Article

Impact Impact: Feature Issue on Early Childhood Education and Children with Disabilities

More Resources on Supporting Relationships (sidebar)

  • Play Time Social Time by Samuel Odom and Scott McConnell. In this curriculum published by the Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, are strategies for promoting social interaction and development of social competence for preschoolers with disabilities using children's natural inclinations to play. The manual includes methods for selecting target children for intervention, selecting peers, social skills lessons, structured play activities, and procedures for prompting and fading responses. 
  • "Preschoolers' Ideas About Disabilities" by Karen E. Diamond and Hsin-Hui Huang. This article examines what we know about typically-developing children's ideas about age mates with disabilities, and how experiences in inclusive programs may influence ideas and attitudes. It focuses on young children's understanding of different disabilities; ways that parents and teachers can influence children's ideas; and relations between children's ideas, interactions, and experiences in settings that include peers with disabilities. It offers suggestions for ways that teachers can support preschool children's interactions and help them to understand what it means to have a disability. Published in the journalInfants & Young Children(January/February/March 2005), Vol. 18, Issue 1, pages 37-46.