Research shows that making friends can be especially hard for students with significant disabilities. Peer support arrangements and peer networks are evidence-based interventions that involve identifying and equipping a group of peers to provide ongoing support to individual students with significant disabilities in or outside of the classroom.…

As the identification of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to increase unabated, there exists a need to provide school personnel with information they can use for the purpose of designing and implementing appropriate comprehensive programs for these students. Accordingly, this article identifies and discusses comprehensive…

Poverty-related factors place children at higher risk for disabilities and also serve as barriers to families accessing services for their children and themselves. Early childhood practitioners can play a critical role in supporting families by providing services to overcome these obstacles and by working in partnership with specialized early…

Problems in and guidelines for developing an early identification/intervention program for handicapped students are discussed. The author cautions that appropriate education should first be based upon the child's learning process, and that ongoing review should replace single stage identification procedures. Problems are listed for consideration…

Response to intervention (RTI) arose, in part, from the limited success of the pre-referral process, an approach advocated in the 1980s and 1990s, and accurately measuring the discrepancy between aptitude and achievement in young children. Reflecting these concerns, when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in…

Project DEBT (Developmental Education Birth through Two), an early identification and intervention program for handicapped and at risk children and their parents, is described. The Koontz Child Developmental Program, the core curriculum for instructional planning and intervention in DEBT, is reviewed, and new data are presented. It is explained…

The paper describes the New Jersey Child Find project, a program to locate and identify all unserved handicapped children between the ages of 0 and 21 years. Noted are four project objectives (such as conducting community awareness campaigns), background of the project (including early efforts to identify handicapped children as a result of a…

A prekindergarten screening program using a team consisting of two kindergarten teachers, a school psychologist, a speech/language therapist, a nurse, and an occupational therapist/special education teacher for the identification of "high risk" children is described. (PHR)

This paper describes the Children's Diagnostic Center, an innovative model project at Hampton University in Virginia. The center was established to provide high quality, multi-disciplinary evaluations of children thought to have conditions likely to interfere with normal development; to describe resources and services available to parents to…

The final report documents the progress of Project SAFE (Special Assistance for Early Education of the Handicapped), designed to provide educational services to young children (0 to 5 years) with severe and profound, multiple, hearing, orthopedic, and health impairments. SAFE's activities in the following areas are documented: public…

The history and effectiveness of the Preschool Program of School District 21 (Wheeling, Illinois), an innovative program for handicapped preschoolers, are described. Referrals come from a variety of sources and result in screening tests conducted by an interdisciplinary team. Individualized Education Programs for enrolled program children are…

The document is a composite of final reports written for every special education research and evaluation study conducted in the Dallas (TX) Independent School District during the 1979-80 school year. Each report contains information on program objectives, sampling, design, and outcomes. Three projects were carried out under the Special Education…

Discusses (1) rationale for early identification and programing for gifted/talented children, (2) issues in developing a program for young children, (3) procedures for identifying the young gifted child, (4) guidelines for program evaluation, and (5) principles for program development. Two university programs, one for identifying gifted…

Reported were the results of a national study designed to identify and locate activity programs for retarded adults in the United States, to study comprehensively identified programs, to examine national, regional, state, and area standards, and to complete a monograph on activity programs. Findings of a 1964 report were compared with findings in…

The 1980-1981 performance report is presented for the Transitional Resource Addressing Children's Early Education (TRACE) Project, West Chicago, Illinois, which provides developmental preschool and transitional primary-level classes for 3-8 year olds. Screening of 130 preschool children (2 years 10 months through 4 years old) was undertaken to…