Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility Perspectives & Resources
  • IRIS Center
  • Resources
    • IRIS Resource Locator
      Modules, case studies, activities, & more
    • Evidence-Based Practice Summaries
      Research annotations
    • High-Leverage Practices
      IRIS resources on HLPs
    • Films
      Portrayals of people with disabilities
    • Children's Books
      Portrayals of people with disabilities
    • Glossary
      Disability related terms
    • For PD Providers
      Sample PD activities, planning forms, & more
    • For Faculty
      Top tips, coursework planning, & more
    • Website Navigation Videos
      Getting around our Website & modules
    • New & Coming Soon
      Latest modules & resources
    • IRIS Archived Resources
      Modules, alignment tools, & more
  • PD Options
    • PD Certificates for Educators
      Our certificate, your PD hours
    • Log in to Your IRIS PD
    • For PD Providers
      Sample PD activities, planning forms, & more
    • IRIS+ School & District Platform
      A powerful tool for school leaders
  • Articles & Reports
    • Articles
      Articles about IRIS use & efficacy
    • Internal IRIS Reports
      Reports on IRIS use & accomplishments
    • External Evaluation Reports
      Evaluations of the IRIS Center
    • IRIS Stories
      Our resources, your stories
    • News & Events
      What, when, & where it's happening
  • Help
    • Help & Support
      Get the full benefit from our resources
    • Website Navigation Videos
      Getting around our Website & modules
  • English Learners with Disabilities: Supporting Young Children in the Classroom
Challenge
Initial Thoughts
Perspectives & Resources

Imagine you are Mrs. Raymond. What thoughts come to mind about the new school year? (Opinion Question: No Resources)

What do teachers need to know about young English learners with disabilities?

  • 1: Young English Learners with Disabilities
  • 2: Distinguishing Between Disability and Language Difference

What are some unique issues related to working with families of these children?

  • 3: Importance of Home Language Maintenance
  • 4: Family Engagement: Collaborating with Families of Students with Disabilities

What strategies can teachers use to support these children?

  • 5: Environment and Instructional Grouping
  • 6: Use Visual Supports
  • 7: Incorporate Familiar and Non-Stereotypical Materials
  • 8: Use the Children’s Home Language
  • 9: Promote Peer Support and Interaction

Resources

  • 10: References, Additional Resources, and Credits
Wrap Up
Assessment
Provide Feedback

English Learners with Disabilities: Supporting Young Children in the Classroom

Perspectives & Resources

dll_p_and_r_banner

Objectives

By completing this module’s Perspectives & Resources section and reviewing its accompanying activities, you will be able to:

  • Describe young children who are English learners
  • Describe the importance of maintaining children’s home languages at the same time they are learning English
  • Understand the importance of collaborating with families of young children who are English learners
  • List considerations for screening and evaluating young English learners with disabilities
  • Identify strategies for supporting young English learners with disabilities

Standards

This IRIS Module aligns with the following licensure and program standards and topic areas. Click the arrows below to learn more.

Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)

CAEP standards for the accreditation of educators are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness not only of new instructional practitioners but also the evidence-base used to assess those qualities in the classroom.

  • Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

CEC standards encompass a wide range of ethics, standards, and practices created to help guide those who have taken on the crucial role of educating students with disabilities.

  • Standard 1: Learner Development and Individual Learning Differences
  • Standard 2: Learning Environments
  • Standard 4: Assessment
  • Standard 5: Instructional Planning and Strategies
  • Standard 7: Collaboration

Division for Early Childhood Recommended Practices (DEC)

The DEC Recommended Practices are designed to help improve the learning outcomes of young children (birth through age five) who have or who are at-risk for developmental delays or disabilities. Please note that, because the IRIS Center has not yet developed resources aligned with DEC Topic 8: Transition, that topic is not currently listed on this page.

Assessment

  • A1. Practitioners work with the family to identify family preferences for assessment processes.
  • A2. Practitioners work as a team with the family and other professionals to gather assessment information.
  • A3. Practitioners use assessment materials and strategies that are appropriate for the child’s age and level of development and accommodate the child’s sensory, physical, communication, cultural, linguistic, social, and emotional characteristics.
  • A4. Practitioners conduct assessments that include all areas of development and behavior to learn about the child’s strengths, needs, preferences, and interests.
  • A5. Practitioners conduct assessments in the child’s dominant language and in additional languages if the child is learning more than one language.
  • A6. Practitioners use a variety of methods, including observation and interviews, to gather assessment information from multiple sources, including the child’s family and other significant individuals in the child’s life.
  • A7. Practitioners obtain information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines, and environments such as home, center, and community.
  • A8. Practitioners use clinical reasoning in addition to assessment results to identify the child’s current levels of functioning and to determine the child’s eligibility and plan for instruction.
  • A9. Practitioners implement systematic ongoing assessment to identify learning targets, plan activities, and monitor the child’s progress to revise instruction as needed.
  • A10. Practitioners use assessment tools with sufficient sensitivity to detect child progress, especially for the child with significant support needs.
  • A11. Practitioners report assessment results so that they are understandable and useful to families.

