reaching toward individualization in planning for children with special needs

Integrating young children with special needs into programs for typically developing children is a current trend. Yet, integration may threaten a teacher's ability to meet the needs of an individual child. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the teachers’ orientation in early intervention/early childhood special education. Data from thirteen early childhood generic educators/early childhood special educators were collected to provide a qualitative description of their assessment and planning practices. Findings indicated that generic early childhood/early childhood special educators’ assessment, planning, and programming for meeting the needs of individual children were not clearly established. There was incongruence between the teachers’ actual practice and the positively -valued guideline of child-centeredness, social aspects of learning and naturalistic teaching strategies.