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Providing appropriate educational services to young children with autism may be one of the defining challenges of the 1990s and early 2000s for early childhood special education. The number of children with autism is increasing dramatically, the research literature is rich with evidence-based instructional strategies, and the Internet is even more full of information and advice of unknown quality. Parents and school district personnel, often working together but sometimes at odds, need to develop programs to meet the needs of these children. Project DATA (Development Appropriate Treatment for Autism) started as a federally funded model demonstration project for developing a school-based program for young children with autism that would be effective and acceptable to consumers (e.g., parents, school personnel). Project DATA consists of five components: a high-quality early childhood environment, extended instructional time, social and technical support for families, collaboration and cooperation across services, and transition support. In this article, we provide data demonstrating the effectiveness of this model and discuss the implications of this type of inclusive programming for young children with autism.
For educators, this is a challenging time to be working in the area of autism. Many will remember the 1990s and first years of this decade as the period when autism went from a rarely identified disability with a reported prevalence of 3 to 5 individuals out of 10,000 to the fastest growing category of disability, with current prevalence reported as 1 in 166 (Autism Society of America, 2004). Professionals working with infants and toddlers in early intervention programs have gone from rarely enrolling a child with autism to enrolling as much as 20% of toddlers with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. Although great strides have been made in diagnosis, assessment, and intervention for children with autism, many unanswered questions still remain and much work needs to be done.
One of the most pressing challenges facing the field of early child special education is how to provide services to children with autism and their families that are effective, inclusive, developmentally appropriate, and acceptable to consumers (e.g., family members, school personnel). In other words, providing effective services for children with autism is where "the rubber hits the road" for early childhood special education personnel who believe in the importance of...