Ecological congruence assessment for classroom activities and routines: Identifying goals and intervention practices in childcare

This article is based on the assumption that childcare programs can be desirable intervention contexts for young children with disabilities. In such sites, however, two potential problems often occur: nonfunctional goals and contextually irrelevant recommendations by specialists (special educators and therapists) to childcare teachers. To address these issues, the ecological congruence assessment process was developed. This process involves three phases: The teacher collects information about child functioning in usual classroom activities, routines, and transitions; summarizes the collected information; and shares the summarized information with the team. Use of the ecological congruence assessment process may produce more functional goals and provide useful information for making practice recommendations that are specific to the classroom.