Effective Inclusion: It’s More Than Moving Little Bodies

As a community college instructor one activity that I used to help the students better understand the practical how tos of inclusion was to bring into the adult classroom several activities that you would typically see in a quality early childhood program, only on a smaller scale (such as sand play, blocks). Divide the class into smaller groups and give them a scenario with a description of a child with a disability and ask them, "How would you adapt this activity so that all the children can be involved at the same time." Give them time to work as a group to share ideas and then bring those ideas back to the larger group. Then, you can not only share the research but best practice. I found this to be well recieved by students, it breaks down those barriers of resistance to inclusion and gives the participants activities to bring back to their sites that they can immediately implement.

Diane, This sounds like a great activity for moving research to practical applications. It would be interesting to provide scenarios of several different children representing different levels of need for services and adaptations...or perhaps inviting students to share scenarios of children in their practica settings. Your activity is inspiring. Other ideas out there? Thanks for sharing a wonderful activity for all of us to try.