Leading an inclusive learning community

Inclusive practices in early learning services or schools happen by intentional planning and design, and evolve to meet the changing needs of children and young people in a learning community. 

The Inclusion Support Program has an Inclusion Development Fund that provides funding to facilitate inclusion in early learning communities. This includes subsidies for an additional educator, time-limited support, Family Day Care top-up and innovative solutions to overcome barriers to inclusion.

The first step for accessing any funding through the Inclusion Development Fund is developing a Strategic Inclusion Plan. This is a plan which outlines a service’s short-term and longer-term strategies for improving and embedding inclusive practices, and is something that your Inclusion Agency’s Inclusion Professional can help you develop.

In addition to the funding provided by the Australian Government to support students with disability in schools, some state-based education departments offer relevant funding and grants programs, such as the Victorian Government’s Inclusive Schools Fund, which supports small innovative building projects that make a big difference to meeting the needs of children and young people with disabilities in schools. Contact the education department in your state or territory to enquire about similar programs and funding opportunities.

If a child or young person in your learning community requires additional support to meet their developmental needs, you may be able to refer the child and family to their local National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) partner for short-term or longer-term supports, or consider helping families get in touch with an NDIS Local Area Coordinator.

The strategies you choose to facilitate inclusion in your learning community will depend on the age group and the unique strengths of each child or young person. Lay strong foundations by using strategies that are based on research, and which consider the child or young person's goals, aspirations and strengths.

As a leader, how you speak about and refer to a child’s developmental delay or disability is incredibly important.

While words used well can be empowering and enabling, certain terms and phrases can limit expectations and reinforce unhelpful perspectives. Avoid using negative terms like ‘suffers from’, ‘victim of’ or ‘afflicted by’ when you’re referring to or describing a child with developmental delay or disability.

There are two main approaches to the language used to talk about a child or young person’s developmental delay or disability: the person-first approach and the identity-first approach.

According to AllPlay Learn’s Language Guide, the person-first approach focuses on the child rather than their disability. For example, ‘a child on the autism spectrum’ rather than ‘an autistic child’. The identity-first approach is the reverse, 'I am a Deaf person'.. This approach can allow children and young people to embrace their disability or developmental delay with pride.

Ask each child and talk to their family about what they’d prefer, so you and your team can use the right language for them. You can learn more about inclusive language and how to use it in the Quick guide to inclusive language.

To focus on a whole learning community approach to inclusion, it’s important to:

• support meaningful participation by the child or young person, their family, educators and staff, and the wider community
• encourage and support educators to share knowledge, learnings and experiences of inclusion
• promote the importance of working with relevant health professionals outside of your learning community, particularly where a child or young person, or their family, already has a relationship with them.

According to the NSW/ACT Inclusion Agency: “Inclusion happens when educators are supported in their practice by strong leadership; work together as a team to think about how inclusive their practices are; and work collaboratively with families and support them to understand inclusion”.

Professor Rinehart notes that “when a family and their learning community are on the same page, it promotes a feeling of continuity and support, free of any conflict or confusion for the child or young person”.

A partnership with the family of a child or young person with developmental delay or disability taps into the expertise and perspectives of different individuals to solve problems, and to address new challenges or changes in an ongoing way.

As a leader, make it a priority for educators and staff in your learning community to understand the hopes, goals and expectations that families have for a child or young person with developmental delay or disability, and work closely with them to achieve these goals and outcomes.

Some suggestions for this are:

• Valuing the family’s knowledge. A child or young person’s family is well placed to identify their strengths and abilities. The family is also able to share strategies and approaches they use in the home environment, in previous learning communities or with their health professionals.
• Understanding a family’s perspective. Just as important as developing a strong understanding of what a family hopes for their child or young person in the learning community is listening to their concerns or anxieties. This may include concerns about their child being treated differently or their reflections on being the parent of a child with developmental delay or disability. Being respectful of a family’s understanding and beliefs about developmental delay or disability is helpful, too.
• Understanding that every family is unique. Families will have different needs and preferences for how you work together, and how they would like to communicate or collaborate. Be respectful of the family’s background, beliefs, values, customs and language, and encourage open, constructive discussions so you can provide culturally appropriate support.

This story shares how an educator, parent and speech pathologist work in partnership to support Maddy’s communication.

Three-year-old Maddy has recently enrolled at kindergarten. She is very expressive with non-verbal communication and enjoys outdoor play, doll play and tactile activities. Maddy has moderate hearing loss in her right ear and severe hearing loss in her left ear. She uses hearing aids in both ears and has been learning some sign language to support her communication. Maddy’s speech and communication is delayed, but she has responded well to early intervention through oral language training and can verbalise basic wants and needs, such as ‘drink’ and ‘hungry’.

Maddy’s mum has concerns about her ability to communicate and be understood by others as people often forget she has a hearing impairment. Maddy’s mum would like the early learning service to continue to build on Maddy’s communication skills so that she can enjoy relationships and develop friendships. Maddy’s mum has supplied a communication book which features visual aids that Maddy uses to communicate with others, and pictures of the signs she’s using and learning at home.

Maddy’s educators invited Maddy’s speech pathologist to visit the service, to support them in teaching some of these same signs to Maddy’s peers. Having incorporated signs into story and mat time, they’ve noticed a few of the children beginning to sign when they’re communicating with Maddy and each other. While Maddy’s mum has spent some time at the service to support communication between home and Maddy’s educators, she is returning to work soon and will be limited in her ability to visit the service face-to-face.

For reflection

• Describe Maddy’s strengths. How would you enhance these?
• How could you continue to foster a strong partnership with Maddy’s family, particularly given Maddy’s mum will soon have less capacity for face-to-face visits?
• In what ways have Maddy’s educators collaborated with Maddy’s mum to address her concerns and hopes for Maddy? And what more would you do?

This story demonstrates a strengths-based approach to supporting Jimmy, a child with Down syndrome.

Jimmy is a 10-year-old boy who has Down syndrome. Jimmy attends his School Age Care service four afternoons a week. He demonstrates many strengths, including empathy towards his peers, a willingness to help, emerging music skills and a playful disposition. He also has a great sense of humour. Jimmy experiences some challenges expressing his needs verbally and sometimes has difficulty understanding what’s being asked of him.

Jimmy’s primary school has a core shared value: All children, irrespective of disability or developmental delay, are wonderful and each child has strengths. It’s the educator’s core responsibility to identify these strengths, celebrate them and share them in the learning environment. This has framed the way educators see and build relationships with all children, including Jimmy.

Recently, Jimmy has displayed behaviours such as head banging, dismantling other children’s creations and raising his voice. Rather than attribute this to his disability, the educators have adopted a strengths-based approach, considering Jimmy’s behaviour a form of communication and exploring what message he’s trying to communicate. Jimmy’s educators support him by naming his emotions (for example, saying “I can see you’re frustrated, Jimmy”) to help make sense of his experience. They’ve identified that Jimmy enjoys tactile stimulation and have provided a range of sensory items that Jimmy can explore with his hands. The School Age Care staff validates this approach, while the room teachers share information and notes to support continuity of care between the school and School Age Care service.

For reflection

• Using one of Jimmy’s strengths as an example, consider how you’d celebrate and share this with your learning community.
• Consider how celebrating the strengths of children (as well as families and educators) is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing.
• What do you think of Jimmy’s school’s belief that all children have strengths, irrespective of disability and developmental delay?
• Jimmy’s educators are committed to working with Jimmy. What are some examples of this in the story? What do you think are the benefits?