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

who needed special services and support. During this
time schools and institutions were created to care for
differently-abled children. Generally these institutions
were created by religious and/or charitable organisations.
During Phase 2 (1875–1945), there was a recognition
that society had a responsibility for children
with special needs, and the formal rights of these
children were incorporated into legislation. The social
awareness of the needs of children with differing
abilities led to the creation of specialised services.
In Phase 3 (1945–1970), there was a rapid expansion
of services, most often offered in segregated settings.
As noted by O’Toole (1991), “The individual
and the problem were lifted out of the social context
in which they existed and attempts were made to
impose a solution in a new context of the therapist’s
making.” (15) This tendency toward isolation of children
with special needs was reinforced in some countries
by the fact that many of the settings within
which special education provision was located were
outside of and away from the community. (Ainscow
1994, 4) In reality, the isolation of institutional settings
was a modern-day form of the hiding of children
with handicaps that was characteristic of earlier times.
The major breakthrough for persons with disabilities
came in Phase 4 (1970–1990). The buzz words for
this next shift in thinking were individualisation, normalisation,
integration, and mainstreaming. During this period,
children with special needs began attending the same
schools as other children. Initially they were put into
separate classes within the same setting. Over time,
however, these children were mainstreamed (i.e., integrated/fit
into existing classrooms and services) for at
least part of the day, if not for the whole day. While
this approach was an improvement over the isolation
of many institutional settings, the reality of children’s
mainstreaming experience was that their needs often
went unmet in classes designed for sighted, hearing,
developmentally ‘normal’ children, and the supplemental
special services they received were not only
costly, but they set the children apart from their peers.
In other words, mainstreaming children frequently
did not result in true integration for children with
special needs.
Phase 5 began in the 1990s. Once again there was
a major conceptual shift in how to address special
needs. The focus is now on inclusion: creating environments
responsive to the differing developmental
capacities, needs, and potential of all children. For
children with special needs, inclusion means a shift in
services, from simply trying to fit the child into ‘normal
settings’, with supplemental support for their disabilities
or special needs, to promoting the child’s
overall development in an optimal setting. To do this
it is critical to focus on restructuring the environment,
and systems in that environment, to accommodate the
needs of all children, rather than simply addressing
the special needs of certain children in isolation from
the overall curriculum and setting.
Why the Shift to
a More <strong>Inclusive</strong>
Ideology?
There have been a number of reasons for a shift to a
more inclusive ideology—some based on children’s
rights, others based on experience gleaned from providing
services for children with special needs. What
follows is a discussion of some of the reasons for the
shift.
■ There is a recognition of a child’s rights.
There have been a range of international declarations
that have helped shape the current focus on
inclusion as an approach to addressing children with
special needs. 1981 was the International Year of the
Disabled. This was a major turning point in raising
awareness about issues faced by the disabled, and led
to the Decade of Disabled persons (1982–1993).
Broader international declarations have helped to
secure the rights of all children. Among these is the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) put forward
in 1989, which includes the following Articles:
ARTICLE 2 states that “all rights shall apply to all children
without discrimination on any ground including disability.”
ARTICLE 23 declares the rights of disabled children to enjoy
a full and decent life, in conditions which promote self-reliance
and facilitate the child’s active participation in the community.
It also states the right to special care, education, health
care, training, rehabilitation, employment preparation, and
recreation opportunities; all these shall be designed in a manner
conducive to the child achieving “the fullest possible social
integration and individual development, including his or her
cultural and spiritual development.”
The Education for All Forum, held in 1990, put
forward the Framework for Action to Meet Basic
Learning Needs. This reinforced the notion that all
children should have access to basic education as put
forward in the CRC. Paragraph 8 calls for “expansion
of early childhood care and development activities,
including family and community interventions, especially
for poor, disadvantaged and for disabled
children.”
In 1993 the United Nations Standard Rules on
Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities
were established. The next major initiative
was the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action
on Special Needs Education, issued after an international
conference held in 1994.
The success of the inclusive school depends considerably on
early identification, assessment and stimulation of the very
young child with special educational needs. Early childhood
care and education programmes for children aged up to six
years ought to be developed and/or reoriented to promote
physical, intellectual and social development and school
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