences conducting initial evaluations for early intervention and preschool special education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most personnel reported pausing their initial evaluations at some point during the…

Purpose: Sentence diversity is a measure of early language development that has yet to be applied to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The primary aim of this study was to identify whether children with ASD show change in sentence diversity over 6 months of treatment with Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI).…

Children with autism spectrum disorder benefit from early, intensive interventions to improve social communication, and parent-implemented interventions are a feasible, family-centered way to increase treatment dosage. The success of such interventions is dependent on a parent's ability to implement the strategies with fidelity. However,…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often delayed in acquiring social initiation skills utilized during common early childhood activities. A multiple probe design was utilized to assess the efficacy of a shared book reading intervention to increase the independent commenting of three young children with ASD. The intervention resulted…

Early intervention (EI) service providers working with young children with developmental disabilities and delays and their families often utilize coaching practices to engage caregivers in the EI process. Within the literature, the usefulness of coaching has been identified. However, little is known about how coaching practices look in…

The aim was to investigate the policy-to-practice context of delays and difficulties in the acquisition of speech, language and communication (SLC) in children from birth to five in one local authority within the context of Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological model. Methods included a survey of early years practitioners (64 responses), interviews with…

This article reports findings from an evaluation study of a 10-week interactive drama residency in a large Head Start preschool in a southeastern state. The goal of the study was to learn about what happened when three to five-year old children and their teachers experienced interactive drama, with particular questions about how the young…

Although, collectively, results of earlier direct observation studies suggest momentary time sampling (MTS) may offer certain technical advantages over whole-interval (WIR) and partial-interval (PIR) recording, no study has compared these methods for measuring engagement in young children in naturalistic environments. This study compared direct…

The purpose of this study was to pilot test the effects of a culturally adapted early intervention influenced by the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) on reduction of autism symptoms and severity categorization for young children with autism spectrum disorders in China. Participants were randomly assigned to either the control or intervention…

Chiayi is a rural county located in southwestern Taiwan, and the effectiveness of its early intervention service system for autism spectrum disorders was studied in detail. A total of 71 children with autism spectrum disorders (n = 35) and developmental delay (n = 36) aged 2.5 years were referred from the only Early Intervention Reporting and…

While participatory research approaches are being developed and applied within speech and language therapy practice it is not clear that all children are afforded the opportunity to participate in such activities. This study aimed to explore the involvement of young children, aged between two and four years, with developmental disabilities in the…

Prevalence of self-injurious behavior (SIB) is as high as 50% among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Identification of risk factors for the development of SIB is critical to early intervention and prevention. However, there is little empirical research utilizing a prospective design to identify early risk factors for SIB. The purpose…

The goals of this study were to investigate whether young children attending Head Start (N = 292; M[subscript age] = 4.3 years) selected peers based on their preschool competency and whether children's levels of preschool competency were influenced by their peers' levels of preschool competency. Children's peer interaction partners were…

The years from 3 to 6 are a time when children develop fundamental movement skills that are the building blocks for the functional movements they use throughout their lives. By 6 years of age, a typically developing child will have in place a full range of movement skills, including, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, climbing, throwing,…