DEC Talks: Early Intervention, Early Childhood Special Education, Inclusive Early Childhood

In this episode of DEC Talks, we share selected reflections from the 2025 Division for Early Childhood (DEC) Award Winners, drawn from the DEC Awards Ceremony. These excerpts highlight moments where award recipients spoke directly about their motivation, purpose, and the values that guide their work in inclusion in early childhood, early intervention, and early childhood special education. Featuring voices of educators, family leaders, researchers, and mentors, this episode centers one guiding question: What is the “why” that sustains this work? Listeners are invited to reflect on the relationships, experiences, and commitments that shape inclusive early childhood systems, and the reasons they stay connected to this field. To learn more about the values and practices reflected in this episode, you can access the complete 2025 DEC Awards Ceremony, the DEC Recommended Practices, and the DEC Racial Equity Point of View at dec-sped.org.

In this episode of DEC Talks, Dr. Peggy Kemp and Dr. LaShorage Shaffer lead a conversation with Dr. Angel Fettig and Dr. Hailey Love, the new co-editors of the Journal of Early Intervention (JEI). Together, they discuss the journal’s refreshed vision, its alignment with DEC’s Racial Equity Point of View, and how JEI is advancing equity, innovation, and accessibility in early childhood and early intervention research.

We're kicking off our first episode of DEC Talks, the Division for Early Childhood podcast, starting at the heart of how we work together as an organization - our group norms. These five norms, adopted from Open Source Leadership Strategies, guide every DEC initiative, helping us center inclusion, equity, and accountability. You'll hear from Dr. LaShorage Shaffer, DEC's Executive Board president, as she walks us through each norm in detail And along the way, you'll also hear reflections and experiences from other DEC Executive Board Members as they share what these norms look like in practice.  We're glad you're here!