Early childhood is a critical time for cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Many states have invested in comprehensive early childhood care and education systems that offer a wide range of supports and services to families from the prenatal period through school entry. Home visiting programs are an important component of state early…

Discrete trial instruction or naturalistic, incidental teaching: How do you choose which approach to use with young children with autism? Now there's no need to "pick a side"--this groundbreaking book helps professionals skillfully blend the best of both behavioral approaches to respond to "each child's individual needs". Developed by one of the…

This information sheet (the third in a new government series published for teachers, parents, and others interested in current education themes) offers a brief overview of Reading Recovery, an early intervention program to help low-achieving 6-year-olds learn to read. The information sheet discusses what Reading Recovery is, what its components…

This paper discusses the importance of interagency coordination in developing services for young children with handicaps and their families. It suggests strategies to improve the functioning of interagency coordinating councils by considering council membership, role definition, goal commitment, vision of the early intervention system, and use of…

This booklet is part of a series designed to give educators useful information as they build a sense of community. The text focuses on violence in schools and what stakeholders can do to address this complex problem. It establishes the context for assessing violence and the potential danger to students and educators. It describes violence as…

This article focuses on integration of children with and without disabilities during the early childhood years, with specific attention devoted to the notion of how predictors of high-quality programs become integrated into service delivery systems. Indicators of program quality from general education, early childhood education, and early…

In spring 1996, Drug Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization published results of an evaluation of 47 substance-abuse prevention programs. The evaluation used criteria based on empirical research findings. This article outlines the elements of effective drug-prevention programs and highlights the six programs that earned As in…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize current trends in child abuse prevention and to provide program administrators and policymakers with guidelines for implementing successful new parent programs in their communities. Contents address: (1) the scope of the child abuse problem; (2) a theoretical framework or conceptual model for use in…

The purpose of this paper is to examine Reading Recovery training in relation to three models for teaching and learning: instructor-centered, student-centered, and community-centered. Typically, the theories on which these models are based have been used to predict how children learn and how they should be taught. However, the theories and…

This paper focuses on the administrative support needed to establish a Reading Recovery program that works effectively at school and district levels. It first establishes three important ideas for Reading Recovery to work: leadership is required; change cannot be accomplished in one or two years; and program effectiveness is dependent upon the…

Suggesting that creating a report for each school involved in the Reading Recovery program can have a powerful impact, this paper shows the current model of campus reports for the Spring Branch Independent School District, Houston, Texas. The report form described in the paper is continually growing and changing through need and collaboration with…

Since 1975, the Head Start Program Performance Standards have defined the services that local programs are required to provide to enrolled children and families. With revisions effective in 1998, the Program Performance Standards translate the Head Start vision into quality practices implemented at the local level. This document is comprised of a…

A project on the ways in which children and families move from one learning environment to another works to build awareness of and strengthen transitions in the early childhood years through a series of national and regional conferences and by identifying promising transition programs in five regions of the country. This document describes…

The term three-tier model of intervention is a model consisting of three well-defined and separate processes running on different levels within a system. In New Mexico, this principle has been applied to develop a model of student intervention for school-aged students. The model has three distinct levels of instructional interventions that account…

This guide presents strategies for the prevention of emotional/behavioral disabilities, beginning before birth and continuing into young adulthood. It focuses on strategies that promote competent social behavior, identification of risk factors in development of antisocial behavior, and interventions to prevent the development of antisocial…