Debates on how best to educate young children have been raging over the last 100 years--more often fuelled by ideological preferences rather than empirical evidence. To some extent this is hardly surprising given the difficulty of examining pupil progress in a systematic and comparative way. However, the introduction of a new child-centred…

The use of naturalistic teaching procedures in developmentally appropriate early childhood settings was evaluated in two single subject studies. Acquisition and maintenance of skills within developmentally appropriate play contexts were demonstrated by a preschooler with Down's syndrome and one with mild developmental delay. (DB)