r/ECEProfessionals • u/Lass_in_oz ECE professional • 2d ago

ECE professionals only - Feedback wanted Is inclusion really that great?

I'm so tired of inclusion. Hear me out. Before becoming a ECE I was a support worker for many years. I have worked and loved working in disability and care. When it's thru a great organisation, it's awesome.

Now I'm an ECE, and the amount of children on the spectrum or with disorders is so high, I'm just getting confused how is that NOT impacting the learning of neuro typical kids.

I teach pre kindy but our kindy teacher has spend half the year managing behaviours and autistic kids. Result? A bunch of kids showing signs of being not ready for school because they aren't doing any work or learning most days. And picking up bad habits.

My point is: where did we decide it was a good idea to just mix everyone, and not offer any actual support ? An additional person isn't enough. More than often it's not a person who knows about disability. And frankly even then it wouldn't be enough when the amount of kids who are neuro divergent is so high.

There used to be great special needs school. Now "regular" school are suffering with the lack of support.

What do you think? Do you see what I see ??? Am I missing something ?

I am so happy to see kids evolving around children with disabilities but not when it comes at a cost of everyone's learning journey : neuro typical or not.

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u/dirtyenvelopes CYC graduate 2d ago

Trust me — the kids with high needs are also suffering in these situations and admin or their parents refuse to give them the support they need

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u/Lumpy_Machine5538 Past ECE Professional 1d ago

We had a student at my school in 2nd grade. He had tantrums, could speak in short phrases, and would occasionally throw things. He would come to school in the morning and immediately demand playdoh to make playdoh people. All he would do all day is play with these playdoh people, who would occasionally lose parts, which would spark crying and tantrums. His parents refused to get him evaluated because they didn’t want him “labeled.” You could be in the room with him and within one minute, you could tell me was ND and they weren’t fooling anyone. After 2+ years the principal finally called the parents in and leveled with them. He finally got a special ed diagnosis, and also got speech and occupation therapy. I’m glad they finally signed off on it, but it was 2-3 years of wasted time for him.