Hi, our next topic that we will be looking into is inclusion and diversity. So again, here's a good quote for you, all children have the right to equitable learning opportunities. That enable them to achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of society. We need to look at each child individually and look at their needs and see what we can do to make them successful. So what is inclusion? Inclusion is the process of educating and teaching children with disabilities together with their typically developing peers. So the children with disabilities are in the classroom with the typically developing peers. They're now back in the corner at a separate table. They are spread throughout the classroom and they are doing similar activities as the typically developing children. The practice of providing equitable access to opportunities and resources for people with disabilities and members of other minority groups. So the resources part is pretty important. We need to be supplying the children with disabilities or with minority groups thinking maybe children where English is their second language. Supplying them with the resources that they need to be able to be successful. So note, inclusion is not the same as tolerance. So we don't tolerate children with disabilities in the classroom. We accept them in the classroom. We accept them as they are. An inclusive classroom has children with and without disabilities participating in the same daily activities and routines. So the children with disabilities are participating in the same activities. They might have extra supports. They might have adaptations or modifications to the activities, but they're participating in the same things. So in an inclusive environment, all students feel supportive socially, intellectually, physically, emotionally and academically. And the environment supports a sense of belonging, regardless of identity, learning preferences or abilities. So acceptance is an important word when we're thinking about inclusion. So we talked about, equitable in the last slide and this is a really good visual to really understand what being equitable means. So if we are giving children equal treatment, that means we're giving this all the children the same activities materials and books. That might not be what certain children need to be successful. We need to be equitable. We need to consider each child's strengths, the context and the needs. And we need to provide them with the opportunities that will support them in reaching their potential. This is a good visual equality. We're giving them all of the same box. It doesn't work for the shorter child, does it? But equity is giving him what he needs to reach his potential or to be able to see what is going on in that ball game. So some strategies for inclusion, we need to go back to developmentally appropriate practice. Where we need to think about each child individually. We need to remember the areas of development and we need to think about the cultural influences on each child. We need to think in a strength based attitude just as when we're thinking about assessments. What can the child do and how can we build upon those strengths? Collaboration and partnering with specialists is such an important thing to be doing. If you have children in your classroom who get special education services. Whether it be a see a teacher, whether it be speech or OT or PT. Talking to those therapists is going to be in the best interest of the child. What are they doing in order to help that child succeed? What strategies are they using in their sessions that you could use in your classroom to build upon and expand upon what they are doing? Assistive technology is, thinking about what the child needs. Some children might need an iPad to be able to communicate. Some children might need a pecks card, picture exchange cards to be able to communicate. So we need to think about what the child's needs are to be able to be successful. And what we can supply them with. Teaching for different learning styles, some children are auditory, some are visual, some are kinesthetic. We need to think about all of the different learning styles that that children might have and give our information in all different kinds of ways. Modeling is so important for any kind of classroom, but we treating children with special needs with respect. And including them into your conversations, into your activities. As a teacher is a good modeling tool for children they see that you are doing it and they are more likely to follow through with that. And routines and schedule are really important for children with disabilities. They like to know what is happening next. It's important for all children, but I think children with disabilities may be a little bit more. So they know what to expect and they're not having a lot of surprises in their days. So more strategies, individualized supports are really important. So special equipment, we talked to them about assistive technology and more special equipment might be handrails for certain children. They might be special writing utensils that maybe are a little thicker. So children can grasp them and hold them even paintbrushes. There are really thick paint brushes that children with disabilities might be able to use better than the smaller ones. Adult support, so that includes the teachers in the classroom, any therapists, anybody coming into the classroom. Parents, families, all the adults that are in the child's lives need to be on the same page. And they need to talk to each other, communicate and be offering the same supports to the child. Pure support, what a great way to involve a child until your classroom. But also to show other children that these kids with disabilities are just that they're kids. And they like to joke, they like to play. They like they have many of the same interests as the other, typically developing children in the classroom. And unless you pair people up, sometimes that might not normally pair up that other children might not know that. Modify here environment is important. So if a child has a visual impairment, making wider aisles, making sure that now you don't have throw rugs in there. Which they might trip over if they can't see if they're. Maybe fold it up a little bit or something, a child with a wheelchair, making sure that the materials are put down low enough for the child to be able to get to themselves and independently and offering materials that support all kinds of development. So even if you're in a four year old room and you you might have a child with a physical disability and they're not able to grasp puzzle pieces. Having those peg puzzles in there involves them into the classroom and it shows them that they are apart and that they're important. So offering materials for each child to be able to use and manipulate and the activities that you do should be intentional. Breaking chunking is a is a term you're going to hear, especially in elementary school they talk about chunking information. So just