Developmentally Appropriate Strategies for Promoting Full Participation in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

Integrating young children with disabilities into mainstream preschools with nondisabled children presents numerous challenges. One major stumbling block to integration is the seeming incompatibility of traditional didactic early intervention techniques with the developmentally appropriate practices common to quality mainstream preschool settings. We present strategies for intervention that are in harmony with developmentally appropriate practice and incorporate special educational principles that have enabled children with disabilities to participate more fully in integrated settings while achieving individualized goals and objectives. The strategies are grouped into four categories: attention and responsiveness to the child, environmental structuring, adult mediation, and peer mediation. The strategies are presented with examples to illustrate their use.As young children with disabilities have been integrated into regular preschool programs with their nondisabled peers, numerous challenges have emerged. Extensive research on integrated placement has demonstrated that true social integration occurs only through the use of strategies that enable the child to not only be physically present in the preschool classroom but to participate as fully as possible in that setting (Demchak & Drinkwater, 1992). In this article, we present an overview of educational strategies that we have found to be in harmony with the guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) (Bredekamp, 1987) commonly followed in quality preschool TECSE 13(3), 293-307 (1993)

Strategies for Inclusion in Play among Children with Physical Disabilities in Childcare Centers: An Integrative Review

“…Research examining inclusive preschool settings has identified that while children with disabilities are included in play interactions, these exchanges are not as frequent for children with disabilities, compared with their typically developing counterpart (Odom et al, 2006). While research articulating possible inclusion strategies for childcare centers is available (Cavallaro, Haney, & Cabello, 1993;Diamond & Haung, 2005;Hanline, 1999;Sheldon, 1996), no researchers have undertaken a comprehensive review of literature examining appropriate inclusion strategies for children with physical disabilities in the preschool setting.…”

Developmentally Appropriate Practice: A Critical Analysis as Applied to Young Children with Disabilities

“…A the field of early childhood special education and early childhood education grow ever closer, a number of individuals have identified specific instructional strategies that both are effective for addressing the needs of young children with disabilities and appear to be acceptable within the DAP guidelines (Atwater, Carta, Schwartz, & McConnell, 1994;Cavallaro, Haney, & Cabello, 1993;Wolery & Fleming, 1993). These practices are presented here not as the absolute answer for determining developmentally appropriate procedures for children with disabilities (because all procedures must be scrutinized for their individual appropriateness) but because they are illustrations of approaches on which members of both fields can agree and because they are approache that can act as starting points for further collaborative program development.…”

Toddlers Receiving Early Intervention in Childcare Centers

“…Adult direction was defined as an adult (not a child) leading and directing the activity. This high proportion of adult direction, as with the "mediocre" subscale scores on the ITERS, raises questions about the developmental appropriateness of these settings (Bredekamp &c Rosegrant, 1992;Cavallaro, Haney, &c Cabello, 1993), a finding that should be explored further in relation to child outcomes.…”