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A growing number of community childcare programs are including children with developmental disabilities. While some studies have explored the effects of inclusion for preschool and school-age children without disabilities, there is little knowledge about inclusion for typically developing toddlers enrolled in such programs or about parent attitudes regarding inclusion. In this study, parent perceptions of the benefits and limitations of their child's toddler program (inclusion or typical) were assessed. Parents from both programs gave comparable responses to a semi-structured survey with regard to changes in their child's development and parental level of satisfaction. Parent feedback from the inclusion childcare program also provided insight into the advantages of an inclusion program. These findings suggest that there is little differentiation between inclusion programs and regular childcare programs in providing a quality experience for all children, but that there may be additional benefits to enrolling children without disabilities into inclusion programs. (Contains 7 tables.)

A study assessed whether two children (ages 4-6) with autism could be taught a child-initiated query as a pivotal response to facilitate the use of grammatical morphemes. Children learned the strategy and acquired and generalized the targeted morpheme. Children also showed increases in mean length of utterance and verb acquisition. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

A variety of techniques grounded in behavioral psychology, and more specifically in applied behavior analysis, have been established to increase and improve play skills in children with autistic spectrum disorders. This article introduces a set of efficacious methods, which range from highly structured techniques to more naturalistic strategies. It focuses on object play as other authors in the issue discuss social play in greater depth. Behavioral techniques that are reviewed include: discrete trial training, use of stereotyped behaviors to increase play skills, pivotal response training, reciprocal imitation training, differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior, in vivo modeling and play scripts, and video modeling. A discussion of expanding behavior techniques to teach more complex play as well as training in varied environments is also presented. References are provided to allow the reader to obtain more in-depth information about each technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the use of choice during language intervention on disruptive behavior, social play/pragmatic behaviors, and language development in children with autism. Choice opportunities provided for children with autism; Comparison of choice and no choice conditions in a naturalistic language intervention procedure; Reduction in disruptive behaviors; Increase in levels of appropriate social play.