Creating Inclusive Early Years Classrooms
The early years are a crucial period in a child’s developmental journey – socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. Just like all of us, young children grow and thrive in environments that are safe, supportive, stimulating, and that meet their individual needs
This is even more important when we consider children who are neurodivergent, have additional needs, and / or disabilities. These children may need specific supports to ensure that they feel included and are able to access the same opportunities as their peers.
How can we make our early years classrooms more inclusive?
The challenge for us as practitioners, then, is: how can we make our environments inclusive for all, regardless of need? The answer lies in adopting a positive, proactive approach that reduces the likelihood of dysregulation, minimises risk, and is rooted in robust, evidence-based practice.
Here are 7 suggestions to use in your settings to create an inclusive approach in early years classrooms:
1: Creating defined spaces
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to creating the ‘right’ environment, as every child is different. Children’s preferences are diverse and ever-changing, so we need to bear this in mind when setting up our learning spaces.
However, even in environments where we are delivering ‘free flow’ learning opportunities, such as continuous provision, all children can benefit from having defined areas for different activities. This can reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, especially during transition from one activity to another.
Strategically placed furniture and items such as mats, cushions and dens can help to demarcate areas, and support children in understanding what each space is to be used for.
2: Managing toys and resources
It can be tempting to only provide toys and resources that might be considered ‘appropriate’ for a given age or year group. However, if we want to increase inclusion, we need to think more broadly about our children’s unique needs, and match our resources accordingly.
We can consider the diverse skills and abilities of the youngsters in our classrooms, and, through modelling and repetition, teach them how to interact with different toys, resources and activities.
Variety and rotation are important too, but we need to manage this in a way that avoids overwhelming our children. By providing resources for different aspects of development – imaginative play, construction, gross and fine motor skills, for example – we can support them to develop a range of skills and knowledge.
Sensory toys and activities that provide sensory feedback can be another way to support inclusion, and ensure that we meet the needs of every child. Involving youngsters in selection of toys can also increase engagement and provide them with a sense of ownership.
Whichever toys and resources we use, we need to strike a balance between keeping spaces clear and clutter-free, while enabling easy access and free choice. Both too much or too little choice can lead to behaviour that requires support.
Perhaps we can consider gradual exposure, where we start with a smaller number of resources and increase this over time. Or maybe we deliberately place things slightly out of reach to encourage communication skills, if that feels appropriate. The important thing is to use our professional judgement, and show flexibility in our approach.
3: Using reflective questions to adapt the environment
A supportive environment extends beyond just the physical set-up of a classroom. It also involves considering how we recognise and respond to children’s needs.
For example:
- Are we providing break out spaces, and how are these used?
- Does the effort to access such spaces outweigh the effort of engaging in behaviour that needs support?
- Are we providing safe and easy ways to ‘escape’ if a child feels overwhelmed?
- How do we plan and prepare children for change in a strategic way?
- How are we meeting children’s sensory needs, e.g. by adjusting lighting or noise levels?
- Are we factoring in proactive environment changes such as movement breaks to help with emotional regulation?
- By using and applying professional curiosity, we can ensure we are always showing flexibility by enacting permanent and optional changes.
4: Prioritising structure and predictability
Regular daily routines and systems can help to foster a sense of safety and security for young children. Some may struggle more than others with changes to routines, so by keeping things as predictable as possible, we increase the chances of engagement and inclusion.
Routines should be well planned, with few extraneous transitions. Consistent timings around key points of the day are recommended, and where possible, staff should remain the same so that strong relationships can be forged.
It’s worth noting that establishing structured routines is not at odds with fostering a predominantly child-led approach; both can exist in the same space, through clear, considered management and leadership.
5: Using visual prompts and reminders
Many children, whether they have additional needs or not, can benefit from visual prompts and reminders around the classroom, to help them embed expectations, and anticipate what is happening next.
Timers, ‘now and next’ boards, and visual timetables can all support those who may be non- or pre-verbal, have expressive or receptive communication needs, or who enjoy the security that order and predictability bring. These types of resources can increase engagement for all, and can help reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.
6: Changing how instructional content is presented
Of course, it’s not just environmental factors that can impact inclusion. We also need to think about the executive functioning capacity of our young students, making sure that the tasks and activities we provide for them are structured and presented in a way that enables them to engage and be successful.
Executive function is a set of cognitive processes and mental skills that enable us to plan, monitor and reach goals. While there are many components to executive functioning, the ‘Big Four’ where young children are concerned are working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and sustained attention.
Even taking part in seemingly undemanding activities such as Circle Time, requires that children be equipped with a specific set of cognitive tools and strategies:
- Remembering where to sit and when to clap (working memory)
- Turn-taking and putting their hand up (inhibitory control)
- Adjusting to change in routine and tolerating not being picked (cognitive flexibility)
- Listening to stories and attending to relevant information (sustained attention)
By recognising that all of our children have different executive function capacity, we can adjust our activities and expectations, and alleviate the mental load to maximise inclusion.
7: Using reinforcement to promote inclusion
For a reinforcement strategy to be successful, it has to result in a change in behaviour; one that lasts and becomes securely embedded. For that reason, many extrinsic reward systems, such as behaviour charts, do not yield enduring results. They may ‘fix’ things in the short term, and provide an attractive incentive, but we need to be thinking of ways to influence behaviour in the longer term.
Positive reinforcement means recognising and ‘rewarding’ behaviours we want to see more of. There can still be a place for stickers and tokens, if this is wanted, but we need to devise ways to develop intrinsic motivation, rather than relying on extrinsic means.
‘Flipping the switch’ on feedback can be an effective strategy, where rather than focusing on the behaviours we don’t want to see, we instead shift our attention onto those we do want. By offering genuine praise and being specific with our comments (“Great job of tidying up all the cars when I asked you to, Micha! You’re being so helpful. Thank you!”), we can reinforce our expectations, and increase the chances of a child repeating that behaviour.
This practice can take some time to embed, but once it becomes our daily habit, we soon reap the benefits.
Inclusion as the key to success for young children
While there is no doubt that we, as educators and carers in the early years sector, face unprecedented challenges surrounding resourcing and funding, one thing we all share is a desire to provide the best start in life for each and every child.
By taking intentional action to create inclusive environments, where children are given the supports they need and deserve, we can ensure that every child has a voice and feels valued for who they are.
