64 Janice K. Lee, Jaclyn Joseph, Phillip Strain and Glen Dunlap
each school day to receive individualized instruction on Individualized Education
Plan (IEP) goals.
For toddlers, Project DATA provides inclusive playgroups as the context for
opportunities to improve the development of social interactions and relationships
at an early age. Playgroups include five toddlers with disabilities (with no more than
two toddlers with ASD) with five typically developing toddlers. These playgroups
are staffed with a head teacher, an assistant teacher, and a classroom aide, and occur
twice a week for 1.5 hours per session (Boulware, Schwartz, Sandall and McBride,
2006). Specialized services, such as speech, occupational, and physical therapists,
provide consultation to staff and family members, and embed interventions within
the playgroup. Toddlers with ASD also receive individualized instruction on goals
and objectives identified in the child’s Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
for two hours per session, three times a week. In addition, families receive a weekly
two-hour visit in their home or in the community to learn skills and strategies
with an expectation that they will provide an additional five hours per week of
instruction to their child.
Project DATA evidence. Several analyses have documented the success of Project
DATA’s effectiveness in improving skills of children with ASD across develop-
mental domains, as well as making significant gains in the use of speech to com-
municate, as well as with the ability to follow complex directions, imitate motor
skills, maintain toilet training during waking hours, demonstrate symbolic play, and
play cooperatively with peers (Boulware, Schwartz, Sandall and McBride, 2006;
Thomas and Schwartz, 2009). Furthermore, evidence has been provided showing
that the Project DATA model is effective with toddlers with ASD in making gains
in multiple functional and developmental domains (Boulware, Schwartz, Sandall
and McBride, 2006).
Walden Early Childhood Program
In Walden Early Childhood Programs, children with ASD are included in class-
rooms with a majority of typically developing peers. The focus of Walden programs
is to teach children with ASD appropriate social communication skills through the
use of incidental teaching in order to meet the needs of children with ASD and
their typically developing peers.
Walden includes a continuum of program services. The toddler program has a
center and home-based component and focuses on establishing sustained engage-
ment, functional verbal language, responsiveness to adults, participation with typi-
cally developing peers, and independent living skills. The preschool program targets
language expansion and beginning peer interaction training. The pre-kindergarten
program emphasizes elaborated peer interactions, academic skills, and school readi-
ness behaviors. The Walden Family Program teaches parents and caregivers how to
maximize their child’s progress and advocate for their child’s education and lifelong
community inclusion. Thus, Walden provides a continuum of services that begins
in the toddler years with services that include an intensive home-based program