Environment

  • E1. Practitioners provide services and supports in natural and inclusive environments during daily routines and activities to promote the child’s access to and participation in learning experiences.
  • E2. Practitioners consider Universal Design for Learning principles to create accessible environments.
  • E3. Practitioners work with the family and other adults to modify and adapt the physical, social, and temporal environments to promote each child’s access to and participation in learning experiences.
  • E4. Practitioners work with families and other adults to identify each child’s needs for assistive technology to promote access to and participation in learning experiences.
  • E5. Practitioners work with families and other adults to acquire or create appropriate assistive technology to promote each child’s access to and participation in learning experiences.
  • E6. Practitioners create environments that provide opportunities for movement and regular physical activity to maintain or improve fitness, wellness, and development across domains.

Family

  • F1. Practitioners build trusting and respectful partnerships with the family through interactions that are sensitive and responsive to cultural, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity.
  • F2. Practitioners provide the family with up-to-date, comprehensive and unbiased information in a way that the family can understand and use to make informed choices and decisions.
  • F3. Practitioners are responsive to the family’s concerns, priorities, and changing life circumstances.
  • F4. Practitioners and the family work together to create outcomes or goals, develop individualized plans, and implement practices that address the family’s priorities and concerns and the child’s strengths and needs.
  • F5. Practitioners support family functioning, promote family confidence and competence, and strengthen family-child relationships by acting in ways that recognize and build on family strengths and capacities.
  • F6. Practitioners engage the family in opportunities that support and strengthen pa renting knowledge and skills and parenting competence and confidence in ways that are flexible, individualized, and tailored to the family’s preferences.
  • F7. Practitioners work with the family to identify, access, and use formal and informal resources and supports to achieve family-identified outcomes or goals.
  • F8. Practitioners provide the family of a young child who has or is at risk for developmental delay/disability, and who is a dual language learner, with information about the benefits of learning in multiple languages for the child’s growth and development.
  • F9. Practitioners help families know and understand their rights.
  • F10. Practitioners inform families about leadership and advocacy skill-building opportunities and encourage those who are interested to participate.

Instruction

  • INS1. Practitioners, with the family, identify each child’s strengths, preferences, and interests to engage the child in active learning.
  • INS2. Practitioners, with the family, identify skills to target for instruction that help a child become adaptive, competent, socially connected, and engaged and that promote learning in natural and inclusive environments.
  • INS3. Practitioners gather and use data to inform decisions about individualized instruction.
  • INS4. Practitioners plan for and provide the level of support, accommodations, and adaptations needed for the child to access, participate, and learn within and across activities and routines.
  • INS5. Practitioners embed instruction within and across routines, activities, and environments to provide contextually relevant learning opportunities.
  • INS6. Practitioners use systematic instructional strategies with fidelity to teach skills and to promote child engagement and learning.
  • INS7. Practitioners use explicit feedback and consequences to increase child engagement, play, and skills.
  • INS8. Practitioners use peer-mediated intervention to teach skills and to promote child engagement and learning.
  • INS9. Practitioners use functional assessment and related prevention, promotion, and intervention strategies across environments to prevent and address challenging behavior.
  • INS10. Practitioners implement the frequency, intensity, and duration of instruction needed to address the child’s phase and pace of learning or the level of support needed by the family to achieve the child’s outcomes or goals.
  • INS11. Practitioners provide instructional support for young children with disabilities who are dual language learners to assist them in learning English and in continuing to develop skills through the use of their home language.
  • INS12. Practitioners use and adapt specific instructional strategies that are effective for dual language learners when teaching English to children with disabilities.
  • INS13. Practitioners use coaching or consultation strategies with primary caregivers or other adults to facilitate positive adult-child interactions and instruction intentionally designed to promote child learning and development.

Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC)

InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards are designed to help teachers of all grade levels and content areas to prepare their students either for college or for employment following graduation.

  • Standard 1: Learning Development
  • Standard 2: Learning Differences
  • Standard 3: Learning Environments
  • Standard 6: Assessment
  • Standard 8: Instructional Strategies
  • Standard 10: Leadership and Collaboration

When you are ready, proceed to Page 1.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Back Next
12345678910
Join Our E-Newsletter Sign Up
  • Home
  • About IRIS
  • Sitemap
  • Web Accessibility
  • Glossary
  • Terms of Use
  • Careers at IRIS
  • Contact Us
Join Our E-Newsletter Sign Up

The IRIS Center Peabody College Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN 37203 [email protected]. The IRIS Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Grant #H325E220001. The contents of this website do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Anna Macedonia.

Copyright 2025 Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved.

* For refund and privacy policy information visit our Help & Support page.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

  • Vanderbilt Peabody College
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok