National Centers Supporting Inclusion in EC Education
The following national centers work to support the inclusion of young children with disabilities. These centers provide information and resources that can help early childhood educators as they work to meet the needs of children with disabilities within inclusive settings.
Center for Early Literacy Learning
The Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL) has resources for early childhood intervention
practitioners, parents, and other caregivers of children, birth to five years of age,
with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for poor outcomes.
CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge
CONNECT offers web-based, instructional resources for faculty and other professional
development providers that focus on and respond to challenges faced each day by those
working with young children with disabilities and their families. The modules help
build practitioners’ abilities to make evidence-based decisions.
Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
The ECTA Center supports state Part C and Section 619 programs in developing high-quality
early intervention and preschool special education service systems, increasing local
implementation of evidence-based practices, and enhancing outcomes for young children
with disabilities and their families.
SpecialQuest
The SpecialQuest Group provides responsive services to achieve successful and enduring
professional development and systems change for high quality Early Childhood Education
and inclusion of young children with disabilities and their families.
National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI)
The National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations offers free products and resources
to help decision-makers, caregivers, and service providers apply research based practices.
The Iris Center
The IRIS Center is a national center that aims to provide high-quality resources for
college and university faculty and professional development providers about students
with disabilities.
Culturally Responsive Strategies to Support Young Children with Challenging Behavior
This article describes five culturally responsive core strategies to promote positive
teacher relationships with young children in preschool and minimize challenging behavior:
learn about children and families, develop and teach expectations, take the child’s
perspective, teach and model empathy, and use group times to discuss conflict.
Tracking, Referral and Assessment Center for Excellence(TRACE)
The major goal of TRACE is to identify and promote the use of evidence-based practices
and models for improving child find, referral, early identification, and eligibility determination for infants, toddlers, and young children with developmental delays or disabilities
who are eligible for early intervention or preschool special education.