The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA, 1997; PL 105-17) provides early intervention programs to young children with special needs and their families. In 1986, Public Law 99-457, which is an amendment to PL 94-142, extended all of the rights and protections of PL 94-142 to 3- to 5-year-old children with disabilities and created a discretionary program to assist states in developing early intervention programs for families and their young children who are at risk or disabled from birth up to age 3 years. Section 619 of IDEA, provides services to children if they have a diagnosis of mental retardation, hearing impairments, speech or language impairments, visual impairments, severe emot

There are several components in the structure of teaching young children. One component is the transitional approach. This type of approach focuses to promote development within the context of interactions with caregivers and the environment. Interventions that are based on a transactional perspective are concerned only with the attainment of developmental skills; they also view the achievement of developmental milestones in the broader context of the behavior, beliefs, and values of all the players in the system (Sameroff & Fiese, 1990). The next type of approach is instructional activities. Although active engagement is a goal of early intervention, young children, especially young children who may have medical concerns or multiple disabilities, have very low thresholds for continual engagement. Activities that are designed for young children must be brief and based on the child’s interest. The early interventionist must be able to embed instruction in playful child-motivating activities that can be applied throughout the day by a variety of caregivers. The next approach is instructional content. This focus of infant intervention program is to teach an infant to mediate his behavior states, basic motor movements, and contingent responsiveness. The goals are developmentally based, although an emphasis is placed on teaching the skills in meaningful routines in the same way that we teach older individuals with severe disabilities. Lastly, family support is a component to teaching young children. In addition to providing intervention to young children, the early interventionist is concerned with providing support to families. In IDEA, the involvement of family in the development of an IEP is clearly specified for 3- to 5-year-olds, and in the development of the IFSP for birth to 2-year-olds. It is broadly aimed at providing positive support to caregivers and family members as the critical context for the child’s development (Kaiser & Hemmeter, 1989). Early interventionists work as an agent of the family to strengthen the family’s capacity to provide for the child.

Inclusion of young children with disabilities is important for legal, educational, and moral reasons. A significant barrier to inclusive program for preschoolers with disabilities is that schools are not typically serving nondisabled children of the same age. Similar problems exist for the agencies that serve infants and toddlers in early intervention programs. They oft

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