eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
This book comprehensively evaluates early childhood inclusion over the past 25 years. Based on their research and extensive experience, the authors examine benefits and drawbacks of inclusion, leading influences on inclusion, and issues that face children in different environments with different developmental challenges. The book shows professionals, instructors, and students in early intervention and early childhood education where inclusion is today and what they need to do to keep the field moving forward. The final chapter presents a national in-scope agenda for change - a framework of ideas for meeting challenges and achieving an agreed-upon set of principles and practices - in order to create optimal educational environments for all children.
In this book, a distinguished group of early childhood special educators and researchers explores the barriers to and influences on inclusive education settings for young children. Chapters cover such timely topics as individualized instruction, social relationships of children with disabilities, collaborative relationships among adults, family perceptions of inclusion, classroom ecology and child participation, community participation, social policy, and cultural and linguistic diversity. Expert contributors, addressing each of these topics, draw useful implications for practitioners-providing helpful suggestions for modifying activities, materials, environmental supports, and teaching strategies. Based on a groundbreaking 5-year research study conducted by the Early Childhood Research Institute on Inclusion, Widening the Circle is a must read for all professionals working in inclusive settings.
This edited volume covers issues related to educational research and practices for early childhood education and care (ECEC), highlighting interprofessional and family-professional collaboration within inclusive education in different cultural contexts. Contributors include authors from throughout Europe, including Lithuania, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Spain, UK, and Ukraine. Chapters provide a forum for intentional dialogue about and shared understanding of successful and inspiring ECEC practices, the main barriers of interprofessional and family-professional collaboration, and opportunities for further improvement of inclusive ECEC practices.
The third edition of Building Blocks provides readers with a framework for successful and meaningful inclusion of preschoolers with special needs. Like the first two editions, the third edition offers teachers effective, research-based instructional practices to promote learning in inclusive classrooms. The authors have updated existing content and added new content to reflect current thinking in the field.
This volume employs a multidisciplinary approach to research on a high-profile topic very much on the agenda of state and national policy leaders: early childhood development and education. It aims to reflect how scholarly perspectives shape the contours of knowledge generation, and to illuminate the gaps that prevent productive interchange among scholars who value equity in the opportunities available to young children, their families, and teachers/caregivers. The editors and authors identify and prioritize critical research areas; assess the state of the field in terms of promising research designs and methodologies; and identify capacity-building needs and potential cross-group collaborations.
Noting that the provision of early childhood education (ECE) services to linguistically and culturally diverse groups of children representing a wide range of abilities and income levels requires the scrutiny of current systems and practices, this book proposes a new paradigm of early childhood education, the Early Childhood Inclusion (ECI) Model, that promotes the design of programs that are inclusive of all children. Chapter 1 of the book summarizes background information on inclusion, outlines the historical context for the model, and offers a rationale for adopting a comprehensive definition of inclusion in ECE. Chapter 2 describes the characteristics, goals, theoretical foundations, and major components of the ECI Model. Chapter 3 describes the socio-organizational contexts that teachers using the ECI strive to implement. Chapter 4 emphasizes the creation of personalized learning environments that afford teachers the flexibility to match their teaching strategies to individual learning styles and abilities. Chapter 5 includes discussions on accommodating each child through an assessment-driven instructional planning cycle and by using alternative assessment. Chapter 6 details instructional strategies, focusing on the teacher as a mediator of children's learning environments. Chapter 7 concludes the book by proposing future directions for policy development, personnel preparation, and research to advance and solidify the inclusion movement in ECE. Each chapter contains references. (KB)
Inclusion in Early Childhood Programs: Children with Exceptionalities, Sixth Canadian Edition, investigates the education and care of children with special needs from birth through school age in the setting of their neighbourhood early childhood program or school. Inclusion in Early Childhood Programs promotes an inclusive approach to working with children who have exceptionalities, providing valuable information which will enable teachers to feel comfortable teaching children with special needs and to successfully include them into their early childhood programs.
Child care environments have received extensive research attention by those interested in understanding how participating in nonparental child care might influence the children's development and learning. Throughout the United States (US Census Bureau, 2011) and Europe (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006) a large number of young children are cared for outside of the home by non-parental adults. Young children’s nonparental care is commonly referred to as "child care,” and is provided to children whose ages range from birth to 12 years of age. The provision of child care services has become an increasingly important part of early childhood education. In fact, the United Nations Children's Fund (2019) states that a large majority of children worldwide spend at least some of their week in child care, such arrangements include center care, family child care, in-home child care, relative child care, and supplemental child care. Child care researchers have been conducting studies to understand how participating in nonparental child care might influence the children's development and learning outcomes. There are more than enough child care studies to make numerous major inferences. For example, research outcomes show that child care quality seems to be more influential than either the kind of child care or age of admission in determining the children’s development and learning. The adults’ child care affects the quality in child care. In the environment adults who are caring for the children have the opportunity to effectively assume both nurturing and instructional roles to help young children cultivate their social and cognitive abilities. The teachers’ effectiveness is related to their individual characteristics, such as formal education, specialized training, and the classroom environment. However, the majority of the studies show that both family and quality of child care have the most significant effects on the children’s development and learning. Therefore, the concept of child care has heavily influenced modern views. Researchers, scholars, and educators are beginning to understand the current foundations based on theoretical frameworks that contribute to the purposes of the child care in the United States and Europe. The contents of the child care volume reflect the major shifts in the views of these early childhood researchers, scholars, and educators in relation to research outcomes on child care, its historical roots, the role of child care in early childhood education, and its relationship to theory, research, and practice.
In this engaging book, the authors share stories from their practice and research about several young children with a variety of developmental delays and disabilities and their teachers. They explore the ways that teachers and children respond in real classrooms to real challenges, examining both those opportunities that are capitalized on as well as those that are missed. The book addresses a wide array of issues that contribute to our understanding of what makes a difference in the inclusive early childhood classroom, including the role of development, ways of honoring different learning styles, building a sense of classroom community, addressing power dynamics, and responding to conflict with both teachers and peers. This practical resource introduces a framework that will inspire early childhood teachers to reflect on their own practices and take action to develop new strategies for teaching in inclusive classrooms.
