Topics in Early Childhood Special Education

All children benefit from intentional interactions and instruction to become socially and emotionally competent. Over the past 30 years, evidence-based intervention tactics and strategies have been integrated to establish comprehensive, multitiered, or hierarchical systems of support frameworks to guide social–emotional interventions for young children. In this study, the authors reviewed systematically the efficacy of classroom-wide social–emotional interventions for improving the social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes of preschool children and used meta-analytic techniques to identify critical study characteristics associated with obtained effect sizes. Four electronic databases (i.e., Academic Search Premier, Educational Resource Information Center, PsycINFO, and Education Full Text) were systematically searched in December 2015 and updated in January 2018. “Snowball methods” were used to locate additional relevant studies. Effect size estimates were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses for three child outcomes, and moderator analyses were conducted. Thirty-nine studies involving 10,646 child participants met the inclusion criteria and were included in this systematic review, with 33 studies included in the meta-analyses. Random-effects meta-analyses showed (a) improvements in social competence and emotional competence, and (b) decreases in challenging behavior. For social competence and challenging behavior, moderator analyses suggested interventions with a family component had statistically significant and larger effect sizes than those without a family component. Studies in which classroom teachers served as the intervention agent produced statistically significant but smaller effect sizes than when researchers or others implemented the intervention for challenging behavior. This systematic review and meta-analysis support using comprehensive social–emotional interventions for all children in a preschool classroom to improve their social–emotional competence and reduce challenging behavior.

Paraeducators play an important role supporting children with developmental disabilities in early childhood settings, and the current educational system has come to rely heavily on paraeducator supports. Unfortunately, most paraeducators receive limited training prior to engaging in their classroom roles and responsibilities, and teachers receive limited training related to supervising paraeducator staff. This study examined the roles and responsibilities, professional development experiences, perceived professional development needs, suggestions for professional development, and perceived barriers to professional development among early childhood paraeducators working with children with developmental disabilities and their supervising teachers using focus group method and a questionnaire. Implications for improving professional development practices among early childhood staff, remediating barriers to effective professional development, and future directions for research are discussed.

We examined the effects of the least-to-most prompting (LTM) procedure with contingent imitation (CI) on increasing the frequency and diversity of pretend play in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a multiple probe across toy sets single-case research design. Three children with ASD ages 5 to 6 years took part in the study. LTM was functionally related to increases in the frequency and diversity of children’s pretend play. Novel pretend play behaviors, sequences, and vocalizations also increased for all children. Importantly, all children maintained the target skills 1, 2, and 4 weeks after the intervention and generalized them across their homes, mothers, and different toys.

Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is a frequently studied construct due to its positive relations with student outcomes. However, TSE of teachers in inclusive early childhood special education (ECSE) classrooms has seldom been studied. To fill this gap, we examined the extent to which (a) teachers exhibited differing levels of TSE for students; (b) children’s characteristics, particularly disability status and learning behaviors, were associated with TSE; and (c) relations between children’s characteristics and TSE remained consistent across an academic year. Thirty-seven teachers of inclusive ECSE classrooms completed surveys to ascertain their student-specific TSE and children’s learning behaviors for 114 children. Results indicated that teachers had different levels of TSE for students in their classrooms. Children’s characteristics, particularly their attention/persistence, were related to TSE, with more relations shown between TSE and children’s characteristics at the start of the school year than at the end. Implications for teacher professional development are discussed.

While caregiver coaching approaches in early intervention have a comprehensive literature base, the field continues to experience a research-to-practice gap in the implementation of capacity-building coaching approaches. We examined the caregiver coaching divide and identified strategies for researchers and Part C programs to bridge the gap so that all families benefit from a capacity-building approach during this critical developmental period of the child’s life. Using available evidence and implementation science frameworks, we suggest five actionable strategies for research and practice teams.

We explore the classification accuracy of a parent and teacher report measure, the Inventory to Assess Language Knowledge (ITALK), to screen for developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children. Participants were 120 Spanish–English bilingual children with typical development (TD) and 19 bilingual children with DLD, ranging in age from 5 to 8 years old. Parents’ and teachers’ reports correlated moderately with each other and significantly predicted children’s performance on language-specific measures of morphosyntax and semantics. Results yielded sensitivity of .90 and specificity of .63 when using a composite of parent and teacher reports in Spanish and English. Examination of structure loadings in follow-up analyses by grade showed that teachers’ report of English and parents’ report of Spanish were the strongest predictors of impairment in kindergarten. In second grade, the strongest predictors were parent and teacher reports in English. Implications for referral and identification are discussed.

Young children with complex communication needs are often severely restricted in their ability to communicate and develop language skills. A major barrier preventing these children from accessing communication is a lack of appropriate means to communicate. The present study investigated the implementation of nonelectronic visual scene displays (VSDs) as an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tool, in combination with aided modeling with preschool children with complex communication needs. A single case, multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate an intervention combining low-tech VSDs and aided modeling to increase the number of communication turns and unique semantic concepts expressed by preschool children. All children demonstrated notable increases in the number of communication turns and unique semantic concepts expressed. The findings of this study indicate preliminary positive results for a novel, low-cost AAC intervention that could be useful for preschool children to increase their participation in social communication contexts.

Play represents an important component of early childhood education and is linked to the development of communication and social skills, particularly for children with developmental disabilities who often lack play skills. Structured teaching is a systematic method that entails visually arranging and organizing the learning environment. Although effective for older individuals with disabilities, research examining the efficacy of structured teaching in increasing the play skills of young children is limited. This study examined the effects of structured teaching on the appropriate play of five preschool-age children with developmental disabilities. Results suggest structured teaching produced a higher level of play for two of the participants; however, gains were generally not maintained following discontinuation of the instruction. Findings, though mixed, have implications for practice and future research.