Part C early intervention (EI) starts no earlier than birth, even with a prenatal diagnosis resulting in automatic eligibility. Despite other early U.S. home visiting programs beginning prenatally and the increasing likelihood of uncovering certain diagnoses prenatally, pregnant families cannot access EI. This study sought to understand families'…

A best-evidence synthesis and meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate interventions designed to decrease noncompliance in early childhood settings. Studies were examined for quality, intervention components, and outcomes for young children (ages 2-8 years) across settings. Results indicated most designs were high-quality and produced desired…

Several types of professionals support families of young children with disabilities as they navigate the early intervention and early childhood special education systems (EI/ECSE). Medical professionals are often the first to discuss service provision with families, while EI/ECSE providers are responsible for evaluating, determining eligibility,…

In the Spring of 2020, COVID-19 forced school buildings to close across the United States. As a result, many early learning programs and elementary schools moved their services online. Families of young children with challenging behaviors receiving complex educational and behavioral services in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms were suddenly…

Challenging behavior (CB) is a common occurrence in early childhood and frequently occurs in young children with disabilities. CB is also culturally perceived and includes differences in how caregivers understand and define the topography of CB. Despite the cultural interpretation, CB is known to impact the child and their family but there has…

Centering equity in our work eliminates disparities and promotes the learning and development of "ALL" children. Although there has been increasing focus on supporting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in early childhood, many children with disabilities still face challenges in accessing early STEM opportunities.…

The Family Outcomes Survey--Revised (FOS-R) measures family outcomes of services for young children with disabilities or developmental delays, and it can be used to investigate change in outcome achievement over time. To confirm the validity of FOS-R change scores, it must be established that the FOS-R measures the same construct over time; if so,…

Young refugee populations continue to grow. This scoping review aims to identify and summarize studies of programs that provide linguistically responsive practices for children who are refugees. Secondary aims of this review are: (a) to identify the gaps in the literature, and (b) to suggest future research and policy directions. By studying key…

Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require supports and services designed to meet their unique needs. Research has identified 27 evidence-based practices (EBPs) for children ages birth to 5 years. However, there is a paucity of research that examines whether early childhood providers are implementing EBPs with children with ASD. In…

We examined the effects of the least-to-most prompting (LTM) procedure with contingent imitation (CI) on increasing the frequency and diversity of pretend play in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using a multiple probe across toy sets single-case research design. Three children with ASD ages 5 to 6 years took part in the study. LTM was…

Social stories are a commonly used intervention practice in early childhood special education. Recent systematic reviews have documented the evidence base for social stories, but findings are mixed. We examined the efficacy of social stories for young children (i.e., 3-5 years) with challenging behavior across 12 single-case studies, which…

Early learning and development standards (ELDS) describe the knowledge, skills, and dispositions young children should demonstrate before kindergarten. This article describes a review of state ELDS for children from birth to 5 years of age to determine if they included information and guidance about the learning needs of young children with…

We examined adult behavioral skills training (BST) for home-based therapeutic support staff (TSS) using a naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI) with young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) derived from Project ImPACT. We taught three TSS to use interactive strategies with online modules, in-vivo training, and ongoing…

Young learners often are enchanted with the world, fascinated by the ordinary, and absorbed in the present moment. We explore interconnected ideas about how young children's natural proclivity toward being curious and noticing differences among people should be harnessed toward socially just ends. We consider ways in which joyfulness in learning…

Rasch and classification analyses on a field-test version of the third edition of the Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System (AEPS-3), a curriculum-based assessment used to assess young children birth to age 6 years, were conducted. First, an evaluation of the psychometric properties of data from each developmental area of an AEPS-3…