Early childhood education in relation to children with additional needs - Essay Example

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN RELATION TO CHILDREN WITH ADDITIONAL NEEDS of of school Name of student Abstract The early years in the life of a child are considered to be crucial since they form a foundation of their future. At this stage the child goes through developmental and learning stages. There are children with specialized or additional needs including physical and mental disabilities, children from ethnic minority groups and those from low income families. Early childhood educator should be equipped with the skills to identify such children and treat them accordingly. Childhood settings should on the other hand provide the right facilities and resources to ensure that the children get the appropriate care. The family has a role to play in identification of the children. Identification at early age benefits the child since they start receiving specialized treatment with immediate effect. Changes should be effected to improve the treatment and address their needs early enough. Keywords: Early childhood education, Childhood educators and Childhood settings. The early years (from birth to five years of age) in the life of a child are considered to be very important. At this age, children go through a variety of learning stages each while making great steps and the lessons learnt form an important foundation for experiences in their later life. Children go through developmental and learning processes and parents and childhood educators need to help them develop their mental, emotional, physical and creative skills in fun and enjoyable manner as explained by Ashman and Elkins (2009). The children with diverse needs include children with disabilities, children from low income families and ethnic and bilingual children. This can be defined as the organized practice of educating those in their early years. The importance of early year’s education services have been brought in the front of political and research agendas calling for specialized skills and training in the area. The purpose of this assignment is to engage the student in an investigation, critical analysis and discussion of the importance of early identification of young children with additional needs. Loreman, Deppeler and Harvey (2005) explain that there competencies relevant to all childhood educators working in different settings such as child care centres, public schools and family childcare homes. The positions held by childhood educators include teachers, playgroup leaders, early childhood special educators and paraprofessionals. The competencies are developed basing on family mental health, early childhood education and after school education. The educators need to be trained on psychology in order to be able to identify the children who have undergone traumatic experiences. This helps them to give therapy to such children helping them to focus on the trauma. The educators should possess social skills as it enables them to establish a bond with the students and they can be able to attend to their needs more effectively. They should also possess life skills that are very vital to the job functioning and are mandatory in instruction. Children suffer from diverse mental, behavioural and emotional problems and they should put up systems to handle such matters. The children with physical disabilities are considered subjects for special education and they are integrated in to on e classroom where there are specialized equipments including modified furniture and specialized equipment. The settings should ensure that the early childhood educators are equipped with the right skills and training to identify the children with special needs as suggested by Salter, Johnston and Lunn (2005).The staff should be able to offer a wide range of support services according to the special needs of the students that involves psychotherapy, counselling and therapy. The institutions should have adequate staff to handle the special needs and the ratio of child to staff should be smaller in order to attain the desired results. The early childhood settings should ensure delivery of quality services and this can be achieved through licensing and regulatory bodies according to Sandall, Schwartz and Joseph (2001). This sets up measure to ensure that children with additional needs are identified and given special attention. The settings should provide proper working conditions including minimum working hours, proper remuneration and constant training to improve quality of output. The system should ensure the constant use of curriculum and pedagogy in order to improve the quality of education in early childhood settings. There should be constant monitoring and evaluation of the services offered by the institutions by the authorities to ensure that the services delivered are appropriate and of the required quality. The settings should have constant funding to ensure that they deliver quality services and give specialized care to children with specialized needs. The family has a major role to play when it comes to identification of children requiring special attention. Early intervention involves the provision for children during the first stages of their lives and their families which includes pedagogic, psychological and medical aspects as stipulated by Dunst, Trivette and Deal (2003). Family involvement has an impact on policies made concerning the welfare of the children with specialized needs. In the local programmes parental involvement is emphasized and some institutions provide parental support and facilitate access for development and training. The services provided by childhood settings are made after extensive consultations with the parents. Reports show that the involvement has had modest impacts on the parents either positive or negative. The fact is that parents have an important role in the development of children with special needs. The Childcare Act 2006 stipulates that the parents should be involved in development, planning, delivery