Inclusive practice in early childhood development and education
The importance of early childhood development and education
Early childhood development and education are very important.
Children are learning even before they are born.
The way we support children’s development and learning during their early years influences their later learning and development.
Parents and caregivers want to give children the best start in life.
They want to make sure children have opportunities to develop, learn and reach their full potential.
They need support with this.
Early childhood development and education settings play an important role in maximising these opportunities.
Around the world, countries have made commitments – like the Sustainable Development Goals
the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
to ensure that early childhood development and education provision is available and inclusive for every girl and boy.
All young learners – girls and boys, whatever their race, language, religion, disability refugee or other status
should be able to learn together in their local community.
There are many different types of early childhood development, care and education provision. Different names are used.
In your community you may be familiar with ‘kindergarten’, ‘nursery’, ‘playgroup’, ‘pre-school’
‘early learning centre’, ‘daycare’, ‘childcare’ or another name.
Whatever we call them, all settings must be inclusive.
In this video you will experience some simple ways in which early childhood educators
in any setting, can improve their day-to-day practice and become more inclusive.
What should inclusive early childhood development and education be like?
Inclusive early childhood development and education enables all children to learn alongside their peers – from a young age.
This means they learn to welcome and value diversity from their earliest years,
which in turn helps to lay the foundation for an inclusive society.
This is why it is important that early childhood educators understand and embrace diversity.
Young children benefit in so many ways from the experience of learning together in diverse groups.
It is certainly enriching for children to be in a group. When they are in the group, they draw so much energy from each other.
They complement each other and become whole like pieces of a puzzle that come together to become a new picture.
Our family are so happy with the preschool. Lee-Ann is very happy.
She has friends now and can play with other children rather than being at home every day.
I like morning meetings as an activity, and we try to conduct them regularly.
The idea of the morning meeting is to help each child in the circle to feel free, valued, important and welcome.
Good quality, inclusive early childhood development and education has play at the heart of everything.
We learn by playing with the kids. If you want to teach the kids, you have to know how to play with them.
They learn by playing.
Playing is the most effective way for young children to develop and learn.
That is why it is very important that early childhood educators
know how to guide and facilitate learning and skills development through play.
Kindergarten is all about playing. We teach children through play.
And even though they play, they still learn.
When playing children interact with each other, they experiment. Through play they learn about the world.
And a teacher acts as a partner in the play.
While playing they get together they get to know each other very well, they learn to socialise.
Physically they become much stronger. Playing is the best way for them to be physically fit.
That’s why it’s so important to give them time to play. As they play together they communicate
They socialise, they learn to do things in groups, they learn to do things together.
To share, which is very important for them as they grow up.
Inclusive early development and education experiences – centred around play
build the foundation for a lifelong enjoyment of learning.
When you teach the little one, you just lay a foundation. So you can’t just build a house with no foundation.
Making connections between home, life, the community and learning
is another important way that inclusive early childhood educators help to build a child’s desire for learning.
Early childhood educators focus on children’s interests to nurture their creativity and curiosity
skills that will help the children as they grow.
Early childhood educators also support the physical and emotional wellbeing
and the health and safety of all young children in their care.
What should early childhood development and education not be like?
Early childhood education is actually more than just preparation phase for the primary school.
We can see that in some contexts that early childhood education does not promote diversity
it does not centre around fun and play, it does not lay the foundation for enjoying learning.
This may not benefit the chance to develop emotional resilience or develop lifelong love for learning.
Children may be taught in large groups using teaching and learning approaches intended for much older children.
Some early childhood education programmes try to prepare children for school by teaching school level reading and maths.
Parents may want this for their children but it’s not appropriate for the age group
and can mean that children miss out on really important age appropriate learning and development through play and exploration for example.
These are the core skills that prepare them for school life.
There is evidence that starting academic [learning] early does not give the children an advantage.
It’s not actually inclusive because it imposes rigid developmental expectations
onto young learners who are very diverse.
So if we want to ensure inclusive education in early childhood education
we need to avoid the instructional nature of these settings.
We’ve got to avoid turning early education settings into formal schools.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Work with other educators on inclusive education
Every early childhood educator needs to learn about inclusion principles and practices.
This might be achieved through attending training workshops or through self-study programmes
maybe watching films like this one!
You can also learn a lot about inclusion from your colleagues.
When a new educator comes to work at our kindergarten, we make them understand that learning cannot be boring.
For example, if they are teaching about a tree, they cannot just stand near the tree and read a lecture about it.
