Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to identify parent education procedures implemented in intervention studies focused on expressive verbal communication for nonverbal (NV) or ...minimally verbal (MV) children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parent education has been shown to be an essential component in the habilitation of individuals with ASD. Parents of individuals with ASD who are NV or MV may particularly benefit from parent education in order to provide opportunities for communication and to support their children across the life span. Method: ProQuest databases were searched between the years of 1960 and 2018 to identify articles that targeted verbal communication in MV and NV individuals with ASD. A total of 1,231 were evaluated to assess whether parent education was implemented. We found 36 studies that included a parent education component. These were reviewed with regard to (a) the number of participants and participants' ages, (b) the parent education program provided, (c) the format of the parent education, (d) the duration of the parent education, (e) the measurement of parent education, and (f) the parent fidelity of implementation scores. Results: The results of this analysis showed that very few studies have included a parent education component, descriptions of the parent education programs are unclear in most studies, and few studies have scored the parents' implementation of the intervention. Conclusions: Currently, there is great variability in parent education programs in regard to participant age, hours provided, fidelity of implementation, format of parent education, and type of treatment used. Suggestions are made to provide both a more comprehensive description and consistent measurement of parent education programs.
Co-teaching has been proposed as a meaningful method in addressing the challenges that can accompany classroom diversity. In the present study teachers’ attitudes were investigated regarding ...co-teaching and the inclusion of students with disabilities in general classes. A total of 104 early childhood educators responded to a questionnaire (51.9% general educators and 48.1% special educators). The questionnaire examined the conditions that need to be met for the successful implementation of co-teaching as well as the benefits for the co-teachers. Our findings revealed that while special educators are more willing to co-teach, they are at a disadvantage because general educators typically make the decisions related to the planning and evaluation of the activities in the general classroom. However, most general early childhood educators stated that they benefit professionally from co-teaching. According to our findings, co-teaching is perceived to be successful when the two co-teachers collaborate, during their formal meetings even though their shared collaboration time usually is quite limited. Moreover, female educators seemed more open to inclusive practices and most of them agreed that the appropriate arrangement of the classroom successfully affects the implementation of co-teaching. Finally, it was pointed out that the co-teachers’ knowledge of special educational needs and their skill to modify the curriculum seem to affect co-teaching.
Globally, there are political, social, and financial obstacles to providing high quality, inclusive early childhood education to young children with disabilities and their families. Many teachers are ...able to identify the systemic issues that negatively impact their work; however, many early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers do not have the competence or confidence to advocate for systemic change. In the U.S., one reason for ECSE teachers not engaging in advocacy is an absence of content, practice, and opportunities to learn about advocacy in traditional teacher preparation programmes. This mixed methods study explored how an 8-week graduate level course focused on advocacy for ECSE trainees influenced their knowledge, skills, and dispositions towards advocacy. The course content, assignments, and activities are described as well as pre- and post-course evaluation data. Implications are discussed regarding the course outcomes, lessons learned, and future directions for infusing advocacy content and experiences in ECSE training programmes.
Seventy-six general education and 67 special education teachers working in the same 66 elementary schools were surveyed about their beliefs about writing. Each teacher taught writing to one or more ...fourth-grade students receiving special education services, including students with learning disabilities. Survey findings indicated that general education teachers believed that they were better prepared to teach writing than special education teachers, and they were more positive about their own efforts to learn to teach writing. General education teachers also held more positive attitudes about teaching writing and their own capabilities as a writer than their special education counterparts. Furthermore, general educators were more likely than special educators to indicate that writing developed through effort and process, and less likely to think that writing knowledge came from experts. Beliefs about adequacy of preparation to teach writing predicted teachers’ beliefs about their level of knowledge to teach writing, efficacy to overcome students’ writing difficulties, and attitudes toward teaching writing. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice are presented.
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