Developmentally Appropriate Strategies for Promoting Full Participation in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

Integrating young children with disabilities into mainstream preschools with nondisabled children presents numerous challenges. One major stumbling block to integration is the seeming incompatibility of traditional didactic early intervention techniques with the developmentally appropriate practices common to quality mainstream preschool settings. We present strategies for intervention that are in harmony with developmentally appropriate practice and incorporate special educational principles that have enabled children with disabilities to participate more fully in integrated settings while achieving individualized goals and objectives. The strategies are grouped into four categories: attention and responsiveness to the child, environmental structuring, adult mediation, and peer mediation. The strategies are presented with examples to illustrate their use.