Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
Inclusive ECCD: - Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and ...
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INCLUSION Coordinators’ Notebook, Issue 22<br />
readiness. These programmes have a major ec<strong>on</strong>omic value for<br />
the individual, the family <strong>and</strong> the society in preventing the<br />
aggravati<strong>on</strong> of disabling c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s. Programmes at this level<br />
should recognise the principle of inclusi<strong>on</strong> <strong>and</strong> be developed in<br />
a comprehensive way by combining pre-school activities <strong>and</strong><br />
early childhood health care.<br />
Salamanca World C<strong>on</strong>ference <strong>on</strong> Special Needs Educati<strong>on</strong><br />
Article 53<br />
Thus there is clearly an internati<strong>on</strong>ally-endorsed<br />
m<strong>and</strong>ate to create inclusive programmes for children<br />
with special needs, <strong>and</strong> to develop those programmes<br />
for children from birth <strong>on</strong>wards.<br />
■ There is a recogniti<strong>on</strong> of the limits of a<br />
medical model to meet the needs of all<br />
young children.<br />
With the increase in resources going to children<br />
with special needs, <strong>and</strong> a greater underst<strong>and</strong>ing of<br />
how the body works, in the 1950s there was a move<br />
in resource-rich countries to greater <strong>and</strong> more finite<br />
specialisati<strong>on</strong>. Categories were created based <strong>on</strong> a<br />
medical definiti<strong>on</strong> of a child’s disability. This has led<br />
to a tendency to perceive problems in accordance<br />
with the psycho-medical paradigm, the result of<br />
which is to identify the child by his/her classificati<strong>on</strong>.<br />
This narrow focus often leads to segregati<strong>on</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> exclusi<strong>on</strong> of the child from learning envir<strong>on</strong>ments.<br />
As noted by Ainscow (1994), there is a<br />
“growing underst<strong>and</strong>ing that h<strong>and</strong>icapping c<strong>on</strong>diti<strong>on</strong>s<br />
are much more widely spread, more varied <strong>and</strong><br />
more complex than systems of categorisati<strong>on</strong> based<br />
largely <strong>on</strong> medical criteria tend to indicate”. (4)<br />
Children’s behaviour <strong>and</strong> characteristics are more accurately<br />
reflected <strong>on</strong> a c<strong>on</strong>tinuum than in discrete<br />
categories. Furthermore, diversity am<strong>on</strong>g all children<br />
is normal.<br />
What a paradox: in order to help, we accept labelling,<br />
discriminati<strong>on</strong>, <strong>and</strong> exclusi<strong>on</strong> which in many cases can<br />
cause severe problems to the children <strong>and</strong> to their<br />
families. Tuunainen 1997, 22<br />
■ There is a move to a primary, rather than<br />
curative, health-care focus in the Alma-Ata<br />
Declarati<strong>on</strong>, 1978.<br />
The c<strong>on</strong>cept of primary health care had an impact<br />
<strong>on</strong> the provisi<strong>on</strong> of support for children with special<br />
needs in several ways. First, the primary health care<br />
positi<strong>on</strong> advocates that it is more important to bring<br />
about even small improvements in the health of the<br />
entire populati<strong>on</strong> rather than to provide the highest<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ard of care for a privileged few. Sec<strong>on</strong>d, it<br />
recognises that n<strong>on</strong>-professi<strong>on</strong>als with appropriate<br />
but minimal training can provide crucial services.<br />
(O’Toole 1991, 13)<br />
The implicati<strong>on</strong>s of the public health approach for<br />
children with special needs suggests that, rather than<br />
allocating scarce resources to a few, a broader range<br />
of services should be made available to the many.<br />
The model of using specialists to deliver <strong>on</strong>e-<strong>on</strong>-<strong>on</strong>e<br />
service to individual children has proven to be a very<br />
expensive model. Through the inclusive approach,<br />
the role of professi<strong>on</strong>als is to train caregivers <strong>and</strong><br />
others in the community to create a supportive envir<strong>on</strong>ment,<br />
that may or may not require some technical<br />
inputs from a specialist. For the most part the<br />
basic skills <strong>and</strong> strategies for dealing with diverse<br />
needs can be transferred to those who have the most<br />
c<strong>on</strong>stant c<strong>on</strong>tact with the child.<br />
■ There is a move from a model that focuses<br />
solely <strong>on</strong> the child, to <strong>on</strong>e which sees the<br />
child in a wider social, ec<strong>on</strong>omic <strong>and</strong> political<br />
c<strong>on</strong>text.<br />
There is a move away from the medical model<br />
which isolates children, to a social, ethical <strong>and</strong> ec<strong>on</strong>omic<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>ing of what it means to have special<br />
needs. This view arises from a realisati<strong>on</strong> that a<br />
child’s progress can be understood <strong>on</strong>ly in respect to<br />
particular circumstances, tasks, <strong>and</strong> sets of relati<strong>on</strong>ships.<br />
As summarised by Ainscow (1994), there is “an<br />
increasing recogniti<strong>on</strong> that the difficulties encountered<br />
by young people in their general development<br />
are likely to arise as much from disadvantageous circumstances<br />
as from individual characteristics.” (4)<br />
For children of primary-school age, <strong>on</strong>e of the<br />
“disadvantageous circumstances” may well be the<br />
school system. Children with special needs related<br />
to learning c<strong>on</strong>stitute 90% of the children with special<br />
needs within the school-age populati<strong>on</strong>. (UNESCO<br />
1997) It is quite likely that the formal educati<strong>on</strong> system<br />
fosters an increase in the number of children<br />
with special needs, rather than meeting their needs<br />
<strong>and</strong> supporting children’s development.<br />
■ There is a recogniti<strong>on</strong> of the limits of<br />
segregated approaches.<br />
Specialisati<strong>on</strong> has led to <strong>on</strong>e-<strong>on</strong>-<strong>on</strong>e therapies,<br />
where the specialist works with the child for a very<br />
limited amount of time during a given week (perhaps<br />
as little as an hour). This attenti<strong>on</strong> is often provided<br />
out of the c<strong>on</strong>text of the child’s daily life, does not<br />
always allow for the transfer of skills to those who<br />
are part of the child’s envir<strong>on</strong>ment, <strong>and</strong> does not<br />
take into account children’s needs to be part of a social<br />
group. Social learning is a critical part of children’s<br />
experience. The social isolati<strong>on</strong> experienced<br />
as a result of segregated programmes can have a negative<br />
effect <strong>on</strong> the child’s development. As noted by<br />
Holdsworth (1997), “Exclusi<strong>on</strong> in the early years can<br />
reinforce exclusi<strong>on</strong> throughout life.” (9)<br />
5