Feeding Challenges in Young Children

Deborah A. Bruns is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of assessment and intervention in early childhood special education, working with families and program leadership. Dr. Bruns's research agenda reflect her primary areas of teaching including the use of play-based assessment as a teaching tool, examining feeding development of young children with and without disabilities and parent-professional relationships in early intervention. She is also Principal Investigator of the Tracking Rare Incidence Syndromes (TRIS) project. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Early Intervention, Early Childhood Research & Practice, Neonatal Network and Young Exceptional Children. Dr. Bruns is active at the state and national levels in the Division for Early Childhood. She is also a member of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Stacy D. Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale specializing in Child Development. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of developmental assessment, infant and children's development, and early intervention within the context of the family. Dr. Thompson's research interests include feeding and interventions for families and caregivers, risk-taking behaviors in adolescence, fathers of infants born to adolescent mothers, and quality care for young children. I am a member of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD), Division for Early Childhood, and National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). Dr. Laurie Dinnebeil is a Professor and holds the Daso Herb Chair in Inclusive Early Childhood Education. She was a preschool special education for five years before entering higher education. She has taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses related to early childhood education and early childhood special education and has published extensively in the area of itinerant ECSE service delivery. Dr. Dinnebeil is a proficient grant writer, having secured over $6 million in national and state funding over the past 15 years. Dr. Dinnebeil is very active in the field of early childhood special education at the local, state, and national levels. She is a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Early Childhood and a past president of the Ohio Higher Education Consortium for Early Childhood Education. She is Associate Editor for Topics in Early Childhood Special Education and serves on editorial boards for numerous academic journals related to early childhood education and special education. Dr. Dinnebeil is active in the local, state, and national early childhood education communities. She is a 2002 Mid-Career Fellow for Zero to Three. She also has college administrative experience as a department chair and associate dean for graduate studies and research.