Inclusion … Yours, Mine, Ours

Children with special needs and their families need education and services that will help them succeed. These special groups of children come from many different income levels as well as various racial and ethnic groups; they may have exceptional abilities or disabilities. The early childhood professional will be challenged to provide for all students an education that is appropriate to their physical, intellectual, social, and emotional abilities.

The Alimacani Elementary School is a National Model Blue Ribbon school located in Jacksonville, Florida. The teachers of children with special needs at Alimacani decided to try inclusion. The first year, eighteen children with a variety of special needs were included in three kindergarten classrooms.

• Go to the website below to learn more about inclusion. Visit two of the inclusive programs linked to on the site.
• Download at least three of the forms located on the site related to inclusion that you think will be helpful in your career.
• Print the forms and add them to your Professional Development Notebook.

Circle of Inclusion
http://www.circleofinclusion.org/index.html

The University Primary School is located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The purpose of the school is to provide a site for the individuals in the College of Education of the University of Illinois to demonstrate, observe, study, and teach best practices in early childhood and gifted education.

• Locate the article listed below. Read the article to learn more about giftedness in young children.
• Print the article and add it to your professional development file.

Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e595.html

Learn more about the University Primary School by visiting its website.

• View the classroom photographs to learn about the specific activities offered at the school.
• Review the Program Brochure, Curriculum Overview, and the Application Processes and Procedures found in the "Admissions Info" link.

University Primary School Home Page
http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/ups/