breaking it into smaller steps. So your instructions are not for or five sentences long, break them into smaller steps. So the Children feel successful as they complete each step and they understand what is expected of them. And for Children with disabilities you might need to change or reduce the number of steps in order for them to be successful and that's okay. So there are many benefits for an inclusion area classroom. For Children with disabilities, there are greater opportunities to form friendships and increase social network and shared learning experiences. You know, they feel part of the classroom these Children and that is so important for their social well being, increased safety by reducing isolation of Children with disabilities. They might, you know, if they feel included, they're going to be happier in your classroom and you know, might not feel isolated, higher academic expectations. So Children with disabilities used to you know, there wasn't, they didn't expect teachers didn't expect as much from them, but now in an inclusionary classroom, these teachers are expecting more from these Children, which is great because it they they can do it if if you're breaking down the information, if you're giving them the extra support that they need, then Children can meet most expectations, increased collaboration and participation in activities in the classroom and a more welcoming, positive school environment. So there are benefits for families of Children with disabilities. So these families will have an opportunity to see that some of the behaviors their child might be exhibiting are really normal for that age. And you know, sometimes Children or families with Children with disabilities aren't really sure if they don't get to see typically developing Children often that they might attribute some behaviors just to the disability when that might not be the case, That might just be normal for that age of the child and these families have the chance to communicate with other parents and participate in the same activities that these other families are participating, which is inclusive. It's it's showing them that they belong. There are benefits to peers in the classroom. These are the typically developing Children. You know, if we can get these young Children to accept differences and not not really look at people as being different is their major thing that you look at, I guess you know that that we're looking at more of how we're alike than how we're different, then they respect these anybody with disabilities, they understand more, They have empathy and they accept the differences. So it's really important for us to be teaching Children at a young age that we are more similar than we are different to many people and increased self esteem. If you are setting up some kind of pure buddy system, the typically developing child really develop some self esteem thinking about you know, they're helping the other child when they need it and it's a teacher's benefit from having Children in their classroom with disabilities. They they learn new things and many of the strategies that the therapists might be working with Children with disabilities, they work with all Children. So any new strategies that these therapists can bring into the classroom are going to help all of the Children in the classroom. So the teachers are learning, they're continuously learning and many times you will notice that many of these teachers are taking extra professional development opportunities and trainings to be able to better help these Children to succeed. So it's important for us to always be lifelong learners and this is a great opportunity for that. We, as teachers use evidence based decision making. Our observations are assessments are what we use to inform our teaching and to think about the activities we're doing and think about each individual child. And this definitely in inclusive classrooms is a major portion of your teaching. So earlier intervention, what is it in the individuals with disabilities act, you might hear disabilities Education Act, you might hear it called? Idea. Part C is specifically talks about the early intervention program and what early intervention is is for Children from birth to three years old with developmental delays or disabilities. And the important words here are and their families. So, the early intervention system is really inclusive of Children, but also of the families, the therapists go to the home many times they teach the families, the strategies that they're using and they they ask the families questions and the families are included in all parts of their child's therapies and evaluations. So the family part is really important for the early intervention Peace, early intervention. The birth to age three is administered by individual states. They get some federal funding, but the states make up the policy and and the rules and the regulations for the early intervention program. But there are many similar steps from state to state. It always starts with a referral. The referral can be made by a physician or it can be made by the parents, and so many times, if you have a child in your classroom, who you. Have some concerns about, you are going to go to the parents and work with them in the referral process. It's an interdisciplinary evaluation, meaning even if you have concerns about a child's motor development, there are the other disciplines, so they are going to be also evaluated for speech. They're also going to be evaluated for occupational therapy. They're going to have many therapists evaluating the child just to make sure that their development is not delayed in other areas too. I saw a psychologist who does questions and asked information of the family about the pregnancy and the child's milestones, when they reached milestones and everything like that. The form or the legal document that was made from this, in the earlier intervention system, is called the individualized family service plan, or IFSP. And in this document the information provided is made up from a committee. The committee includes the parents, the therapists, and people from the early intervention system. And what it will determine is what services the child receives, how often they receive them, the duration, so how long is it? 30 minutes, 3 times a week or whatever. And then where the child will receive these services. And many times for early intervention it is in the home, doesn't have to be though. And this is a legal document, has to be legally followed by the families and the therapists who are providing the services. It's reviewed six months and then annually, and then when a child is nearing the age of three, there's a transition plan. Or process that the families and everyone involved works on to make this move the easiest transition to the next part, which is called pre-school special education. And in idea this is discussed in part B. The other was in part C. And the ages for this part. Preschool special education is 3 to 21 years. So any child anywhere