Wendi Beamish – författare

This book reports on the use of behavioural support – an evidence-based approach developed in the USA to meet students’ special educational needs – in Australia and selected thriving Asian countries. It brings together key issues and insights into how educational policy and practices in different societies and cultures influence the uptake of behavioural support in schools and classrooms.

The book provides a balanced and highly informative perspective on the historical paths of development and current expansion of behavioural support into regular schools in the USA. It also offers insights into the progress of its implementation outside the Western context of the USA and Europe and its influence on capacity building among professionals within various contexts across the Asia-Pacific region. Case studies from Australia demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-tiered behavioural support in a state government education system for a population of diverse students, and address the resultant adaptation of tiers when it is implemented in a nongovernment school organisation for students with autism. Case studies from Singapore, Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan reveal the cultural practices and organisational issues that produce distinctive characteristics of behavioural support in inclusive and special education within these countries.

This book offers essential guidance to educational decision-makers in these countries and communities around diverse students in considering their next steps towards using behavioural supports proposed in the American blueprints for implementing and building capacity for use in any context.

This book addresses in detail a range of issues in connection with preparing individuals with disabilities or other special needs for gaining employment and planning a career path beyond school. It presents strategies for personnel preparation, parent education, effective programs for career development and transitions, policies and policy research, and useful tools for assessment and intervention. The clear explanations of essential theories, research findings, policies, and practices for career development ensure that readers gain a deeper understanding of all the issues involved. Most importantly, they will learn several strategies that can be used to prepare students for employment within global and Asia-Pacific regional contexts.

This book focuses on the provision of early intervention for children with disabilities (0-6 years) and their families throughout the Asia-Pacific. The motivation for the book stems from a policy brief by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) issued in 2021. This brief urgently called for young children with disabilities to be identified and to receive intervention and support in lower-income countries throughout Asia and the Pacific. The ESCAP has estimated that at least 33% of young children with disabilities across the region currently lack any service or support to optimise their development before entering school. This book seeks to inform policy and provision within lower-income countries by providing policymakers in government and non-government organisations with practical guidelines. In particular, it presents real-world frameworks and promising programs to assist in establishing and delivering early intervention services that cater to local needs and demands. It also introduces personnel in the field to recommended intervention practices and strategies that support children with diverse disabilities across the age range birth 6 years. It also includes suggestions and strategies for supporting and collaborating with the children’s families. Importantly, when blended with early child development material, these practices and strategies constitute essential topics for ongoing professional development and training activities. The concluding chapter also presents a critical analysis and synthesis of policies, service models, and programs across the Asia-Pacific region. From this analysis, recommendations are presented with likely translatability to countries at different stages of development in delivering quality early intervention to this vulnerable group of children.