What Are the Foundations of At-Risk Conditions?

• The focus on children who are at risk began in the 1960s with programs for the disadvantaged and has increased steadily since the change in terms to at risk in the 1980s.
• IDEA 04 uses the term at risk to define infants and toddlers who are at risk for developmental delays. Children birth through age 2 who are at risk for developmental delays are served under IDEA 04, Part C. Children ages 3 to 5 at risk for developmental delays are served under IDEA 04, Part B.
• Children may remain or become at risk for developmental delays or academic or social problems in preschool, at school age, and during adolescence. Some funding for this population, not served under IDEA 04, is available through Title I of the ESEA Act.
• IDEA 04, Part C, served 2.4% of the birth through 2-yearold population in 2005, and 5.8% of the 3- to 5-year-old population were served under IDEA 04, Part B. Overall, there has been a rise in conditions that put children at risk.

What Are Factors That Place Children At Risk?

• The factors that place children at risk of developmental delays and school failure are numerous. These factors are commonly grouped into established risk conditions, biological or medical conditions, and environmental risk factors.
• Conditions of environmental risk include parental substance abuse, family instability, poverty, homelessness, violence in the home, teen pregnancy, child abuse or neglect, school factors, and English as a second language.
• Protective factors are those that may help children be resilient to risk factors. Such factors include temperament, education, family structure, health, and intelligence, among many others.
• The characteristics of each child are unique; there is no typical child who is at risk.

How Are Children Who Are At Risk Identified?

• Early identification of children at risk allows for the greatest impact of early intervention services.
• Infants and toddlers may be identified by physical, communication, cognitive, social-emotional, and adaptive behaviors.
• Measures of literacy skills and behavioral measures are typically used to identify young children at risk.

What and How Do I Teach Students Who Are At Risk?

• Children at risk for developmental delays and school failure often need a focus on language/literacy skills, mathematical skills, and social/behavioral control.
• Family involvement plays an important role in the learning of children at risk. Three ways to strengthen family involvement are encouraging positive parenting, developing home–school relationships, and sharing with parents a responsibility for learning. An IFSP will establish collaborative goals for the family and the education providers.
• Using the Universal Design for Learning can help meet the needs of all children before they encounter learning problems.
• The goal for children who are risk should be prevention of school failure. The three levels of prevention are primary prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention.
• Successful early intervention programs include family involvement and focus on the development of social skills, compliance, self-regulation, and academic engagement.
• Literacy development should focus on developing early literacy skills in young children and phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension in older children.
• Procedures that can help the development of social/ behavior skills include prompting targeted behaviors, play-related activities, free-play generalization, reinforcement of appropriate behaviors, modeling of specific social skills, storytelling, direct instruction of social skills, and imitation of behaviors. Universal Design for Learning, positive behavior support, and functional assessments should be considered.

What Are Other Instructional Considerations for Students Who Are At Risk?

• The best intervention environment for young children is the natural environment—the home and areas in which they would typically interact. A responsive home environment provides positive and supportive interactions with young children.
• Effective instructional environments are well organized, consistent, and include well-established rules, rituals, and routines.
• Many children who are at risk have no computers or Internet access at home and will need extra time at school to catch up with peers.

What Are Some Considerations for the General Education Teacher?

• From early childhood on, much of the responsibility for serving children who are at risk falls on general education teachers in collaboration with special educators and other staff.
• Programs and teachers should work to alleviate risk factors and enhance protective factors for children who are at risk.