Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...

CASE STUDIES
supports for the integration of children with special
needs into nursery schools, primary schools,
and other social activities within the community.
The Team was an informally constituted itinerant
group, comprised of one educator, one social assistant
and one doctor. Those who were included in
Special Education Teams, educators from Bela
Vista and other nursery schools that had been
involved in the integration of children with special
needs, did not have specialised training. However,
their experience was invaluable.
In 1981, the Special Education Team from
Águeda was one of the first regional teams to be
created to support the integration of all children
into mainstream education, regardless of the type
and degree of their difficulty. The legal status of
this team endorsed the pioneering work of Bela
Vista.
The common interest of these Teams was to
discover and create opportunities for children’s
social participation in all facets of daily life. Such
opportunities have to be compatible with the
child’s resources, bearing in mind the child’s emotional,
intellectual, and social needs, as well as the
expectations, conditions, and needs of the family
and community.
The individual educational programmes sought
answers to the following questions.
■ What are the problems that worry parents and
educators?
■ What does the child need to learn to increase
his/her autonomy, self-esteem, and participation
in the life of the family, school and peer
groups?
■ What resources are available?
■ What resources is it possible to create?
■ Who can teach (where, how, and when)?
■ What resources are required in the short, middle,
and long-term?
These programmes were registered in a book
where new ideas and innovative approaches were
also recorded.
Whenever possible, the child would be asked
about his/her likes, interests and worries. Educators
often asked the child’s school friends and
brothers and sisters to relate the likes and dislikes
of the child, and to describe what he or she could
do in and for the school group.
The Special Education Team is now made up
of 28 educators, specialising in different areas.
They support the integration of children and
more dependent youth up to the end of primary
education, thereby facilitating access for these
young people to preparatory education (fifth and
sixth school years), secondary education, and
higher education.
Other Activities
Identification of the Children Under Three
with Special Needs
In 1981, the same group that co-operated in
the elaboration of educational programmes for
school and nursery schools also invested time in
studying the situation of children under 3 years of
age. Their direct contact with the community
brought the first awareness of the risks that many
infants faced. There were two reactions to this.
First, the experience led the educators and
trainers of nursery education to begin a home visiting
programme, making periodic visits to the
homes of 19 children who were living in highrisk
situations or who were already identified as
having had developmental problems. These visits
consisted of listening to mothers and helping
them to solve health and other problems related
to the child. The home visitors also helped mothers
discover and create toys and games with recyclable
material and domestic objects found inside
and outside the house. Sometimes the visits included
other mothers and neighbours, as well as
other children of the family. With this approach
it was possible to expand the social support networks
for families. This was done to decrease the
possibility that children would be abused, neglected,
and/or abandoned.
Second, in 1982, the same educators from Bela
Vista also began to develop educational support
for very young children within the centre-based
programme. Children were taken into the centre
as young as one year of age. Intake in the reception
year was expanded by more than 30 children.
Detection, Diagnosis and
Differential Guidance
Another activity undertaken was the creation
of a nursing consultation, established in the hospital
of the local parish, at the request of the paediatric
hospital serving the entire central region
of the country. Many mothers came to these consultations,
and problem situations and risks to the
child’s development were identified. This provided
a strong argument to the hospital administration
and mobilised pubic opinion to demand the
creation of a public health service that could
guarantee primary health care for both children
and the wider community.
In 1981, Águeda’s Health Centre was created,
having as main priorities birth control, and mother
and infant/child health. The health centre has
been involved as an institutional partner in most
community activities designed to help solve child
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