Effective Practices for Preparing Young Children with Disabilities for School (continued)

While many state and local agencies are still grappling with the issue of what kind of service delivery models they will endorse, it is clear that the special education and related services needs of young children with identified or at-risk conditions can be appropriately met in settings that include normally developing children (e.g., daycare, typical preschools, Head Start, regular classrooms) (Guralnick, 1990; Hanson & Hanline, 1989; Templeman, Fredericks, & Udell, 1989). Integrated settings have, in fact, been found to produce higher proportions, rates, and levels of social, cognitive, and linguistic skills in children with disabilities than segregated settings (Brinker, 1985; Guralnick, 1990).

General Principles to Help Guide the Selection of Practices

Five general principles can be used to guide the selection of effective practices: least restrictive environment, family-centered services, transdisciplinary service delivery, inclusion of both empirical and value-driven practices, and inclusion of both developmentally and individually appropriate practices.

1. Least Restrictive And Most Natural Environment

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 99-457) states that children should be placed in the least restrictive environment or the most natural setting. This is not simply a placement issue, however; the method of providing services, regardless of setting, should allow for maximum participation in the "mainstream." Despite the limitations that a disability might place on a child's and family's ability to lead an ordinary existence, good services should promote the potential for "normal" rather than "disabled" routines by providing fun environments that stimulate children's initiations, choices, and engagement with the social and material ecology. Programs should focus on preparing children for the next, less restrictive, environment.

2. Family-Centered Services

A second principle is that service delivery models should (a) recognize that the child is part of a family unit; (b) be responsive to the family's priorities, concerns, and needs; and (c) allow the family to participate in early intervention with their child as much as they desire (Bailey, McWilliam, & Winton, 1992). Services that previously might have been geared almost exclusively toward children must have the flexibility, expertise, and resources to meet the needs of other members of the family as those needs relate to the child's development (Public Law 99-457). It is strongly recommended that service providers give families choices in the nature of services; match the level of intensity of services desired by the family; and provide center-based services close to where families live.

3. Transdisciplinary Service Delivery

One model for increasing the opportunity for family members to make meaningful decisions and participate in early intervention is transdisciplinary service delivery (Raver, 1991). This model involves team members sharing roles: each specialist helps other members to acquire skills related to the specialist's area of expertise. This requires both role release (accepting that others can do what the specialist was trained specifically to do) and role acceptance (accepting that one's job can include more than what one was specifically trained to do). Transdisciplinary service delivery encourages a whole-child and whole-family approach, allows for the efficient use of the primary interventionist (i.e., the child and family do not always need to see many different specialists), and fosters skill development in everyone.