Inclusive Early Childhood Education: Strategies and Needs

This essay delves into the realm of inclusive early childhood education, emphasizing the importance of embracing every child's uniqueness and potential. It highlights the significance of inclusive practices, particularly for children with disabilities, and the need to address inequalities through equitable education. The essay explores the rights of children to inclusive and quality education, as outlined by the United Nations and New Zealand's special education policy. It emphasizes the development of partnerships with families and communities, acknowledging cultural acceptance as a crucial element. The essay further discusses the Ministry of Education's (2017) guidelines for inclusive classrooms and the rights of children with disabilities. It then examines additional learning needs, such as Behavior, Emotional, Social Difficulty (BESD), and the environmental factors contributing to behavioral issues. The essay provides teaching strategies to support children with identified needs, ensuring inclusion within early childhood settings. These strategies include social participation, peer mentoring, simplified instructions, positive feedback, and the use of technology. The conclusion underscores the importance of inclusive practices and the role of teachers in adopting appropriate educational strategies.

Running head: INCLUSIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
INCLUSIVE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Importance of inclusive practices within the early childhood education
The concept of inclusion is dependent on a fundamental belief in the acceptance of every
child to be unique and henceforth have the potential to grow and develop (Lyons, 2013).
Inclusive education for children with debilities together with their non –disabled peers, has been
promoted as a suitable solution for addressing the inequalities in school. By equity, it is meat that
the results are unbiased and just for each of the individual kid rather struggling for the
consequences that are similar for the children with and without any disabilities. Inclusive
education is not only concerned with placement, but providing the type of education that
optimizes the capability and potential of each of the child. After all this, inclusive education has
still not been associated with equity discourse despite of the legislation and the principles.
According to the United Nations General Assembly, it every children’s right to get access to an
inclusive, free of cost and quality primary education equally with the other people in the
community. According to the special education policy of New Zealand, learners with special
needs have the same right, liberty and accountability as people or children without disabilities.
The primary focus of learning under inclusive education is to develop partnership with the
families as well as communities for overcoming the barriers to learning. Cultural acceptance, that
is acknowledging the language and the tradition of the learners is an important context for
development and learning and should be taken in to consideration, while planning for the
program.
In an early childhood education inclusion means that all the children and whanau
(families), families get the opportunity to participate in the local early childhood settings. It has
been stated that inclusive education should be provided irrespective of the gender, caste and

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creed. The Ministry of Education (2017) in Te Whāriki aim to make classrooms inclusive of the
gender, ethnicity, diversity, learning needs, socio-economic status and religious status. An
inclusive education suggests that all tamariki (children), regardless of the type of disability they
are having are entitled to attend their local educational settings and can have their learning and
the developmental needs net (Stark et al., 2011).
With respect to childhood rights, inclusive education is related to children with
disabilities realizing the other rights of children. If the right to education is fulfilled, it causes the
realization of the other rights of the children. An inclusive education needs to be non –
discriminatory, suitable for the best interest of the child, protection from abuse and violence,
support within movement, habilitation and rehabilitation. Inclusive education promotes
participation in the public life, exercising the legal capacity, employment and working and
adequate standards of living (Unicef, 2017).
One of the important aspect of inclusive education is equality. Equality in education
means that each of the child have the same opportunities to receive education. According to the
Education Act every children should get free education, regardless of their current levels of skills
and development. Provision of equal opportunities and resources is an important part of social
justice for children. Teachers who are following inclusive education in the classroom in
classroom can uphold social justice inside the classroom (Mackey & de Vocht-van Alphen,
2016). Creative thinking and wondering about the social justice and equity are some of the
powerful tools in incorporating the thought of social justice in children. Social justice embrace
equal values of all people and their equal right to meet the basic rights of the people. In inclusive
classrooms, the teachers help to provide scaffolding for the children for developing the concepts
of social skills (Mackey & de Vocht-van Alphen, 2016).

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Inclusive education values diversity and the contribution that each of the students bring to
the classroom. In a truly inclusive settings each of the child feels safe and has a safe sense of
belongingness. Since inclusive classrooms use various instructional strategies, the needs of
different students are addressed. It needs to be remembered that creation of inclusive classrooms
needs to acknowledge the rights of the tamariki suffering from disabilities as well as their
Whanau (Powell, 2012). Hence, the teachers need to remove the barriers to inclusive education
such as restructuring of the policies and their cultures such that they can respond to the diversity
of the tamariki and the whanau (Stark et al., 2011).
Additional learning needs for children in an inclusive classroom
An additional learning need of children is Behavior emotional social difficulty (BESD)
where young children demonstrate characteristic like learning difficulty and features of
emotional and behavior difficulties like being withdrawn, isolated, disturbed, disruptive,
hyperactive, lack of concentration, immature social skills or presenting challenging behavior
arising out of complex social needs. The tern includes children and young people suffering from
emotional disturbances and other conduct disorders like attention deficit hypersensitivity
disorder.
Children who suffer from emotional disturbances have the increased risk of developing
abusive behaviors in future such as substance abuse disorder, high risk sexual activities, poor
results in the academics and suicides. It has been stated in a number of papers that the families
play an important role in the prevention and the treatment of such emotional and behavioral
problems.

