GROUP 1

History of Early
Childhood Special
Education
Dixiline Marzo
Aprielle Obligado
Jolyka Vinuya
Sherilyn Bartolome
Allan Tisel
EARLY CHILDHOOD SPECIAL EDUCATION
Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) services are
designed for young children (aged 3-5) with disabilities who need
specially designed instruction or related services and whose
disability(IES) causes the children to be unable to participate in
developmentally appropriate typical preschool activities. School
districts are required by law to ensure that developmentally
appropriate ESCE programs and services are available. ESCE
programs and services ensure that all children with disabilities
have a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) that is
designed to meet their unique needs and enable them to make
progress in acquiring knowledge and skills, improving social
relationships, and learning to take action to meet their needs
within the general education program.
A young child who is deemed eligible for special education
receives services in the least restrictive environment (LRE),
which can include his/her home, a child care setting, or public
school, as determined by the child’s Individualized Education
Program (IEP) Team, Services are provided at no cost to families
through ESCE programs in public school districts throughout
Massachusetts. Processes for referral for evaluation and
determination of eligibility are the same as those for older,
school-aged children with disabilities.
Jean Marc Gaspard Itag
 Born: April 24, 1774
 Died: July 5, 1838 (64)
 Special Educator
 French Physician who was an authority on diseases of the
ear and on the education of students who were deaf
 The person whom most historians trace the beginning of
special education as we know it today
 Noted for his work with the deaf and with Victor “the wild
boy of aveyron”
 Subject of Study: Intellectual Disability and Deafness
monism
 Jean Marc Itag now known as the father of special education

Maria Montessori
 Born: August 31, 1870
 Italian Physician
 Known for high level of competency in Healing Patients
 She joined a research program at the psychiatric clinic that
initiated a deep interesting the needs of children with
learning disabilities
  Maria, put a many different activities were designed to
support their natural development to have the power to
educate themselves
 Maria, stressed the important building off of each child’s
interest

Jean Piaget
 Swiss psychologist
 He believe that children take an active role in the learning
process.
 He dedicated his life to the education of children.
 His theory of intellectual or cognitive development,
published in 1936, is still use today in some branches of
education and psychology. It focuses in children, from birth
through adolescence, and characterizes different stages of
development, including: language, morals, memory, and
reasoning
 Cognitive Development of Jean Piaget’s suggest that
children move through four different stages of mental
development
 sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal
operational
  He also believed that when kids interact with the world
around them, they continually add new knowledge, build
existing knowledge and adapt previously held ideas to
accommodate new information

LAWS AND LEGISLATION

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

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

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

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

 This law contains many parts that directly relate to
elementary and secondary educations including testing in
grades 3-8, highly qualified teachers, all programs must be
scientifically based on research and the requirements 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 testing in grades 3 and up students need
to enter kindergarten with more readiness skills which places
a bigger academic task on early childhood education.
 Others 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 student’s birth of
preschool.

Public Law 93-380 Education

amendments Buckley
amendment, Title V

 This law would later be revised, expanded and authorized

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
student’s right to be educated in the least restrictive
environment and non-discriminatory testing.

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 years old
 Transition services for families of students going from early
intervention to preschool

Addition in this law

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