Diversity in Early Childhood Essay

Introduction inclusive practices in the context of didactics in general underpinning the basic principle of fairness and equal rights to education regardless of race, language, family and socioeconomic background, culture and ability. pathetic on the issue of inclusion in the archean puerility context, it is big to consider who ar the children or the group of children that ar being included. Also, victorious into reflection how inclusive practices are being enabled and what knowledge of the early(a) childhood educators, practices of the summations and resources that are evident and made functional in the concentrate ons.In congenator to inclusive practices, the socio heathenish theory states that acquirement and development occur by a military operation of changing participation in dynamic pagan communities, in which at that place are active contri barelyions from individuals, their mixer partners, practices and tradition (current and historical), cultural wit halls, technologies, and materials, and values and belief systems (Ragoff, 1995, 2003). Sociocultural theorists therefore recognise that cognition is non an individual construction. It is a collaborative process between the individual and his hearty partners to participate in relevant activities.As such, cognition involves collaborative process as people engage in thinking together with new(prenominal)s (Rogoff & Toma, 1997). Hence, the bespeak of the case study is to come out to what degree of inclusiveness, in item working with children with disabilities or special take (both strength and weaknesses), has been practiced in the local (Singapore) early childhood setting. The case study on the inclusive political platforms for children with disabilities or special needs was d mavin in a child concern contract situated in the northern residential part of Singapore.It has a total of seventy-three childcare students and seven infants under the infant care program. Out of the seventy-three childcare students, five attend the half a day program. thither are a total of nine childcare t all(prenominal)ers and six infant care t individuallyers. Under the centres philosophy, the centre believes that the key portion of early childhood education is to prepare children for the travel of lifelong training. The centres role is to provide a condole with and conducive environment by providing facilities and programme to stimulate the childs inquisitivemind and optimize his social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional development. The centre aims to foster strong links within the local community by incorporating the resources available in the neighbourhood. The research was done in the kindergarten level, K1 and K2, five and six age old respectively. There are seven Malays, devil Indians and nineteen Chinese students in total for both K1 and K2 class. Each of the kindergarten classes has their induce lead teacher who teaches them mathematics, lang uage arts, art and crafts, science and music.Both the classes tractd one language teacher (Chinese language). These 2 classes share the various learning centres such as language and literacy, art and craft, and construction (wooden blocks and legos). The learning environment is not rattling conducive for the K1s as the allocated space area was a little too cramp for fifteen children but the space area for the K2s is sufficient copious to accommodate the eleven children. The centre adopted a structured, teacher get into to curriculum approach where most of the teaching methods (hands-on or modeling) done by the teacher.There is also no flexibility in carrying out the lessons as the teachers allow to follow strictly the lessons planned for them by the curriculum department from the guide quarters. As such, if any of the children displayed great interest in a trustworthy topic, the teacher could only extend the topic / theme for salutary one more day. Out of the total twenty -six kindergarten children (K1 and K2), there are two special needs children children life- duration with autism, one from each class. Both the children tended to(p) external, sea captain therapy and sessions for children with special needs.The child from the K2 class (J) attend his sessions on a daily basis while the other from the K1 class (D) attend his thrice a week Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Js sessions are on every morning and he will come to the childcare in the afternoon. As for D, on every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday he attends childcare in the morning and goes off for his therapy / sessions in the afternoon. The data equanimous based on the evaluation done on the checklist implemented. The objective of congregation the data is to analyse to what extend has the centre practiced the inclusive program in working with children with special needs.The areas evaluated are teachers knowledge, skills and attitudes demonstrated in their daily working either directly or i ndirectly with their two students living with autism. In reference to the checklist, all trained teachers (diploma level) are not specifically trained to working with children with special needs. The knowledge that teachers take a crap are just an awareness to what special needs is all about and to take a little more about each type of special needs or disabilities.Therefore, teachers at the centre are not very reactive towards the two children. On top of that, the management level did not disposition clear evident of playing their part towards the two children with autism and it certainly does not correspond with their vision statement The Centre believes that children of different ethnic background, social status and abilities should not be deprived of feel care and education ( con appendix). This evident shows that the teachers beliefs and underpinning knowledge of understanding children with special needs is rather minimal.However, they do show respect on individual differe nces by trying to understand the childrens behaviour (J and D) and routine as well as to always create an awareness and