Diversity in Early Childhood Essay

Introduction comprehensive practices in the context of education in general underpinning the basic dogma of fairness and equal rights to education regard slight of race, language, family and socioeconomic background, culture and ability. skin senses on the issue of inclusion in the early babyishness context, it is central to consider who atomic number 18 the children or the group of children that argon cosmos included. Also, taking into consideration how inclusive practices ar being enabled and what intimacy of the early childhood educators, practices of the optics and resources that atomic number 18 evident and made available in the centres.In coitus to inclusive practices, the socio heathenish theory states that education and development occur with a action of changing ensue officipation in dynamic cultural communities, in which there are active contributions from individuals, their brotherly partners, practices and tradition (current and historical), cultural tools, 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 social partners to participate in relevant activities.As much(prenominal), cognition involves collaborative process as people necessitate in thinking together with others (Rogoff & adeennead Toma, 1997). Hence, the aim of the case study is to find out to what degree of inclusiveness, in particular working with children with disabilities or particular(a) wants (both strength and weaknesses), has been secure in the local (Singapore) early childhood setting. The case study on the inclusive programs for children with disabilities or peculiar(a)(a) inevitably was d wizard in a child oversee centre situated in the northern residential part of Singapore.It has a total of seventy-three childcare students and seven childs under the infant car e program. Out of the seventy-three childcare students, five bring up the fractional a day program. There are a total of nine childcare teachers and sextette infant care teachers. Under the centres philosophy, the centre believes that the key role of early childhood education is to sic children for the journey of lifelong training. The centres role is to provide a caring 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 years old respectively. There are seven Malays, 2 Indians and 19 Chinese students in total for both K1 and K2 correct. Each of the kindergarten classes has their own lead teacher who teaches them mathematics, language arts, art and crafts, science and music. some(prenominal) the classes shared one language teacher (Chinese language). These two classes share the confused learning centres such as language and literacy, art and craft, and construction (wooden blocks and legos). The learning environment is non real conducive for the K1s as the all(prenominal)ocated space area was a undersized too cr adenosine monophosphate for fifteen children but the space area for the K2s is fit enough to accommodate the eleven children. The centre adopted a structured, teacher centered curriculum approach where close to of the teachings (hands-on or modeling) done by the teacher.There is also no flexibility in carrying out the lessons as the teachers contrive to follow strictly the lessons planned for them by the curriculum part from the head quarters. As such, if any of the children displayed great interest in a certain topic, the teacher could only extend the topic / theme for save one more day. Out of the t otal twenty-six kindergarten children (K1 and K2), there are two special needs children children living with autism, one from each class. twain the children attended external, professional 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, atomic number 90 and Friday. Js sessions are on every morning and he get out 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 selective information gathered based on the evaluation done on the checklist implemented. The target area of gathering 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 noesis, skills and attitudes demonstrated in their day-to-day working either directly or indirectly with their two students living with autism. In reference to the checklist, all trained teachers (diploma level) are non specifically trained to working with children with special needs. The knowledge that teachers have are just an awareness to what special needs is all about and to go out a little more about each type of special needs or disabilities.Therefore, teachers at the centre are non very responsive towards the two children. On top of that, the management level did not show clear evident of playing their part towards the two children with autism and it for certain does not correspond with their vision statement The Centre believes that children of different heathenish background, social status and abilities should not be deprived of attribute care and education (see appendix). This evident shows that the teachers beliefs and underpinning knowledge of understanding children with special needs is instead minimal.However, they do sho w respect on individual differences by stressful to understand the childrens doings (J and D) and routine as s well(p) 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 cartridge clip development 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 irrelevant for Js and Ds learning. An issue that has to be interpreted into consideration will be the student teacher ratio. In lay for learning and communicating to be effective with J and D, the teachers of both classes ne ed a lot of while spent with them. Unfortunately, the class size does not permit the teachers to do so freely.Both the kindergarten teachers can only croak with the two children when their class is heavily involved in their activity, which most of the meter quite a number of the children are able to accomplish their pen task within a short period. As such, it is impossible to relegate and have lessons effectively with J and D without being interrupted by the others. The classroom 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 wish to be unaccompanied.Children with disabilities engage in social interaction with their peers less very much than typically developing children ( guinea pig master key Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). Finally, the factor on trained teachers in working with c hildren 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 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(prenominal) 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 the field. Centre can also engage speech therapists, child psychologists in order to provide therapy sessions for the children with special needs. collaboration is the cornerstone of effective inclusive programs which means including and empowering parents as part of the decision-making police squad in the education of their children ( interior(a) Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007).Early childhood educators managing children with special needs have to make demand planning, teaching and management strategies, and exercise flexible arrangement necessary adjustments for behaviour coping strategies and alternative patronage programmes when working with children with special needs. Adequate support is important in order to make inclusive environments effective for the children involve. buy at which includes professional training, personnel, provision of materials, planning time, and on-going consultation.These supports can be delivered in various ways, and each individual involved in inclusion may have unique needs (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007). other important 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 innovation (IEP) for each child with special needs. Lastly, parents-teacher-conference should be conducted at least at one time in six months.Across a range of disabilities, positive outcomes are reported 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 p rograms often see beneficial changes in terms of confidence, self-esteem, and understanding of diversity (National Professional Development Centre on Inclusion, 2007).In a nutshell, senior laid-back quality 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 spirit at the strength and weaknesses should the program is implemented in the centre. Word cypher 1789.References National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (2007). interrogation synthesis points on early childhood inclusion. Chapel Hill, pairing Carolina National Professional Development Center on Inclusion, FPG C hild Development Institute, The University of North Carolina. Palmer, A. (1998) Young Children with Additional Needs, AECA Research in Practice Series V5, 2. Rogoff, B. & Toma, C. (1997) Shared Thinking community and institutional variations, Discourse Processes, 23, pp. 471 497. Rogoff, B. (2003) The Cultural temper of Human Development. Oxford Oxford University Press.