RECOMMENDED PRACTICES IN EARLY-CHILDHOOD SPECIAL-EDUCATION - VALIDATION AND CURRENT USE

The purpose of this paper is to describe the process used for identify ing recommended practices in the field of early intervention/early chi ldhood special education (EI/ECSE). Work groups were established for 1 4 areas of EI/ECSE. Participants in these work groups followed a set o f 6 criteria in identifying recommended practices in each area. To val idate the practices identified by the work groups, a national sample o f randomly selected DEC members, persons in higher education, and fami ly members indicated their level of agreement with items representing recommended practices and indicated the frequency of their current use of the items. Ratings from the validation questionnaires indicated su bstantial agreement that practices identified by the initial work grou ps would be recommended practices. The discrepancy between recommended practices and current use of the practices was examined.