27 DEC Recommended Practices

The Division for Early Childhood within the Council for Exceptional Children in an effort to bridge the gap between research and practice has compiled a list of best practices based on the best available evidence for children experiencing delays and disabilities.

DEC Recommended Practices – The DEC Recommended Practices page has the recommended practices available in English and Spanish. It also includes a glossary to support understanding of the practices. The DEC Recommended Practices are divided into seven subheadings: leadership, assessment, environment, family, instruction, interaction, teaming and collaboration, and transition.

Resources

Practice Improvement Tools: Using the DEC Recommended Practices – The ECTA Center provides tools to support use of the DEC RPs. This includes practice descriptions, checklists, and video examples.

Early Childhood Recommended Practice Modules – There is a module for each DEC RP. Each module goes through a plan, do, study, act process to learn about the practice and move this knowledge into practice. Each module includes resources like videos to learn about the practice and an opportunity to practice what you learned within the module. Each module concludes with an action plan to put the the specific RP into everyday practice.

activities

In small groups, walk through each of these items within the checklist and describe how you currently practice each item or how you could practice each item within the setting you currently or plan to teach.