from 3 to 21 years can receive special education services through the school district. So this is administered by the local school district, where the address of the child resides. And it's again, differing a little bit from state to state, but there are similarities that you will most likely find in all of the evaluation process for ages 3-21. First is the referral, and again it is the child's position or the parents, who make the referral. It's also inter disciplinary. So make sure that if you're working with parents, I think one of the things that scares parents sometimes is the psychologist. And when you say something about, a psychologist is going to talk to you and your child, parents sometimes get a little scared. So you want to tell them it's okay, they're just trying to find out, maybe the history of the child, and the history of their development, and the history of the pregnancy, to see if they can determine anything there. That's something I always mentioned to parents, because it is a little scary just to hear that word, I think. After the evaluation then it is determined based on the scores of all of the assessments, if the child is eligible or not, for services. If they are eligible, then a committee makes up the Individualized Education program for the child. It's like the IFSFP, it's called the IEP. The major difference between the two programs is, the special education program doesn't include the families. Yes, the families are involved, they come to the meetings, they can talk to the therapist, but they're not included in everyday information of what is going on unless they ask questions. So that's important for you as a teacher, or a caregiver of the child, to be able to tell the parents that they need to advocate for their child. They need to do what is best for their child. And the best way to do that is by asking questions, and it's reviewed annually. The services for many children that are eligible for services in this program are most often provided in the daycare setting or family daycare setting, where the child is daily. So you will have, most likely, a lot of, not a lot, but you might have a few therapists coming into your classroom every day to work with different children in your classroom. So thinking about inclusion, most of the time we think about children with disabilities when we think about inclusion. But inclusion also, we need to think about people that are different than us, and it could just be different in their culture, in their ethnicity, whatever it is that makes them different. It's important to include them in their classrooms in an inclusive model also. So culture, what is culture? Culture is a set of beliefs, values, rules and expectations. Culture is learned, you learn it through your family traditions, through your family stories, experiences. So culture is learned, and culture can determine parenting styles and upbringing. So different cultures have different upbringing or parenting styles that they think are important. So working with young children, we need to understand that not everybody has the same beliefs or values that we do when raising their children. And everybody wants their child to do well and be safe but there are other little things that we need to consider. So talking to parents that might have different beliefs than us is really important to figure out what is important to them and how can we work together to incorporate those beliefs as best we can in our classrooms. So culture often encompasses religion and spirituality, and it also can include everyday routines and practices. So everyone forms a cultural identity in the context of their families. We look at ourselves, Based upon our beliefs and our values, and our family's beliefs and values. So, that's how we determine our self identity. So cultural identity is fundamental to how people live. And that's why it's really important that we understand all of the different cultures and beliefs and values of the children and families in our classrooms. And the families that we work with. So, it evolves with experiences, environment, and various situations. So diversity in culture. This is really important for us to be remembering that each family has their own set of culturally-based expectations, skills, talents, abilities, and values. And ours are no more important than someone else's. Everyone has their own values, and their own values are important to them. Children begin to develop their self concept from how others view them. So, if we are looking at children, and we are judging them based upon what their cultural beliefs are, they're going to start forming opinions of themselves based on that. So we need to make sure that we are not judging children or families for their cultural beliefs. So to form positive self concepts, children must honor and respect their own family and culture. And they are going to do that if we, as their caregivers, respect their family culture. If we embrace their family and culture, if we include different cultures in our inner rooms, in our activities, in our books, in our posters on the wall, in whatever that we are doing, in our materials, that we are talking about different cultures and respecting them. So our environment should reflect and validate all families and cultures. So validating everyone is important. Honor all cultures and incorporate them into your program. And each child in your group has different needs, skills, interests, and abilities. And they are often based on their environment and their culture. That is, again, communication with families is one of the most important things that we should be thinking about. So we need to value the families and the and the cultures and the beliefs and the values that they bring into the program. So, family is central to every child. The family is the most important, the parents are the most important caregivers for that child. Communication is the key. Talking to the families, what do you do in this situation? What do you think about this? Asking them questions to see what their beliefs and their values are. Cooperation, if their values and their beliefs really conflict with what we are teaching in our classroom, then we need to figure out and collaborate and figure out how we can best honor another person's culture and beliefs. But also by practicing what we know is important for early childhood. So, we need to value all family structures also. Families come in all different sizes, all different looks, all different makeups, and we need to value every single one of them. Something that is hard, I think sometimes in today's society is the Mother's day and the Father's day. If a child comes into your classroom and they have two mothers, and it's Father's day. And you're making father's day gifts for all of the children's fathers, how do you handle that? So, think about those things before you include those into your curriculum. And talk to the families that it's going to affect most. Support and embrace all families. So consider their needs, and