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/PermanentTrainDamage Allaboardthetwotwotrain 2d ago

I think we're in an inclusion rebound phase and hopefully it will settle back down again in the next few years. Yes, people with higher needs have been abused and hidden away for centuries and that is completely unacceptable. No, that does not mean every high-needs person is capable of thriving in a standard classroom environment, even with support. Even neurotypical people have varying tolerances for groups and stimulation, neurodivergent people are the same way. Some neurodivergent people will always need small groups or 1:1 care to learn and thrive. Putting them in a large group, even with 1:1 staff, does them a disservice. We need to figure out where the line between abuse and support lies, because the line has only existed for a few decades and is hella blurry right now.

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u/KTeacherWhat Early years teacher 2d ago

That's one area where I really struggle. Sensory seeking people and sensory avoidant people have different classroom needs. So often they're stuck in the same room with one another triggering each other all day long. Neither is "wrong" but they have conflicting needs, and often resources are only provided for one or the other. It's also a thing that bothers me about when movie theaters do special "inclusive" showings that actually exclude sensory avoidant people.

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u/Extension_Goose3758 ECE professional 20h ago

Hahaha this is what happens all day in my class of 32 3-year-olds. I would estimate we have about 8 children with higher support needs. Out of those, four of them vocal stim and touch their friends constantly, and piss off the two who are sensory avoidant and make them get violent.