Instead, kids should interact with the tree; measure it, play games with the tree leaves.
All learning happens through play.
This way it is easier for both children and teachers, and it is more interesting than listening to long explanations.
You may have a colleague in your setting who has experience with children from particular backgrounds
or with teaching children with specific disabilities.
You can ask them for ideas and advice on how you can better support the learners in your class or group.
But do not expect colleagues with specialist expertise to take responsibility for teaching your learners.
It is still your responsibility to help all your learners develop and learn.
When you work with other educators as a team, you can share concerns, ideas and experiences.
This can help you respond more appropriately to any difficulties
you experience supporting children’s learning and development.
We meet often to discuss objectives and draft individual development plans for each child.
We set goals for each child and every three months, or even more often, we meet to discuss progress towards goals
whether we have used the right teaching and learning methods to support the child’s development.
Sometimes the goal was wrong, and we have to adapt it.
Usually, an early childhood development and education setting is less formal than a primary or secondary school.
This gives you, and the educators you work with, more opportunities to be flexible
with how you organise and facilitate learning, and how to address inclusion challenges.
For example, you can use team-teaching, so that you work together with colleagues
to plan and facilitate learning activities.
And you can bring different groups of learners together for different activities.
Here, learners from a pre-school and from a secondary school are participating in activities together
having fun and learning from each other.
Understand each child’s development and needs
Inclusive early childhood educators need a basic understanding of children’s social, physical, intellectual
communication and emotional development.
Every child develops at a unique pace, so regular observations of each learner should be carried out.
You need to observe young children to understand and monitor their individual development
interests, strengths, and needs.
This should not involve measuring one young child against another.
I monitor children to assess what they know and how they are getting on.
When we start using a new teaching method, we observe the classroom dynamics
and whether the children like and learn better with the new approach.
We also observe so that we can identify children’s creative and other abilities.
You need to notice if a child is developing certain skills more slowly, more quickly or differently than expected.
You can then adapt teaching and learning approaches for the child.
You might ask the child’s parents or caregivers, and other educators with more specialist experience
to help you with adapting teaching and learning activities for the child.
Providing effective early support to a child can help prevent a developmental delay
from becoming more pronounced over time.
You can help identify when young learners need support with rehabilitation or health matters.
You definitely do not need to be a medical expert, but you can work with other service providers
to jointly understand and address the child’s needs.
I’m with Lee-Ann’s mother today to see the progress. First of all we identified the child and assessed the child
their health and their physical [abilities/needs] also.From there we work with a team from Cape Town.
They make the wheelchair. After that we fit [it for] the child. Now the child is at the school
There are simple things you can do to observe children’s development.
You can watch children’s actions, expressions, gestures and behaviours.
Listen to their language and communication skills when they are talking and interacting with each other.
Watch them on their own, in pairs and in groups.
Watch the children doing a range of activities that show you their social, physical, intellectual, communication, and emotional skills.
You can take notice of what seems to interest or bore the children
Watch how they interact with adults or older children.
And join in with their play or conversations.
You need to make lots of connections between the learning you facilitate and the children’s lives and homes.
Draw on the customs, languages, games, events, people and objects that the young children are familiar with at home.
To do this, work closely with parents and caregivers. They are the experts.
They know their own child better than anyone else.
They can tell you what the child is familiar with at home.
You and they can share insights into the child’s interests, achievements and challenges.
I am pleased about how the relationships between the kindergarten team and myself as a parent have developed.
I share with them about what happens at home, how Illia is doing, and, in turn
the teachers tell me about his day, what he has learned, what we should focus on
and we support the development of the child together.
Of course, some parents ask for advice, for example, “what can I do at home to help my child in a certain area?”
We discuss and spell everything out: what to do, how to organise their activities at home, how to introduce the child to something.
You and your colleagues can encourage parents and caregivers to play an active role
in their child’s development and learning by making the education setting an inclusive
and welcoming place for the parents and caregivers.
You can provide opportunities for them to get involved in activities, learning and discussions in the setting.
It is also important that you are pro-active and reach out to families.
You or your colleagues may need to make home visits to better understand what is helping or hindering a child’s development
and learning at home, or what is preventing them from attending or participating in your class or group.
There are different life situations, different families.
Everyone comes to the kindergarten with their own problem or joy in the morning.
We always find a common tongue: parents, children and us working together as a team.
Sometimes you may need to work with caregivers who are not children’s family members, to find out about their lives at home.
Children who do not live with their families may face additional barriers to inclusion in education.
