A consultative itinerant approach to service delivery: considerations for the early childhood community.

PURPOSE

This article, written by experts in itinerant early childhood special education, describes and differentiates approaches to itinerant early childhood special education as a primary service delivery option. Consultative itinerant early childhood special education services, in particular, are a means of ensuring that young children with disabilities have access to the general early childhood curriculum as offered in community-based programs.

METHOD

A discussion of the empirical literature that supports a consultative approach, literature that focuses on behavioral consultation and principles of distributed practice and embedded learning opportunities, is included. In addition, this article outlines a set of assumptions that program personnel make when implementing a consultative itinerant approach to service delivery. The need for and challenges associated with a consultative itinerant approach are discussed.

CONCLUSION

Itinerant early childhood special educators face similar challenges as speech-language pathologists with regard to providing high-quality interventions to children in inclusive settings.