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Behavioral disorders is related to language problems. It has been found by the researchers
that there are several plausible confounds that can develop correlation between the language
problems and correlation of the ADHD. Attention deficits and behavioral dysregulation can be
due to the general intellectual delays and might not be specific to language impairments that
could mark the general intelligence and deficiencies in the neurodevelopment. Behavioral issues
has been correlated with ability in reading, delayed development of the phonetic skills (Petersen
et al., 2013). Behavioral problems occur due to the complex interaction between the physical and
the cognitive development, temperament, teachers, relationship between the parents. Children
suffering from behavioral issues are likely to have cognitive impairment.
Children with BESD might suffer from depression and anxiety and might not wish to
visit the school once again. They are more susceptible to bully and discrimination. They are the
common victims of self-internalization. They are likely to display several challenging behaviors
for particular purposes like for gaining the attention of the teachers and the carers, avoiding the
demands for the expression of their limited communication skills (Torres Nupan et al., 2017).
Discussing about the behavioral issues, the environmental factors responsible for the
development of the behavioral issues is the places that offers limited opportunities, social
interaction. Some of the other environmental factors involves sensory input like excessive
sounds, carers that are unresponsive, childhood abuse and neglect, pain and needs for physical
health (Ogundele 2018). Childhood behavior, disorders or problems pose a negative impact on
the individual, family and the society. They are likely face problems in the academic life and
their future professional studies. (Ogundele 2018). Children suffering from BESD are also less
likely to be accepted by the peers.

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Teaching strategies you can use to support children with the identified need to ensure
inclusion within an early childhood setting
Children suffering from BESD and other behavioral issues are likely to face issues in
classes, like bullying and discrimination and can be low paced in comparison the other children.
Hence, teachers need to bring these children under the inclusive strategies and develop specific
learning approaches for these children.
It has been stated in the de Leeuw et al., (2018) that children with special educational
requirements will should have access to the regular educational institutions that should
accommodate with the help of a pedagogical approach which is childe centered. The children
with BESD needs to be accepted socially and should be able to participate fully in the school.
For including the children in the mainstream classroom, the child need to be a part of the class as
a participant. Four main features are recognized as a part of the definition of social isolation.
Positive social participation is of extreme importance for these students (Schwab et al. 2016).
Positive social participation develops a sense of belonging and better in studies. The primary
school teachers play an important part increasing the social participation in the regular
classroom. It is natural that a “one size fits all” approach can never be successful for maintaining
such a diverse classroom. Some of the important approaches for increasing the social
participation is to introduce strategies like buddy systems and classroom goals at the time of
structured playtime or initiating approaches like group play (Schwab et al. 2016). Students with
such disabilities can be provided with peer mentors for encouraging and motivating them for
becoming more socially active. These peers can model appropriate behaviour in the classroom.
In order to increase the likelihood of inclusion between the two groups, buddies can be
introduced. With a peer buddy, children with behavioral and emotional, social disorder, might

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been less anxious. Having a buddy system at the time of special related classes will increase the
chance of socialization with the children suffering from disabilities. They can participate in
activities like “lunch brunch” thus facilitating socialization (Foster, 2011).
BESD students are likely to suffer from long lists, hence instructions needs to be kept
simple, such that it is easier to understand by the student itself. Some of the activity examples
can be taken up in the classroom are responsive cards, coral responding, clickers and the use of
guided notes. Using positive feedbacks and rewards will motivate them more to take part in the
classroom activities. They see positive benefits of displaying good behavior (Korpershoek et al.,
2016). Many of the kids having BESD lacks emotional maturity and thus struggles to remain
focused in one activity for a longer period of time. Provision of short mini breaks or short
periods of rest can be provided to these children. In order to reduce the disruptive off-task
behavior as they might lack motivation to do so. Some extra steps can be taken for these students
such as offering them with incentives for any sorts of academic success, small or large. It has
been supported by Korpershoek et al., (2016) that Information technology can be used by the
teachers to facilitate the construction and use of the pedagogical didactic structure. It has been
found to be enhancing the structuring, transparency and the supple use of the instructional lines.
ICT helps in facilitating individualized instruction and self-regulation, encouraged multilevel
assessment of the learning and integrate instruction and learning across various contexts and
points in time.
Pillay, Dunbar-Krige and Mostert, (2013) have focused on training the teachers for
managing the behavioral issues in children with disabilities in an inclusive classroom. Frequent
disturbances in the classroom can hamper the learning experiences of all the students. Teachers
are responsible for the application of the classroom management strategies that can increase the

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academic achievement of the students. It has been reported by several studies, that in certain
cases the general educators, are not trained properly to effectively manage the challenging
behaviors of the EBD children.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be stated, that inclusion of the students with disabilities is much a
topic of debate and focus. As stated in 1994, at the World Conference on Special Needs
Education: Access and Quality, that inclusion is a civil right of all children and commitment to
develop policies. Inclusion also takes in to account the wellbeing of the “whanau’ and the
“tamiriki” providing them with all possible resources. It is the duty of the teachers to adopt
appropriate educational strategies for including or accommodating them in the main stream
classrooms. This paper had focused on the additional learning need of the children suffering
from BESD. Children suffering from BESD tends to suffer from behavioral issues and hence
might find it difficult to adopt specific strategies that can be used for the accommodation of such
students like introduction of buddy systems, or using multimodal teachers’ approaches that can
arouse interest in young children. Children can be encouraged group play and sensory play
activities for a batter learning outcome for these children.

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