Inclusion means giving children with special needs and their parents or caregivers the same opportunities to learn, enjoy and participate as other families have.
All children benefit from inclusion. Exposure to children with diverse skills and abilities at a young age provides a foundation for a lifetime of understanding and respecting differences. It promotes awareness of human differences and leads to greater acceptance.
A New Model for Supporting Inclusion
Every Child Belongs, a child care model at Toronto Children’s Services, has redesigned its approach to inclusion. This program aims to support the development of inclusive practices in child care by bringing down the barriers that prevent it. The previous program model assigned special needs resource people to be on site, but that approach was found to be ineffective because, in many cases, the child with a special need was seen as “belonging to” that resource person and, consequently, other staff members did not work with the child. Without a resource person on site, including the child with a disability becomes everyone’s responsibility.
Similar trends are emerging across Canada. The prevailing belief is that it is most beneficial to provide the support and resources needed to ensure that all early childhood educators are appropriately trained to work with children of all ability levels. This new attitude is evident as we see inclusive models used in programs in local recreation, community centres, early years centres, child care settings and public school boards.
According to the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL), families describe an accepting and inclusive community as one that provides leadership in valuing families and the roles they play, as well as one that recognizes that responsibility for being included in the community does not rest with the family, the individual, or disability and service organizations. CACL stresses that the community as a whole and its members share in this responsibility.
Research in Canada has shown that students who are segregated for special education do less well than similar children who go to regular schools. Canada is one of 80 nations that signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a policy that requires nations to ensure opportunities for “appropriate” and “inclusive” education for students with disabilities. It recognizes that a change of attitude in society is necessary if persons with disabilities are ever to achieve equal status.
“All Children bring gifts and have the right to be valued, accepted and included. Embrace inclusion and celebrate diversity as the means of fostering the wellbeing of every child and thereby enriching our communities”
Inclusion in the Newcomer Environment
When working with newcomer children, educators should recognize that families vary widely with respect to racial/ethnic, cultural, economic and linguistic backgrounds and should acknowledge that culture has a profound influence on early development and learning.
This statement from Occupational Standards for Early Childhood Educators, 2010, (Canada), the Child Care Sector Council, offers a guiding principle for Early Childhood Educators (ECSs):
Early Childhood Educators provide an inclusive environment for children and families through the integration and acceptance of unique and diverse familial and cultural realties. ECEs also ensure the acceptance and complete inclusion of children with special needs through program modification and the development of inclusion plans.
“Take time to examine your thinking. Expose and investigate assumptions. Try to see things from a number of different perspectives. Be relentlessly curious!”
How can we ensure quality inclusion?
Inclusion is a process, not a product, and there are issues of capacity building that will take time for the community to respond to. Training is an important contributor to inclusion quality. While early childhood educators have the core knowledge to program for all ability levels, additional training will reinforce this skill base and help them to become experts in creating a classroom environment that accommodates the developmental needs of all children.
Inclusion quality is also strongly related to centre, supervisor and staff characteristics that form a web of resources. All the elements that make up this infrastructure must be considered and supported to ensure inclusion quality and to sustain it over time.
References:
Lero, D., & Hope-Irwin, S., 2008, SpeciaLink Conference Presentation, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 10 February 2011, www.specialink.org
Accommodating All Children in the Early Child- hood Classroom, 2002, University of Kansas, Circle of Inclusion Project. 10 February, 2011
www.circleofinclusion.org/english/accommodating/index.html
City of Toronto: early childhood services team, Community Living Toronto, Surrey Place Centre Supported Inclusion , , 24 July 2010, 15 January 2011,
www.connectability.ca/2010/07/24/supported-inclusion/
Inclusion: Policy Development Guidelines for Early Learning and Care Programs, 2007, City of Toronto 10 February 2011, http://www.toronto.ca/children/policy_inclusion.pdf
