Students with Learning Disabilities

Early Identification and Intervention

Early Childhood Education

• Beginning research– Skeels– Kirk– Intelligence and Experience – Stability and Change in Human

Characteristics– Ramey and Ramey

Legislative Support

• 1964 – funding of Head Start• 1968 – Handicapped Children’s Early Education

Assistance Act• 1975 – Public Law 94-142 — Education for All

Handicapped Children Act • 1986 – amended to include infants and preschoolers• 1990 – law renamed as Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act (IDEA)• 1991 – amended to expand services• 1997 – IDEA reauthorized• 2002 – No Child Left Behind

Issues in Early Identification

• Tenuous diagnosis

• Developmental differences

• Labeling

• Multiple influences on developmental progress

• Miscellaneous factors

Prediction Research in Early Identification

• Techniques– Battery of tests– Single instrument

• Language tests• Readiness tests• Perceptual-Motor tests • Intelligence tests

– Teacher perception

Important Issues to Consider

• Area of assessment

• Determining prediction procedures

• Better identification early on

• Criterion measure

• Index of suspicion

Early Identification Practice

• Assessment Model1. Child-Find

2. Screening

3. Identifying

4. Planning programs

5. Monitoring performance

6. Evaluating program

Service Delivery Options

• Services in least restrictive environment

• Home-based– Parent is the primary teacher– Child is taught in a natural setting

• Center-based– Services provided in a facility

• Combination– Flexibility to best meet child’s needs

Curriculum Models

• Developmental Model

• Cognitive Model

• Behavioral Model

• Combination Model

Effective Practice in Early Intervention

• Quality programs for families

• Comprehensive and intensive

• Class-size important

• Structured programs with a combination of approaches provides improvements across a variety of objectives

• The earlier intervention starts, the better