Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs

In an inclusive early childhood classroom, the everyday challenges teachers face can seem overwhelming - especially if they have little experience working with children who have disabilities. This easy-to-use guidebook throws them a lifeline, offering strategies for teaching children with special needs, tailoring activities to individual needs, and working on a child's IEP goals.At the heart of the book is the authors' Building Blocks model, three practical methods teachers can use to include young children with disabilities in the classroom: curriculum modifications that allow all children to participate, embedded learning opportunities that are used within typical classroom activities, and child-focused instructional strategies that help students achieve individual learning objectives. To help them use this model, this guide gives teachers: detailed chapters for each building block, including instructions on when to use each method, everyday examples of each, and practical suggestions for implementation; pages of photocopiable curriculum modifications with space for teacher-generated ideas; a chart of classroom challenges linked back to curriculum modifications; four stories of successful interventions, featuring children from diverse backgrounds and their teachers; and, suggestions for using the model to address crucial curriculum content areas.This is the perfect guide to working with children who have disabilities and meeting their educational needs.

Dr. Sandall is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington. She has directed personnel preparation projects, developed curriculum materials for all age groups, and published materials on educational practices to facilitate optimal outcomes for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities.

Her scholarly interests are effective instructional practices for young children with disabilities in inclusive settings, the changing roles of teachers of young children, and effective approaches to professional development and knowledge utilization.

She was Principal Investigator of the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning for the Office of Head Start; the Center continues its work as the EarlyEdU Alliance at Cultivate Learning at the UW. Dr. Sandall serves on the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Commission on Recommended Practices and edited publications on the practices. She is on the editorial boards of Journal of Early Intervention and Topics in Early Childhood Special Education.

Dr. Schwartz is Professor of Special Education and Director of the Haring Center at the University of Washington. Dr. Schwartz is also the Director of Project DATA (Developmentally Appropriate Treatment for Autism), a school‐based early intervention intensive behavioral intervention program for children with autism. She has an extensive background working with young children with special needs and their families, specifically with young children with autism and related disabilities.

Dr. Schwartz is the director of the Applied Behavior Analysis Program at the UW, and is dedicated to creating high quality inclusive schools so that all children, regardless of their background or ability, can attend the school of their choice and receive a high quality education.

Dr. Schwartz has published numerous chapters and articles about early childhood education and social validity. She serves on the editorial review boards of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education and the Journal of Early Intervention.

Mary Louise Hemmeter, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on effective instruction, social-emotional development, challenging behavior, and on coaching teachers.

She has been a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on numerous projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Through her work on the National Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning and Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded research projects, she was involved in the development of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children and practice-based coaching, a model for supporting teachers in implementing effective practices.

She is currently the PI on on an IES-funded development project on programwide supports for implementing the Pyramid Model, a co-PI on an IES developmental project on implementing the Pyramid Model in infant-toddler settings, and a co-PI on an IES efficacy study examining approaches to supporting teachers in implementing embedded instructions.

She was a coeditor of the Journal of Early Intervention and President of the Council for Exceptional Childrenâ (TM)s Division for Early Childhood (DEC). She received the Mary McEvoy Service to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood.

Hsin-Ying Chou, Ed.D., served as Research Assistant for the Early Childhood Research Institute on Inclusion (ECRII) at the University of Washington. She has worked with young children with special needs in Taiwan and the United States. Her professional interests include parent-professional relationships and decision making. She received her doctorate in education from the University of Washington in 2001.

Dr. Horn is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Kansas. Dr. Horn focuses on the development of effective instructional approaches for infants and young children with developmental delays and disabilities. Her research examines how these effective strategies can be implemented within the context of ongoing routines and activities in inclusive environments. Dr. Horn is the editor of the journal Young Exceptional Children.

Dr. Joseph is an associate professor in the area of Early Childhood and Family Studies at the University of Washington. She teaches courses, advises students, provides service and conducts research on topics related to early care and education.

Dr. Joseph has been involved in a number of research projects and training and technical assistance activities at the local, state and national levels related to child care quality, teacher preparation, and promoting children's social emotional development as well as preventing challenging behavior in early learning settings.

She is the Founding Executive Director of Cultivate Learning, and was the Principal Investigator and director of the Head Stat Center for Inclusion (Headstartinclusion.org) and Co‐PI of the National Center for Quality Teaching and Learning funded by the Office of Head Start. At Cultivate Learning she oversees the work of quality ratings in all licensed childcare and state prek programs in the state.

Joan Lieber, Ph.D., is Professor of Special Education in the College of Education at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include inclusion and teachers' beliefs and practices. She has 8 years of public school teaching experience. Dr. Lieber co-directs an early childhood special education model demonstration project that includes young children with disabilities in community-based programs.

Samuel L. Odom, Ph.D., is the former Director of the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute where he remains as a Senior Research Scientist. Prior to his work at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Odom served in faculty positions at Indiana University and Peabody College/Vanderbilt University. Dr. Odom received a master's degree in special education in 1976 and an educational specialist degree in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1979. He earned his doctorate in 1982 in education and human development from the University of Washington.

Throughout his career, Dr. Odom has held positions as a preschool teacher, student teaching supervisor, program coordinator, teacher educator, and researcher. Dr. Odom's research interests include interventions and teaching approaches that promote social competence of young children, effective intervention approaches for children with autism, and early childhood curricula that promote children's school success. He is the author or co-author of over 175 journal articles and book chapters and has edited 10 books on early childhood intervention and developmental disabilities. His current research is addressing treatment efficacy for children and youth with ASD in elementary and high school grades. Also, he is the Co-Director of the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice at FPG. Dr. Odom is an associate editor for Exceptional Children and is on the editorial board of Journal of Early Intervention, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. He received the Special Education Outstanding Research Award from the American Educational Research Association Special Education Special Interest Group in 1999, the Merle Karnes Contribution to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in 2001, and the Outstanding Special Education Research Award from CEC in 2007. In 2013, he received the Arnold Lucius Gesell Prize awarded for career achievement in research on social inclusion and child development from the Theordor Hellbrugge Foundation in Munich, Germany. In 2016, he received an honorary doctoral degree from Stockholm University. He is currently a visiting professor at Stockholm University and San Diego State University.

Ruth Wolery, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of the Practice of Special Education at Peabody College and Director of the Susan Gray School for Children. Prior to joining the Early Childhood Research Institute on Inclusion (ECRII) team, she spent years working in the public school system. Her current teaching and research interests focus on delivering high-quality services to young children with disabilities in inclusive preschool programs.