Rationale for Inclusion

Disabled children and their parents have a right to access early years services and play and leisure activities within their own communities. DESSA believes that settings which are actively promoting diversity and  supporting equality of participation benefit both disabled children  and non-disabled children. Disabled children, however, can have difficulty accessing  these settings. Many disabled children continue to attend specialist support services which can reinforce marginalisation from their peers and isolation within their own communities.

Early years care and education providers can play a role in opening up opportunities for disabled children and their parents to participate in a more inclusive way in their communities. These opportunities lie in the support services that they provide to families, whether in pre-school, play school, after-school or summer camp provision.  

It has become apparent in our work that there is no strategic approach to the inclusion of disabled children in early childhood care and education settings. Inclusion tends to happen on an ad hoc basis depending on a number of factors: the policies and interest of individual childcare service providers, the ethos of disability service providers and the requirements of parents of disabled children. .

The issue of the lack of training and experience of childcare providers in inclusive provision arose when DESSA began promoting the idea of disabled children availing of their local childcare and play services. In discussions with childcare providers, both staff and managers, it emerged that there was a huge fear and lack of understanding in relation to working with disabled children and their families. Fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of costs in adaptation and insurance, and lack of knowledge in working with children with particular impairments have done little to promote the idea of mainstreaming childcare and play for disabled children

Inclusion....

Is to adapt your practice to suit the child’s need, i.e. you fitting them, not them fitting you
Is a child coming to a facility whenever it’s open and they want to attend
Is every child being a part of the community from the beginning of their life

The Social Model of Disability

  • DESSA supports the social model of disability, which holds  that it is the environment or the society we live in that is responsible for disabling people rather than their impairment.