Young children with special needs and their families often experience transitions across multiple environments in the early childhood years. Many transitions are identified as stressful for children and families. In the present study, a series of focus groups involving administrators, practitioners, and family members were held around the United States to identify transition practices that have been implemented effectively for children, families, staff, administrators, and communities. Two major themes emerged from the data: critical interagency variables, defined as strategies that support an interagency process involving multiple parties; and transition practices and activities, defined as practices that address child, family, staff, program, and community-specific activities. Outcomes from these focus groups included identification of transition strategies for young children with special needs that are considered valuable by parents, providers, and administrators and that are consistent with theoretical frameworks described in the transition literature.

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A s professionals and families work together to identify and celebrate the strengths and resources unique to each family, new and innovative ways to describe and discuss family characteristics are needed. The eco-map, borrowed from social science disciplines, is one method used to describe family strengths and resources. The ecomap was developed in 1975 by sociologist Hartman (1978) to help social workers in public child welfare practice better understand the needs of the families with whom they worked. An eco-map is a graphic representation or visualization of the family and linkages to the larger social system, including informal (e.g., friends, extended family members) and formal (e.g., early care and education providers, early intervention providers) supports. It illustrates how the family exists within the context of its Eco-Mapping / McCormick et al.

Limited participation and sampling of stimuli by children in early childhood programs may restrict opportunities to respond and limit learning. The purpose of this study was to extend the concept of within-stimulus prompting (Schreibman, 1975) for use in an early intervention classroom to occasion play with previously low-contact toys in previously low-contact centers for two children. Kaitlyn was 27 months old and diagnosed with Down syndrome. Greg was 29 months old and diagnosed with autism. A reversal design was used to evaluate experimental conditions. For Kaitlyn, adult prompting more effectively occasioned toy play. For Greg, the within-stimulus prompt effectively occasioned play with planted stimuli in previously low-contact centers following the within-stimulus with adult prompt phase and return to baseline.This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.