Early Childhood Education: Environmental Factors’ and Interventions’ Impact on Diagnosis in Disadvantaged Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of environmental factors in disadvantaged communities on misdiagnosis or a lack of a diagnosis, and the implications of pre-referral and Response to Interventions (RTI) on student identification for services based on the perceptions of staff working in an early childhood education center. The measurement instrument that was used for this study was a hard copy survey given to staff members in an early childhood education center in northeast Washington, DC. The perceptions of the staff were positive about pre-referral intervention and RTI’s ability to remedy the environmental factors children are confronted with in disadvantaged communities. Future research should investigate the various success rates of pre-referral interventions and RTI in various different communities to determine the impact of environmental factors in different communities on children’s social-emotional development and academic progress.