Susan Donahoe, Early
Childhood Coordinator
Hot off the press from the
Council for Exceptional Children/Division for Early
Childhood:
DEC Recommended
Practices Video: Selected Strategies for Teaching Young
Children with Special Needs. This
video presents a visual accompaniment to the DEC
Recommended Practices booklet,
illustrating some of the "more difficult to describe in
words" techniques from the "Child-Focused
Interventions" chapter of the book. The strategies in
this video, as well as those in its accompanying booklet are
based on an extensive literature review and focus groups of
parents, teacher and administrators about what promotes
learning for young children with special needs. As is true
for many special education practices, the DEC recommended
techniques are widely recognized to be appropriate for
children in general education settings as well. A further
guide to developing quality services for young children with
special needs is the recently published DEC Recommended Practices Program Assessment: Improving Practices for Young Children with Special Needs and Their Families.
This assessment is designed to provide a concrete method of determining the strengths and needs of an early childhood program as well as a format for developing an action plan geared to promoting quality services. All three of these resources are affordably priced and can be ordered from DEC website.
While ordering resources for
your early childhood team, don’t forget to include a
subscription to Young Exceptional Children Journal. (Professional)
or Young Exceptional Children Journal. (Families)
or Young Exceptional Children Journal. (Students)
Other options are available above, as well.
The articles are timely, well written and full of examples
and illustrations that help practitioners relate theory to
practice. Call the DEC office at (406) 543-0872
to order or use the links above
.
Any of the above items would
be a valuable addition to your early childhood program
resources. All are available for preview from Cesa’s
Professional Resource Center, for those of you with that
service.
