This paper reviews the services and supports that are available to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The review focuses on the diagnostic process, early intervention and educational services, family collaboration/parental involvement, instructional practices, and research-based practices. Based…

The reauthorization of IDEA in 1997 placed greater emphasis on providing early intervention services to the family unit versus solely focusing on children with disabilities or children who are at risk for disabilities. Due to the shift from child-focused services to family-focused services, the need to implement family-centered practices became…

The increased prevalence of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) calls for improvement in implementing early interventions, which are critical in improving long-term outcomes. This includes providing better and appropriate education and services for children with ASD, as well as providing supports for their parents and families. The…

Increasing numbers of children with autism are being identified at a younger age, before the age of 3, when their intervention services are coordinated through early intervention service providers. Shortly after starting with services families are faced with their first major transition regarding intervention services when their child turns 3 and…

The authors examined the extent to which parent expectations, perceptions about resource availability and supports, and strategies used to promote participation in home and community activities varied by setting and activity type. Sixteen 90-min semistructured interviews were completed with families receiving Part C early intervention services in…

Evidence-based treatments are increasingly important and necessary parts of many disciplines when working with very young children and their families. In using them, it is advantageous to be grounded in the principles and practices that research has shown are critical to children's healthy development, particularly the importance of supporting the…

The high-tech environment of the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) may seem a million miles away from the classroom, but the baby who has been born prematurely, wired up in an incubator in the former, will in five years' time be a learner in the other. The journeys through our education system of children who have survived premature birth to become…

A professional development activity combining group sessions with self-study assignments was used to facilitate early intervention providers' use of participation-based practices. The activity was submitted by 96 providers who completed two videotapes of sessions with families and children. Tapes were coded to identify the type of service…

Findings from two studies examining the parent and child outcomes associated with different ways of conceptualizing natural learning environment early intervention practices are presented. One sample in each study was asked to indicate the extent to which early intervention practitioners implemented their interventions in everyday family or…

Eighty-seven Finnish preschoolers with deafness and hearing family members learned sign language in a 5-year project. Once weekly, children met with a teacher with deafness. Families met monthly to study sign language and all families signed together twice yearly. Families indicated they learned to sign and their social network expanded. (Contains…

This article describes how a disability culture perspective has informed research and early intervention serving parents with physical disabilities and their infants and an approach to research, resource development, and early intervention that has evolved in a community-based organization in response to the unmet needs of parents with…

This book is designed to provide a broad range of information on family structure and function in an increasingly multicultural society, family system characteristics and the implications for intervention, communication development in the family context, the nature and delivery of family centered-services, specific requirements of Public Law…

"Storying" captures our interest in the unfolding stories of lives--those of young children, parents, caregivers, teachers, and ourselves. The sharing and building of stories is a social experience--a way to establish early connections that are essential to young children's learning and development. Stories, and the building of stories, are at the…

This report discusses a project designed to replicate a five-step model of inservice training which will help early intervention teams provide more family-centered, transdisciplinary service delivery. During 1995-1998, the Trans/Team Outreach program provided training and technical assistance to early intervention teams in eight states and…

As the focus on school improvement at a state education agency moves from mostly a compliance approach to playing a greater role in capacity building, the agency's leadership needs to rethink student and learning supports. That is the focus of this report. Given that almost half of the chief state school officers have assumed their position in the…