This comprehensive textbook will give future educators a thorough introduction to inclusion supports: evidence-based practices and strategies that help children with disabilities fully participate in preschool classrooms.

This essential textbook explores inclusive pedagogies by presenting theoretical viewpoints and research on everyday practices in early childhood education that affirm diversity in relation to learning, disability and culture. The authors consider the pedagogical practices involved in supporting educational inclusion for young children. The book focuses on key issues in relation to inclusive pedagogy including young children’s learning subjectivities, socio-material realities of learning in early childhood contexts, and perspective-taking of children and adults in relation to learning and difference. The book draws together findings from experts who are employing innovative methods for research in early childhood education, including conversation analysis, phenomenological enquiry and participant ethnography, in order to create new knowledge and understanding about how young children are and feel themselves to be included. This textbook will be essential reading for students and practitioners alike. The book is particularly pertinent for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying early years as well as courses which focus on education or teaching or inclusion.

This book comprehensively evaluates early childhood inclusion over the past 25 years. Based on their research and extensive experience, the authors examine benefits and drawbacks of inclusion, leading influences on inclusion, and issues that face children in different environments with different developmental challenges. The book shows professionals, instructors, and students in early intervention and early childhood education where inclusion is today and what they need to do to keep the field moving forward. The final chapter presents a national in-scope agenda for change - a framework of ideas for meeting challenges and achieving an agreed-upon set of principles and practices - in order to create optimal educational environments for all children.

Nearly every early childhood classroom has an exceptionally bright child—from the child who starts reading independently at age three to the child who would rather take apart his tricycle than ride on it. This book's strategies help educators create a richer learning environment where exceptionally bright children are encouraged to learn beyond prescribed curriculum goals. It includes identifiers of exceptionally bright children, ideas to change the pace, level, or method of teaching in response to the needs of individual children, and guidance for working with families. Ann Gadzikowski is the early childhood coordinator at Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development.

"Intended for students in early childhood education programs with a focus on children with special needs (disabilities): inclusion in existing children's programs, discussion of early childhood development and how best to support it, discussion of various disabilities and challenges (cognitive, learning, physical) - how to identify and plan to support."--

With increasing emphasis on inclusive classrooms, primary and elementary school teachers can use the information included in Successful Inclusion Strategies for Early Childhood Teachers to build a supportive, caring, learner-driven environment that takes into account the needs of all students. Covering topics from incorporating the needs of students with a variety of special needs to working one-on-one with students to modify classroom experiences, this book offers field-tested strategies for teachers in a concise, friendly format. The authors also provide an overview of how special education law affects inclusive classrooms. The book provides multiple vignettes describing special needs most often found in inclusive classrooms, including autism, ADHD, visual and hearing impairments, and developmental delays, as well as suggested tools and strategies for working with these students. A special section on adapting classroom materials provides teachers with guidance for modifying and differentiating their curriculum to encourage learning in children with special needs. This book is a valuable resource for early childhood teachers, administrators, and childcare directors.

Universal Design for Learning in the Early Childhood Classroom focuses on proactively designing PreK through Grade 3 classroom environments, instruction, and assessments that are flexible enough to ensure that teachers can accommodate the needs of all the students in their classrooms. Typically developing students, gifted students, students who are impacted by poverty, children who speak multiple languages or have a home language that is different than the classroom language, and students with identified or potential developmental or learning disabilities are all covered within this highly practical, easy-to-use guide to UDL in the early years.