As we step into fall, we can look back at a summer that provided an opportunity to celebrate both history and a new initiative aimed at improving the lives of both infants and young children with disabilities. On July 26, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This historic act provides civil protections and equal opportunities to those with disabilities. Both access and accommodations are key provisions of the ADA, and these concepts apply to full inclusion of persons with disabilities across the lifespan. On the anniversary of the ADA this year, President Obama issued a proclamation from the White House renewing the federal government commitment to ensuring that everyone with disabilities can live a life free of discrimination and barriers and participate fully in all aspects of American society.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also reinforced the federal commitment to those with disabilities at the Early Childhood 2010 Meeting: Innovation for the Next Generation. In his remarks, he promised excellent learning and support opportunities for every young child as the foundation to a world-class cradle to career educational system. During the early childhood meeting, he joined Secretary Sebelius of Health and Human Services in announcing the formation of the Early Learning Interagency Policy Board. This board will be staffed by senior personnel from both departments and charged with increasing the coordination, effectiveness, and outcomes across the departments' federally funded early learning programs. This board will also coordinate research, technical assistance, and data across early learning programs. A primary goal will be to implement a set of quality standards across all of these programs. Secretary Duncan reinforced the belief that we can successfully teach all children, and that with the right support, any child can learn and thrive. To begin this new federal partnership, a focus will be on innovations to support early learning.
CURRENT ISSUE
This issue of IYC brings you articles that present the application of innovations that have already been, or are now ready to be, transferred into early childhood intervention practice. Our first article, by Erin E. Barton, focuses on the importance of pretend play in the development of children with special needs. Through a thorough review of the literature, she developed a taxonomy of pretend play that can be useful to identify and measure the status of pretend play with children. The taxonomy provides a framework for expanded curricular applications of play with children with and without special needs and also provides guidance for family-orchestrated play experiences in the home. Recommendations include further studies to identify and establish evidence-based practices for teaching pretend play to children with disabilities.
The next 3 articles present studies that focus on various aspects of family-centered early childhood intervention practice. Cambray-Engstrom and Salisbury provide an in-depth description of home visits with Latina mothers of toddlers with disabilities who live in an urban environment. The study focused on the use of collaborative intervention strategies and everyday activities during the home visits. The home visits were videotaped and analyzed and the results suggested that a specific coaching strategy resulted in more active caregiver participation across play-based routines. Implications for the field are provided, including recommendations for generating authentic evidence to enhance the experience of the interventions for mothers, which in turn will enhance learning opportunities for their children.
James and Chard provide us with an article from Ireland. They conducted a qualitative examination of family participation and partnership in early intervention with mothers of 7 children with physical disabilities. Interviews revealed that while parents were relatively satisfied with services, they identified other intervention supports that they felt were lacking. These included collaboration and partnership with teams and organizations, information and support, and continuity of care. Other concerns including the underutilization of veteran parents to assist newer parents were also identified. The article illustrates the importance of practice as the defining variable of family-centered care, and the need for practice to be embraced at all levels in an organization. Recommendations include training, policy, and the integral involvement of parents at all levels of service delivery.
The last article about families is by Macy, Thorndike-Christ, and Lin and presents a study in which 102 parents rated their satisfaction with the usefulness of the assessment process of their children. In particular, the study examined parental perceptions of 2 different assessment experiences: authentic and conventional. Parents of children with and without disabilities were surveyed after their children received the 2 different assessments, some in different environments. The use of authentic assessments is discussed, as are applications of such protocols in establishing partnerships with parents from the earliest time possible: the eligibility determination of their child.
Next, Hoekstra and colleagues in the Netherlands present an article that provides evidence for adapting a checklist that is used around the world to guide early childhood intervention curricula. The authors conducted a rigorous empirical validation of the Dutch version of the Portage Program developmental checklist for use in home interviews. The scalability and item order were analyzed with a group of 736 families. The results suggested the reordering of items for all areas of the checklist, and the use of this revision should result in a more accurate developmental checklist to guide home visiting for families and children.
Another international submission contained a descriptive study that examined the effects of early relationships between children and their teachers. Ocak conducted this study in Turkey, and the focus was on children's problem-solving skills, and to what extent teacher-child relationships were related to interpersonal relationships of children. The effects of teacher's perceptions of the children's interpersonal problem-solving skills were evaluated, as were the children's problem-solving abilities. Results suggested that teacher perceptions were associated with the child's use of aggression, and children with whom teachers perceived conflict in relationships had either a limited number of solutions for problem situations or many different kinds of solutions. The implications for practice include the use of different management strategies for children, including the use of teacher-child relationships to improve the problem-solving skills of children.
The last article of this issue is timely in light of the growing numbers of children needing intervention services. Pizur-Barnekow, Erikson, Johnston, Bass, Lucinski, and Bleuel describe the current state of early identification practices available during early childhood. The authors also conducted a survey of community health care provider's screening practices. The authors concluded this article by providing recommendations for improved screening practices to enhance developmental and behavioral outcomes of children in need of services.
As always, I thank the authors for allowing IYC to publish their scholarly work. I am pleased we had submissions from other countries, new authors, and representatives from the University Centers Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service. I thank the reviewers who also assisted in the editorial process for this issue.
In closing, I feel a quote from Secretary Duncan at the Early Childhood conference is very appropriate to all the readership of IYC: Together, let's make sure that revolution to transform education to benefit every child embraces children in their earliest years, reaches communities all across America, and makes a difference for generations to come.
Mary Beth Bruder, PhD
Editor