their wants, and their wishes for their child. Represent a variety of families in our materials. So I talked about representing culture in your materials. Make sure that some of your books have different family structures, posters on your wall, and your holidays that you're celebrating. Again, be thinking about how you're going to handle those. And again, the relationships. We need to connect with all of our families with positive and supportive relationships. What is an anti-bias curriculum first? It's an approach to encourage value and respect differences based on many different ideas. And we need to include all of this in our classroom. We need to not avoid talking about it. We need to accept and honor all children and how they are raised, what their what their family style is, what their culture is, what their beliefs are. We need to accept all of that. But we also need to embrace it, and maybe celebrate it. And by celebrate it, I mean, include that information in our classroom. Children are going to see that a child has two moms. And the child is going to say, I don't have a dad, I have two moms. And so think ahead of time. How are you going to handle a situation where a child is not sure what that means, and doesn't understand it? So, do a little research and think about these things ahead of time, so that you can talk to the children in a developmentally appropriate way, in a way that they can understand. But not giving them any more information than they might need as a child. The anti-bias curriculum requires critical thinking and problem solving. So, that's one of the things I was just talking about. Problem solving by both children and adults. So, making sure that we're talking about these differences, and that the differences are okay, and they're good. So we want to create a climate of positive self and group identity. And reflect diverse experiences and perspectives in our classrooms. So according to NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, there are four goals of anti-bias education. When I first read this, I looked at the justice and the activism and I thought, wow, how are my three and four-year olds going to understand what that means? And how am I going to teach them justice and activism? But NAEYC is a great early childhood organization. And they have really good information. And they they think about young children, and how we can best support them and how we can best teach them. So they have some Ideas in here that I think are going to make it easier to understand. So the four goals according to NAEYC are identity. So, nurturing personal and social identities. Supporting children in expressing self awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities. Next is diversity. Promote positive and empathetic interaction with people for diverse backgrounds. And that's one of the major goals of inclusion. I think for children, typically developing children is to give them an understanding, and empathy, and acceptance of people who are different than them. And support children and feeling comfortable with differences. And the best way to do that is to educate them is to talk to them on their level. So, justice. Foster a child's ability to identify bias. So teaching children what it looks like. And that it's not okay. Support children to identify, describe, and understand the effects of unfairness. Now, children can understand unfairness. So, teaching them what it looks like and that maybe they can identify it and they can understand that some people are not treated the same. And then activism. Encourage the confidence to stand up for oneself and others. What a great skill to be teaching young children. Don't stand back if you see someone who is not being treated and respected as they should. Support children in their conviction to act against prejudice. So what like I said, I was a little intimidated when I first saw those words. But I think if we think about it in simpler terms, there are definitely things that we can incorporate into our activities into our curriculum in the classrooms and working with children. So what is bias? So bias is a belief that affects how people think and act towards others. Bias can lead to acts of prejudice and or discrimination. And the hard part here and I talk with my students about this all the time, everyone has biases. We sometimes just don't realize it. And sometimes we act or say things without realizing until we speak them out loud that we're thinking that way. So there are two kinds of bias, explicit and implicit. Explicit are the obvious bias. So when someone is saying racist remarks about another person, those are explicit biases. But implicit is not obvious and it's unconscious. We don't even realize that we have this bias. And they can impact our behavior and children's well being. And a good example of this is, it used to be that boys were encouraged to do math and science, and girls were encouraged to read books. And so that is a kind of bias if we still do and act upon that, without even thinking that, that's really not okay. Because boys and girls can do both science and math and literature and reading. And it doesn't matter what your gender is, if you're enjoying it and you're interested in it, it's okay whatever you're doing. So a microaggression is a form of a bias comment or action that inflicts injury or insult on another person. It might seem to the person that is saying or doing the action that it's just a small casual comment, a joke or a statement. And it's not always it's often not intended to hurt the person. And sometimes the person doing the microaggression is unaware. And they think that this is going to be some kind of compliment to the person. But if it continues and a person hears a lot of microaggressions, it can build up and undermine their sense of self. There's a video that I will include in the resources. And it's high school students talking about microaggressions that were committed against them. And the thought that one of the girls says, one of her science teachers said to her one time. Well you're really smart for a black girl, or you're really pretty for a black girl, or something like that. And it was meant as a compliment. But think about what what you're saying and that is not a compliment. Or when we think about people of a certain race. You think about Asian people being good at math or science or something. That's a stereotype and if you say it out loud and you say it to someone, it's considered a microaggression. So let's think before we speak. Thinking about our implicit bias and microaggressions, they can be very hurtful. So because early childhood settings tend to be children's first communities outside of the home, the character of these communities is very influential in development. How children expect to be treated and how they treat others is significantly shaped in the early childhood setting. And we need to have our settings be as inclusive as we can. And to teach empathy and acceptance to children in our classrooms. Thank you.
