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Sharon M. Darling, Ph.D. earned her doctorate from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She is currently an Associate Professor at ����Vlog where she prepares pre-service and in-service professionals to work with young children and their families. Dr. Darling has conducted research, published books and scholarly articles, and given numerous international, national, and local presentations on curriculum, behavior, and addressing the needs of children and families with and without special needs within inclusive environments. Children and families who are from diverse backgrounds are of special interest. Her research areas are focused on young children with disabilities, preparing personnel to work within special education and blended, developmentally appropriate, inclusive learning environments, and disability studies.

KEYWORDS: Early childhood/early childhood special education (ECE/ECSE), developmentally appropriate practice in ECE/ECSE, disability studies, inclusion, young children with special needs, special education, and special education teacher education.

Expertise and Interests

Dr. Darling teaches courses in disability studies (EEX 2091 - Disability and Society), special education (EEX 6515 - Special Education Leadership, Policy, and Ethics), and early childhood special education (EEC 3214 - Designing and Implementing a Blended Curriculum: B-Age 8; EEX 3226 - Assessment of ALL Young Children; EEX 5015 - Survey and Assessment in Early Childhood and Early Childhood Special Education; EEX 5017 - Atypical Development Early Childhood ESE; and, EEX 6707 - Early Intervention Services: Working with infants, toddlers and families).

Her teaching philosophy is grounded in principles of adult learning, and her approach to teaching and learning is decidedly student-centered. She embraces the curious, intuitive, and thorough learner who pays attention to the larger and smaller details within coursework completion.

Prospective Doctoral Students

Prospective doctoral students who are interested in working with Dr. Darling at Florida Atlantic can expect a knowledgeable, disciplined educator and researcher who is laser-focused on student degree completion and success. She aims to provide a variety of professional experiences to allow her doctoral students to build a cadre of accomplishments in teaching/leadership, research/scholarship, and service to the department, college, and their profession. Doctoral students will be afforded opportunities including but not limited to learning about professional organizations (Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children), how to read and review manuscripts for publication, conduct original research, and public dissemination of research at professional conferences.

As her research areas are focused on young children with disabilities, preparing personnel to work within special education and blended, inclusive environments, and disability studies, students who are interested in these areas will thrive under her tutelage.

Interested parties are invited to view her publications at .

Expertise and Interests

Dr. Darling began her career as a special education teacher. She taught third through fifth grade students with behavioral disorders. Working with this population was quite instructive, as these students presented engrained behavioral and academic challenges that intensified through the years. This gave rise to notions about “early intervention” and “catching them early.” Thus, she then transitioned to teaching young children with non-specified disabilities (i.e., developmental delays). In that realm, she was able to focus on ways to ameliorate challenging behaviors in young children and teach children methods and strategies for academic success, all within a developmentally appropriate framework.

Since completing her doctoral degree in 2002, Dr. Darling has taught preservice and in-service undergraduate and graduate students and conducted research focused on investigating ways to improve preparing personnel to work within special education and blended, inclusive environments. She also conducts work in disability studies.

Professional Memberships

Dr. Darling maintains memberships in these professional organizations:  (CEC), CEC-, CEC-, and the . Over the course of her career, in addition to her membership in these organizations and partaking in professional development opportunities, she has also served in one or more of these capacities:

• Member of board of directors
• Associate Editor and journal peer-reviewer
• Strand Chair and reviewer for conference proposals
• Co-chaired an annual conference.