and evaluation of specialized education service at the local level. The identification of children who require special attention has been observed to have academic benefits, positive change in behaviour and attitude of the affected members as stated by Buysse and Wesley (2005). The first few years in a child’s life are highly sensitive in the development since a foundation is laid in all sectors including cognitive functioning, physical health, self-regulatory and social capacities. It has been notice that such interventions yield better results when offered by trained childhood educators and when the ratio of child to staff is smaller. Guralnick (2001) commented that identification of children with specialized needs helps the children develop intellectually, socially and emotional. This is because each child is given specialized care in accordance to their needs. This forms a strong foundation for the children as they pursue any higher learning with ease and such programs have long term benefits as explained Ashman and Elkins (2009). In the long run the economic benefits are realised since the children who go through specialized training eventually contribute to the labour force. The families of participating children also benefit in cases where the intervention specifically targets them. According to recent reports children with additional needs have been expelled from school at some point in their studies. The trend is seen to be improving in the past few years alluding to the perception that specialized care does not fully benefit the student. This shows that specialized care is not perfect and there needs to be major reforms in the sector. The children with additional needs may not get the required attention as education settings are designed to meet the needs of as a group and not on an individual basis. Grisham- Brown, Hemmeter and Pretti- Frontczak (2005) argued that when kids get specialized attention in educational settings they spend so much time away from home and do not have enough time to bond with their parents. The children spend an average of eight hours daily in the educational settings and when they get home they take dinner, take a bath and retire to bed. The advantages and disadvantages of identification of children with specialized needs are clear but the ultimate decision whether to get specialized education lies with the parents. The early childhood educators have a mandatory duty in the life of an individual since their lessons determine the behaviour, learning, mental and physical health of children with additional needs. They should focus on the cognitive, social and cognitive children of children with specialized needs since these capacities are intertwined throughout the life of an individual as explained by Zirpoli (2008). It has been noted that early intervention yields better results and the educators should identify such children sooner than later and start facilitating of the care. Research late intervention is ineffective in some cases and less successful. The children who have suffered traumatic experiences should receive specialized counselling to avoid the consequences by targeting the cause of the trauma according to Hooper and Umansky (2009). The principles of neuroscience show that providing support for early childhood development is effective and affordable and early identification and care impacts on the child positively. Children with additional needs require specialized treatment from the childhood educators and early identification makes learning effective and has positive effects on the life of the children. The educators should have the right training and they should be equipped with skills to identify such children early enough and facilitate the appropriate care. The institutions have the responsibility of ensuring that the services offered are quality through proper staff recruitment, inspection and quality assurance. The role of family is very important when it comes to identification and development of such children. Early identification has negative and positive effects though the positive impacts benefit the child and the community at large. Changes should be effected for the programs to be more effective through more recruitment in the sector, increased government funding and implementation of quality control by the institutions. Early identification has long term positive effects on the life of children and educators should intervene and start facilitating specialized care. References Ashman, A. F., & Elkins, J. (2009). Education for inclusion and diversity. (3rd ed.). (pp. 57-89) .Frenchs Forest, N. S. W.: Pearson Education Australia. Buysse, V. & Wesley, P. W. (2005). Consultation in early childhood setting. (pp. 118-50). Paul H. Brookies. Dunst, C. J., Trivette, C. M. & Deal, A. G. (2003). Enabling and empowering families: Principles and guidelines for practice. (pp. 174-84). Newton, Mass: Brookline books. Grisham- Brown, J., Hemmeter, M. L. & Pretti-Frontczak, K. (2005). Blended practices for teaching young children in inclusive settings. (pp. 229-43). MD: Paul H. Brookes. Guralnick, M. (2001). Early child hood inclusion: Focus on change. (pp. 147-88). MD: Paul H. Brookes. Baltimore. Hooper, S. R. & Umansky, W. (2009). Young children with special needs. (5th ed.) . (pp. 233-67). Meril/ Pearson. Loreman, T., Deppeler, J. & Harvey, D. (2005). Inclusive education: A practical guide to supporting diversity the classroom. (pp. 20-38). Allen & Unwin. Sydney. Salter, G., Johnston, C., & Lunn, H. (2005). Does this child need help? Early Childhood intervention and identification trainers guide. (pp. 20-35). ECIA. Sydney. Sandall, S., Schwartz, I. & Joseph, G. (2001). A building blocks model for effective instruction in inclusive early childhood settings. Young exceptional children. (4th ed.) MD: Paul H. Brookes. Zirpoli, T. J. (2008). Behaviour management: Applications for teachers. (5th ed.) (pp. 156- 89). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Merrill Prentice. 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