Sheronda is currently doing well in a multi-age classroom for 5, 6 and 7 year old children in an elementary school. She has a number of friends, and her very best friend is named Matt. She is starting to talk, read and write. When we first met Sheronda she was three years old and participating in a self- contained special education preschool for children with autism that was housed within a university medical center. There were four children with autism in the classroom and it was staffed by a teacher and two assistants.

Sheronda was nonverbal and had a number of challenging behaviors. One of her most problematic behaviors was running away. Additionally, she was easily provoked into major tantrums when asked to comply or when a shift in a routine or change in the environment occurred. She displayed some aggressive behaviors toward other children such hitting and biting, and particularly disliked physical contact.

During her second year in preschool, Sheronda program was moved from the medical center. She and her three classmates were placed into inclusive preschool programs. Special education and related services were offered on a collaborative/consultative basis and an additional paraprofessional with specialized training was added to each of the classrooms the children attended. The program in which Sheronda was placed offered full-day child care which met an important need for her working mother and father. Despite this fact, there was considerable concern about her placement in this preschool classroom of 18 typically developing children. Her very challenging behavior and quick exits from home and classroom were viewed as major threats to a successful outcome.

The initial period of adjustment to this program was a stressful time for Courtney, Sheronda's early childhood special education teacher. It was a difficult transition to shift from serving as the lead teacher of her own classroom within a prestigious medical center to serving as an itinerant and collaborative teacher in four different community-based early childhood classrooms. Courtney likes to recall an early and transformational experience when she entered Sherondaüs classroom and was unable to find her. Courtney remembers a feeling of utter panic in her certainty that Sheronda had escaped the confines of the classroom and was wandering around the center or urban neighborhood. She approached the classroom teacher who calmly pointed to small group of children building with blocks. Courtney recalls looking intently at the children and suddenly realizing that Sheronda was one of them.

It astounded me, because she blended into the group so well. It wasn't really that she was cooperatively involved with the children, but she was engaged and very near the children. She looked just like one of them. My eyes filled with tears until, once again, I couldn't see her.

Sheronda needed a summer school placement for all three months, something that the program she had been attending did not offer. Consequently in the summer before her fifth birthday she moved to an all-day child care program in a private Montessori preschool. The same special education supports and services that were available in the previous preschool were made available to Sheronda in this program. Sheronda continued to progress and adjusted very well to the child initiated work routine that was part of the program's method. It was during this time that she first spoke! Excited to hear about the details of this important event, we eagerly asked for the story.

"What did she say and to whom did she say it"?!!. The answer: "Move, please" to a peer who was just a little too close to her materials.

Sheronda's mother was closely involved with each of her experiences in inclusive programs. She faithfully attended biweekly and then monthly core team meetings on her day off from work in order to communicate with the preschool staff and special education teacher. She visited the elementary school that Sheronda would attend and met with principal and the multi-age classroom teacher in the spring before Sheronda's entry into primary education. Currently, Sheronda's mother is an involved parent in the elementary school. She knows what she wants for her daughter and feels comfortable planning and working with professionals as an equal member of a team.