The earliest years of life are full of rapid changes and transitions. Early childhood teachers are usually the first to notice when young children are not developing and learning as expected. We have developed a course category specifically for these educators with resources on identifying and teaching students with exceptionalities in early childhood. Early Childhood: ASD…

Autism is a neurobiological developmental disorder that has undergone several changes in identification and classification in recent years. It’s now characterized by a spectrum of disorders. People with ASD have difficulty with social communication and interaction, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. However, these challenges and behaviors vary across people. For most children, ASD appears in…

Caregivers and families play an important role in a child’s development and are instrumental to their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being. Caregivers of children with disabilities or delays may need additional support to understand their child’s special needs. Caregivers might also need help in finding and accessing information and services for their child and…

Before we can discuss early language skills, we need to be clear about the definition of language development. Language development and communication are about more than talking. They refer to the different ways a child understands and communicates, only part of which include spoken words. Language development is important for children to adequately exchange information…

Helping children through the process of social emotional learning and setting them on the path to social emotional competence is an important role of the adults involved in their lives. Social emotional competence is associated with so many factors related to leading a productive, fulfilling life, including personal mental well-being, school success, positive relationships, responsible…

Potentially more than any other aspect of early childhood education, researchers agree on the importance of a child’s social emotional development, or social emotional learning (SEL). This is because social emotional competence is associated with so many factors related to leading a productive, fulfilling life, including: personal mental well-being school success positive relationships responsible decision making…