1. Early Childhood Special
Education
An overview of the history, laws and
trends in early childhood special
education

2. History
 The field of early childhood special education has grown out of
several different fields including early childhood education,
elementary special education, medicine and psychology.
 A few people that have had a great influence on the education of
young children with special needs are
 Jean-Marc Itard
 Maria Montessori
 Jean Piaget
See how these theorist impacted early childhood
special education ….

3. Jean-Marc Itard
 Jean-Marc tried to teach a 12 year old boy who was believed to have lived
the first 12 years of his life in the woods with the wolves.
 While Jean-Marc was unable to fully educate and integrate this young man
into society he was one of the first to try to work with children with special
needs.
 His work influenced another theorist, Edouard Sequin, who started to
understand the importance of learning in the early years of childhood.

4. Maria Montessori
 Montessori used the discovery approach to learning and encouraged other
educators to watch how students interacted with peers and their environment
before developing different learning experiences for the students.
 Montessori stressed the importance of building off of each child’s interest.
 Montessori promoted the use of integrating the students’ senses and
incorporating manipulatives in learning.

5. Jean Piaget
 Piaget developed different stages of cognitive development.
 Piaget stressed the importance that experiences play in our learning.
 His theories led to programs that consider the child to be an active participate in
his/her own learning and focused on the strengths of the students.

6. Laws and Legislation
There have been many important laws passed and amended in
order to provide individuals with disabilities the rights they
deserve. Here are a few of the important ones and the
influence they have had on early childhood special
education.

7. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973
 Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act ensures every child the right
to access and take part in federally funded programs.
Handicapped Children’s Early Education Assistance Act
1968
 This law set up programs for early childhood education that evolved
parents, provided training to teachers and assessed the success of
both the students and the program. These programs served as a
model for others.

8. The Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990
 Mandates the rights of young children with
special needs not just in preschools but in
child-care centers and home child-care
settings as well. These institutions have to
make rational adjustments for children with
special needs.
.

9. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
 This law contains many parts that directly relate to elementary and
secondary education including testing in grades 3-8, highly qualified
teachers, all programs must be scientifically based on research and
the requirement of schools making Adequately Yearly Progress.
While these components of the law may not influence early
childhood education directly, they do creating an indirect impact.
For example, many teachers and school districts feel that in order to
prepare students for testing in grades 3 and up students need to
enter kindergarten with more readiness skills which places a bigger
academic task on early childhood educators.
 Other parts of the law influence early childhood such as the Early
Childhood Educator Professional Development Program which
provides grants for professional development for programs that work
with young children in low-income or high-need areas.
 The law provided funding for the Early Reading First program which
is a reading program for students birth to preschool.

10. Public Law 93-380 Education
Amendments Buckley
Amendment, Title V
 This law would later be revised, expanded and reauthorized several
times resulting in 2004 in the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act.
 This law stated the government's pledge to educate students with
special needs and started to look at things such as a student’s right to
be educated in the least restrictive environment and nondiscriminatory
testing .

11. 2004 Public Law 108-446 Individuals
with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act of 2004
This law includes several policies that were established in earlier versions of
the law including:
 The use of Individualized Family Service Plans for each student
 Provided incentive for states to develop their own multifaceted intervention plan
for children birth – 3
 Free and appropriate education for 3-5 year olds
 Transition services for families of students going from early intervention to
preschool
Additions in this law included:
 Early childhood program and teachers need to use approaches gathered from
“scientifically based research”
 Early intervention services do not stop at 3 but may continue until the child
reaches kindergarten

12. As a result of these laws current trends in early childhood special
education include:
 Providing services in inclusive settings with typical developing peers
 Viewing the child as part of the family and the care-giver relationship
 Interventions that are carried out as part of the child’s daily routine, providing hands-on,
meaningful experiences
 Working with the family and their cultural values
 Collaboration among service providers (teacher, speech and language pathologist,
occupational therapist) and the family
 Special education teachers that are trained in providing support for special education
students within the inclusive setting
 Research based programs that are based on standards and provide evidence of progress

13. What’s next?
 The field of early childhood special education
is constantly changing. It is our job to make
sure that society continues to value the
importance of educating all students at early
ages and young children with special needs
continue receive the rights and support they
are entitled to.