Topics in Early Childhood Special Education

Young children’s social-emotional competence is predictive of their later success in school. Social problem-solving is a key component of social-emotional competence. While there is research to suggest we can effectively support young children in developing social problem-solving skills, further work is needed to advance our understanding of how to operationalize, measure, and provide interventions on social problem-solving skills. It is particularly important to understand how to support social problem-solving skills in children with disabilities and diverse functional repertoires. We outline critical issues related to operationalizing, measuring, and teaching social problem-solving and propose 19 recommendations for addressing these critical issues. We suggest future directions for research in social problem-solving centering around four key questions.

In this exploratory study, we used a person-centered approach to examine 117 U.S. early childhood and elementary school teachers’ perceptions of their social and emotional practices within an evidence-based framework. A latent profile analysis revealed a 4-profile model with four distinct groups. Teachers’ level of education and years of experience were associated with lower or higher perceptions of child behavior. Results reveal how teachers’ perceptions of their social and emotional implementation and child behavior impact the intensity and variety of their practices, as well as differences in teachers’ perceptions based on their professional characteristics. Implications for this research suggest a need to further examine the contextual and causal factors that influence teachers’ implementation of social and emotional practices and perceptions of child behavior.

The perceptions of both teachers and parents are important in identifying challenging behavior of young children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort 2010–2011 (ECLS-K, 2011), we investigated parent-teacher agreement of 3,310 U.S. kindergarten students (n = 460 [13.8%] identified as students with disabilities) that teachers rated as having moderate to severe challenging behavior. We found that parents rated their children’s behaviors as less severe than did teachers. The magnitude of parent-teacher rating discrepancies was not affected by the child’s gender or the child-teacher race match, however, the discrepancy between parent and teacher ratings was greater for Black students than for White, Hispanic or Asian students. Controlling for child’s gender, race, and the child-teacher race match, the interaction of rater and special education status was not statistically significant. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to identifying and addressing challenging behaviors in kindergarten and strengthening parent-teacher alignment in the special education process.

Children with autism may experience sensory sensitivities that can make daily hygiene activities difficult and challenging. Previous research suggests that behavioral-based interventions (e.g., video-modeling, prompting) can help address hygiene skills (e.g., handwashing), but little is known about how to increase independence and decrease sensitivities during hair-washing. The purpose of this study was to explore tolerance during hair-washing with three participant dyads that included young children (ages 3–5) with sensory sensitivities and their parents who washed their hair during all sessions. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the impact of a behavioral intervention package (i.e., video modeling, choice of goggles, and hand over hand prompting) in conjunction with goggles and a rag (i.e., washcloth) on tolerance during hair-washing. The results indicate that both interventions were effective and participant preference toward the interventions varied. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.

In this article, we highlight the experiences of 11 U.S. Midwest childcare providers working with preschoolers characterized as engaging in persistent challenging behaviors (PCB). We focused on how these providers were impacted by the children’s PCB, the strategies they used, and what they recommended others do to address the PCB. Childcare providers shared their experiences and offered suggestions that might assist other professionals as they seek supports and services for young children. We included two semi-structured interviews with each childcare provider. Key findings were: (a) the personal impact of working with children who engage in PCB on early childhood professionals and (b) strategies and supports used by early childhood professionals when working with children with perceived PCB.

This scoping review systematically maps the existing literature on the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool (TPOT), a widely used classroom observation tool measuring fidelity to the Pyramid Model. A total of 34 studies using various research designs were reviewed. These studies were conducted in a range of settings and included a diverse population of children. Among these studies, the TPOT has been used as a descriptive measure, a dependent variable measure, a coaching tool, a validity reference, and a resource for developing other tools. However, our review reveals variations in TPOT version, observer training, reliability calibration, and score reporting across studies. These inconsistencies, along with the diverse measurement contexts, have not yet been fully supported by extant psychometric evidence. Despite these challenges, the TPOT remains a promising tool to enhance social-emotional teaching practices and contribute to the field of early childhood education.

Emotion talk is a research-based strategy aimed at improving young children’s social and emotional development. To date, there are no systematic reviews that document the effectiveness of teacher’s emotion talk with young children in early childhood classrooms. In this systematic review we examined the literature on teacher-facilitated emotion talk as a primary intervention to improve young children’s social and emotional development. We identified six manuscripts that met our inclusion criteria. Results indicate emotion talk can improve social and emotional skills for young children in areas such as emotional knowledge and comprehension, prosocial behavior, and classroom engagement.