Early Intervention Delivered in Segregated or Inclusive Classrooms

A Comparison of the Effects of Early Intervention Delivered in Segregated or Inclusive Classrooms¹

• by Mary Beth Bruder
• Investigator
• Division of Child & Family Studies
• University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington

A description of 37 toddler age children in early intervention will be presented. The children attended classrooms that were either segregated (children with disabilities only) or inclusive (child care classrooms having no more than two children with disabilities). The two groups of children were comparable on indices of child development and family background. A number of service characteristics differentiated the two types of classrooms. These included a higher intensity and frequency of related services being delivered to children in segregated classrooms and larger groups of children and slightly longer hours in the child care classroom.

The research questions included:

Is there a difference in developmental outcomes between children attending the two different types of classrooms?

Findings

After one year of intervention there was no difference in developmental outcomes between the two groups of children.

Implications

Inclusive child care settings were as effective as segregated classrooms for the groups of toddlers in this study.

¹ Presented at the Research to Practice Summit, July 30-31, 1998, Washington, D.C., sponsored by the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance System in collaboration with the Early Childhood Research Institute on Inclusion and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Education Research and Improvement (OERI).

The data cited in this presentation can also be found at

Bruder, M. B., & Staff, I. (1998). A comparison of the effects of type of classroom and service characteristics on toddlers with disabilities. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 18, 26-37.