Coping in Young Children: Early Intervention Practices to Enhance Adaptive Behavior and Resilience

G. Gordon Williamson, Ph.D., is an occupational therapist and special educator who directs two projects at the Pediatric Rehabilitation Department of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, an interdisciplinary department that he originally founded and developed. The COPING Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, offers training and technical assistance to support the provision of family-centered early intervention services that enhance adaptive functioning. The Social Competence Project, previously funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a model demonstration program to foster the interpersonal skills of children with disabilities.

Dr. Williamson is also Associate Clinical Professor of Occupational Therapy in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at Columbia University in New York. He is a member of the board of directors of Zero to Three/National Center for Clinical Infant Programs and the Academy of Research of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Previously he chaired the Parental and Child Health Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Department of Health and served as treasurer of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Dr. Williamson is on the editorial board of numerous professional journals and has lectured extensively throughout the United States South America, and the Middle East. Recent publications include the Early Coping Inventory, Children with Spina Bifida: Early Intervention and Preschool Programming, and many articles related to human adaptation. His research focuses on the study of the coping resources of children and their families.

Shirley Zeitlin, Ed.D., is a psychologist in private practice. Her early work as a school psychologist generated awareness of the impact of coping style on learning and the need to identify and help children with special needs before they failed. This led to her interest in the young child and the development of federally funded preschool and infant and toddler demonstration coping-related early intervention programs. Dr. Zeitlin developed and implemented a graduate program in early childhood special education at Monclair State College in Upper Montclair, New Jersey and also taught educational psychology and directed the research-oriented child study center at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

She has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and China. Through her many activities, including active involvement in national organizations, she makes many contributions to the emerging specialty of early intervention. Dr. Zeitlin's publications include Kindergarten Screening—Early Identification of Handicapped Children, Personalized Learning Plans for Young Children, The Coping Inventory (observation and self-rating forms), The Early Coping Inventory, and many journal articles and book chapters.