Research and Policy on Disability: Linking Special Education to Developmental Science

Abstract

Bridging special education (SE) and developmental science recognizes their shared focus on individual adaptation, growth, and outcomes. Adaptation continuously aligns the proclivities of students and the opportunities of their contexts. Considerations for the adaptation of students with disabilities include developmental malleability, problem behavior, intervention supports, and SE services. Policy implications center on the need to focus on the individual in context in both research and intervention, merge data from the implementation of intensive interventions and person-oriented analysis to establish comprehensive frameworks that include a focus on neurophysiological processes, and train the next generation of SE leaders in intensive interventions and applied developmental science.