Early Childhood Special Education and Assistive Technology Blog

By:  Erin Phillips , EC-SEAT Scholar Screenshot from Let's Participate Website While doing research in preparation for my final graduate exams, I came across an organizational project that I feel deserves to be highlighted and recognized. This project, known as Let’s Participate! Project , acknowledges the importance of Assistive Technology in an early childhood educational setting. It informs the public on how beneficial AT can be in regards to a child’s ability to participate. Let’s Participate! is supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Special Education Programs and as outlined on their webpage, is designed to “assist IDEA Part C and Part B preschool programs in implementing and sustaining promising practices in the effective use of assistive technology (AT) by infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities and, as a result, improve their functional outcomes (USDOE/OSEP, 2013). Currently, this project is only occurring in the st...

Building the Legacy for Our Youngest Children with Disabilities Follow the link above to NICHCY's new home page the Center for Parent Information and Resources . The Office of Special Education Programs has asked them to create training modules for IDEA 2004 Part C.

The ECTA Center has a few upcoming free webinars highly relevant to early childhood special education. These webinars are not only available live, but they are also available in the ECTA center's webinar archive . First on the list is the Part C finance  2014 series. It contains four parts for early interventionalists. It is encouraged by the ECTA Center and its collaborators the ITCA Fiscal Initiative and the Regional Resource Center Program (RRCP)  for Part C coordinators attending the webinars to listern with a team in order to build "fiscal knowledge and capacity within their state." Understanding Part C financing within states is an important part of leadership and advocacy in early intervention and early childhood. Follow this link to access this four part series promoting technical assistance: http://ectacenter.org/~calls/2014/financepartc/financepartc.asp Additionally, The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) released their current recommended practices . On ...