I work here in Nqaba Yethu children’s home as a manager for the home. We have 15 children. We take all kinds of children.
We try and bring them together and make them have a home. Most of the children that we have here
they have to start at pre-school level which is very important for every child
We try to go to the school regularly, just to be in contact with the teacher and understand what is wrong.
Maybe sometimes it’s taking a bit longer for the child [to learn]
which means for you there is something more you have to do with the child regarding his school work.
Organise a welcoming, stimulating learning environment
Inclusive early childhood development and education settings need to be welcoming
fun, and promote interest and enjoyment in learning.
As an inclusive early childhood educator, there are lots of things you can do to achieve this.
For example: Organise the space so that different areas are used for different activities.
During the day, children can move around freely and engage in activities in various areas.
They work sitting at their desks or can sit on the mat or in the nature corner.
Use outside spaces for learning through play, and for children to relax and have fun.
Create an area where you keep a selection of play and learning materials.
Keep all the materials well organised.
Being organised helps children to become independent, feel reassured, and learn where they can find or put things.
Provide different seating arrangements, so that children can choose to sit on the floor or at a table
or maybe sit on chairs in groups with their friends, whatever is most accessible or comfortable for them.
Sometimes, early childhood development and education sessions take place in temporary settings
like community meeting rooms, or in temporary structures like tents in refugee camps.
But you can still find ways to create an inclusive, fun, stimulating, colourful environment for children for each session.
Plan the day and differentiate learning sessions and activities
Young children find routine important.
Having a certain amount of predictability in the day helps them feel secure.
As an inclusive early childhood educator, you need to be well-organised so that the sessions
and environment do not feel chaotic or confusing for your learners.
A strict timetable is not necessary or appropriate.
But you can plan times when learners will be inside and outside, and their eating times.
And you can make sure throughout the day they have opportunities to engage in different types of play.
In our kindergarten, as probably in any other preschool, there is a certain daily routine. After exercises, they have breakfast.
After breakfast, there are learning sessions. The learning sessions are varied and diverse; we try to make them fun.
We use many teaching aids to make them interesting for the children.
You also need to have clear expectations for the children, so they know what they are allowed and not allowed to do.
Make sure all sessions are centred around play.
Give children the chance to choose what activities they want to do or what materials they want to use or play with.
When children have opportunities to do play-based activities involving things that interest them, they will be more engaged.
Such activities can also support them to develop specific skills, like counting.
We know that children learn differently.
Some learn more when you sing, when you are using the songs, or the rhymes, some learn more when they see something.
Others learn more when they play something with their hands.
That’s why we make sure that everything is being done so that we can reach each child in his or her differences.
Of course we use differentiated approaches.
When the teacher prepares a learning session, they must take into account that there is a child with special needs
and the learning process must be adapted to the needs of the child.
Give children the chance to choose the pace of activities – whether they want to do something fast and active
or slow and relaxing; whether they want to be quiet or make a noise.
Let them complete what they are doing – don’t rush them to move onto another activity.
When children have a chance to choose the nature and pace of play-based learning activities, the activities are more accessible and suit their needs and abilities.
Sometimes you may want to encourage children to become more lively or to calm down.
Activities involving music and movement can be useful for this.
You need to make sure that children are active participants in every session.
Use real world objects to stimulate learning
Young children learn better when there is an obvious connection between what they are learning and real life.
We try to ensure outdoor learning opportunities.
We have a very nice outdoor area with different plants and trees, giving children different learning options.
We provide the means for learning. We have a nature trail where children can learn by stopping at different places and doing various tasks
like games, entertainment, experiments, observations, treasure hunts, or some creative assignments.
This way, they move along the trail and learn about various natural phenomena and objects.
We use some of the items we collect outside or anything that is rubbish. In preschool you make it good to work with it.
Here in the preschool we do not have learning materials but I go around collecting whatever I can find outside
and we use it to make toys and then we play with the toys we have made.
We collect stones and when the children play with them it helps them to learn numbers.
In the preschool, when we play outside, we use old tyres. The children love to push and roll them.
As an inclusive early childhood educator, you need to provide children with real life objects to use throughout the day.
Using objects like this can help young children to learn about colours, shapes, textures, smells, sounds, and weights.
Multi-sensory objects may be particularly useful for learners who have difficulty seeing or hearing.
Touching and manipulating objects as part of a learning activity can also help children who need more support
with fine motor skills, or who have difficulty understanding or remembering things.
Using these simple ideas, early childhood educators can work to become more inclusive and supportive of the learning and development of all children