respect, through role modeling, in all the other children in the centre towards J and D. The teachers responses act as a role model to all the other children under their care and those children are learning about disability and at the same time developing their own ways of understanding (Palmer, 1998). The learning environment provided that was present in the centre was not suitable for both J and D.Provision of learning and teaching materials were inadequate and unsuitable for their use. As both J and D are in placed together with the kindergarten children, the lessons plan for the class was inappropriate for Js and Ds learning. An issue that has to be taken into consideration will be the student teacher ratio. In point for learning and communicating to be effective with J and D, the teachers of both classes need a lot of time spent with them. Unfortunately, the class size does not admit the teachers to do so freely.Both the kindergarten teachers can only communicate with the two children when their class is heavily involved in their activity, which most of the time quite an a number of the children are able to accomplish their written parturiency within a short period. As such, it is impossible to communicate and have lessons effectively with J and D without being interrupted by the others. The schoolroom environment does not allow for personal quiet time for the children and this is a basic need for children with autism. Not that there are plans for segregation but to let both J and D feels comfortable being themselves, whenever they deficiency to be alone.Children with disabilities engage in social interaction with their peers less very much than typically developing children ( guinea pig master key discipline Centre on Inclusion, 2007). Finally, the divisor on trained teachers in working with children with special needs. Both the kindergarten teachers knew and are aware of what special needs are but their knowledge are insufficient to teach and guide this special group of children. Thus, most of the time both J and D are left alone to do what they want to do, which is sitting in solitary.Due the lack of knowledge in handling children with special needs, both teachers are most of the time unable(p) to resolve when problems arise such as sudden screaming, or refusing to share toys or things, or refusing to move on to the next routine. In order to make the environment suitable for an inclusive program to be implemented, there are a few things which need to be changed or added on to the centre. First and foremost, early childhood educator managing the programme must be trained in a course on children with special needs and preferably have experience in teaching children with special needs.Secondly, the centre should work in partnership with the parents of the child as well as with professionals trained in t he field. Centre can also engage voice communication therapists, child psychologists in order to provide therapy sessions for the children with special needs. Collaboration is the grounding of effective inclusive programs which means including and empowering parents as part of the decision-making team in the education of their children ( National overlord Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). early on childhood educators managing children with special needs have to make necessary planning, teaching and management strategies, and exercise flexible arrangement necessary adjustments for behaviour move strategies and alternative support programmes when working with children with special needs. Adequate support is alpha in order to make inclusive environments effective for the children involve. Support which includes professional training, personnel, provision of materials, planning time, and on-going consultation.These supports can be delivered in various ways, and each individua l involved in inclusion may have odd needs (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). Another serious aspect that needs to be looked into is the aspect of learning environment. The learning environment must be suitable and organized to ensure it accommodates the needs of the children. On top of that, the centre should developed an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) for each child with special needs. Lastly, parents-teacher-conference should be conducted at least once in six months.Across a range of disabilities, positive outcomes are report for children with disabilities in inclusive settings (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). Children in the inclusive programs in general fair as well as children in specialized programs. It is also reported by the National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, that children without disabilities participated in the inclusive programs often see beneficial changes in terms of confidence, self -esteem, and understanding of diversity (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007).In a nutshell, high grapheme early childhood programs form the necessary structural base for high quality inclusive programs, as such, all children benefit when programs are of high quality and truly inclusive (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). As stated at the beginning of this essay, the objective of collecting and evaluating the data is to find out to what extend inclusive programs is implemented in the local early childhood setting at the same time looking at the strength and weaknesses should the program is implemented in the centre. Word count 1789.References National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (2007). Research discount points on early childhood inclusion. Chapel Hill, North Carolina National Professional Development Center on Inclusion, FPG Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina. Palmer, A. (1998) small C hildren with Additional Needs, AECA Research in Practice Series V5, 2. Rogoff, B. & Toma, C. (1997) Shared idea community and institutional variations, Discourse Processes, 23, pp. 471 497. Rogoff, B. (2003) The Cultural Nature of Human Development. Oxford Oxford University Press.