The Reality of Early Childhood

Abstract

Head Start programs are major providers of early childhood special education services serving over 61,000 3- and 4-year-old children with handicapping conditions each year. Yet many of the teachers within Head Start have little in the way of professional training as teachers in general or as educators of exceptional children in particular. The Child Development Associate (CDA) Credentialing and Training program was established to alleviate this problem. Although over 20,000 CDAs have been credentialed, there remains almost no data to support their effectiveness in the classroom. A major research and validation effort is needed for this method of preparing teachers of young handicapped children within Head Start.