A meaningful curriculum is one that is individualized, inclusive of the individual's unique needs and interests, and focused on building independence in current and future environments. A meaningful curriculum addresses an individual's needs and prioritizes instructional programs based on what is, potentially, most important to their lives and not…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Study Review Protocol accompanies the "WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Version 5.0," and guides reviews of studies by the WWC. The WWC uses this protocol to review all studies, including those cited as evidence for U.S. Department of Education grant competitions, studies that were funded by the…

A portrait is presented of the toddler with slow expressive language development (SELD), based on research examining the health history; cognitive, communicative, and adaptive skills; behavior; and phonology of 30 toddlers with SELD and 30 nondisabled toddlers. The paper offers a review of research on the outcomes of SELD, and explores…

This paper reviews research on disturbances of children with developmental delays and handicaps in responding to complex stimuli, suggesting that such disturbances may deleteriously influence behavioral/neurophysiological development. Intervention programs for teaching children with autism a generalized set to use in responding to complex…

The report focuses on the objectives of the Preschool Instruction for the Exceptional (PIE) program, an early intervention program designed to help handicapped children function more effectively and help parents understand their child's special needs. It is explained that the primary goal of PIE is to have each child enter the mainstream of…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the preschool teacher in dealing effectively with aggression in the classroom setting. First, assertiveness, aggression and hostility are differentiated and theories of aggression are reviewed. Subsequently, social, home, family, and temperamental factors influencing aggressive behavior of…

Three mothers of handicapped children were taught to imitate their child's behavior; subsequently the number of mands displayed by the mothers during play sessions were measured. Results showed increases in the percentage of sample intervals during which mothers imitated their children and showed that, as imitations increased, mands decreased.…

Children who may appear to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may actually be "activity hyper" because they are asked to attend to tasks or activities inappropriate for their age or circumstances. Such preschoolers exhibit overactivity or distractibility due to a number of ecological variables such as a problem with classroom…

This paper reviews the developing merger of behavior analytic and other environmental approaches to child behavior development, and identifies critical issues confronting this area of research and intervention, including a profusion of terms, a need for more precise descriptive and experimental analyses, and conceptual integration of findings of…

This paper reports findings from a study of social adjustments in the face-to-face interactions of four highly original preschool children, and suggests a framework for guiding the social development of gifted and talented young children. Descriptions of the four students' behavior patterns demonstrate the social adjustments they employed in…

This article highlights the importance of parents as intervention agents for young children with special needs. It describes individualized training in behavioral strategies for parents, explains procedures for helping parents gain skills that foster their children's development, and suggests that parents will maintain the skills and generalize…

A program at the Model Preschool Center for Handicapped Children at the University of Washington's College of Education enrolled 11 children with Down syndrome, 18-36 months of age. The program sought to accelerate and maintain the motor and cognitive skills of the children; to encourage parent involvement; to provide training to students,…

Parents of 31 developmentally delayed children (ages 1-27 months) received training to assess their children's developmental status. No initial differences existed between parent and professional scores in the motor, social, or language domains. Differences in the self-help domain disappeared after 4 months and in the cognitive domain after 12…

Three kindergartens and one prekindergarten, totaling 213 children, participated in a Behavior Modification program during the 1971-72 school year. A research assistant in each location worked directly with the teacher in measuring and evaluating teaching methods and in developing alternative procedures as needed to teach the same skills or…

This research addressed the question of how preschool experiences will be reflected in later development. Both cognitive functioning and social behavioral adjustment were explored. The central focus was on attitudes conducive to achievement which The Demonstration and Research Center for Early Education (DARCEE) preschool program sought to develop…