Free Early Childhood Inclusive Education Webinar Series

This free webinar series has been funded through the NSW Department of Education’s Sector Development Program. The series includes Inclusion For Children With Disabilities - including ethical and legal obligations, Observing and Planning For Inclusion - including taking observation to assist you, overview of observations etc, Strategies To Support Inclusion - how to structure the learning environment to support children with disabilities and how to implement ILP. 

The first webinar in this series will introduce participants to the concept of early childhood inclusion for children with disabilities and developmental delays, including ethical and legal obligations and best practice in early childhood intervention. The following three webinars will assist participants to plan for and implement research-based Individual Learning Plans for young children with disabilities/delays in collaboration with their families and other professionals.

Webinar 1: Inclusion In Early Childhood Services

In this 90-minute webinar, you will be introduced to the concept of early childhood inclusion for children with disabilities and developmental delays, including ethical and legal obligations related to including children with disability or developmental delay in your early childhood education and care service. You will reflect on what participation and engagement of children with disabilities or delays can look like in practice and identify potential barriers to inclusion. An overview of best practice in early childhood intervention will be provided, including examples of how these practices can be implemented in regular early childhood education and care settings.

At the conclusion of this webinar, you will have the knowledge to:

• identify best-practice in inclusive early childhood education
• describe the ethical and legal reasons for the inclusion of children with disabilities and additional needs in early childhood education and care programs

Webinar 2: Early Childhood Inclusion - Observations and Planning For Inclusion

In this 90-minute webinar you will be guided through the process of taking observations that will assist you in planning for the inclusion of a child or children with disabilities or developmental delay within your early childhood service. An overview of the planning cycle will be provided, along with an overview of different types of observations and their purposes. Case studies will demonstrate how different types of data collection can be used to inform planning.

At the conclusion of this webinar, you will have the knowledge to:

• record objective observations to support conversations with families about their child’s development.
• record observations that demonstrate frequency, intensity and duration of educational supports required

Webinar 3 - Early Childhood Inclusion - Strategies To Support Inclusion

In this 90 minute webinar you will be presented with strategies to support the inclusion of children with disability or developmental delay in your early childhood service. You will be guided through how to best structure your early childhood environment to support the access, engagement, and participation of all children in regular routines and learning experiences. An overview of different evidence-based strategies will be presented, along with real-life examples of how they can be implemented in early childhood services.

At the conclusion of this webinar, you will have the knowledge to:

• structure the early childhood environment to support the engagement and participation of all children in early childhood routines and learning experiences, including environmental changes to improve access and support participation.
• implement strategies to support the child’s participation and learning within the routines and learning experiences of the early childhood setting (as written in the ILP).

Webinar 4:Early Childhood Inclusion - Developing and Implementing Individual Learning Plans

In this webinar you will be guided through the process of writing and implementing an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) for a child with disability or developmental delay in your early childhood service. Over 90 minutes, you will learn about what an ILP is and when one should be used. You will be guided through how to use observations and other data collected to write an ILP in collaboration with their colleagues, the child’s family and other professionals. Finally, tips on how to work collaboratively to implement, monitor, review and update the ILP will be provided.

At the conclusion of this webinar, you will have the knowledge to:

• explain what an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is and when one should be used to develop an ILP
• monitor, review and update the ILP in collaboration with others including colleagues, the child’s family and other professionals.

To watch Recordings: Early Childhood Inclusive Education Webinar Series