What’s up with Social Inclusion?
When you hold your first baby in your arms life as you know it changes. There is now someone who will always be in your mind & never leave your thoughts. Our kids are our kids no matter what, they are our joy, pride & pain. As the first years started to pass, I realised the developmental delays our son was facing were going to be more than just a sprinkle of quirkiness. We made a decision. We didn't want to live a restricted life & didn’t want that for our son. As his Mum I have a big responsibility. I need to equip him & those in his life with the tools so he can be appropriately supported in the least restrictive environment. What we want for him is the same thing I want for myself. A place to belong. A community we care for & that cares for us. One that embraces diversity & that challenges us.
Making a decision for the social inclusion of your child is a brave one in a society where in reccent years we’ve been told segregation is more benefical. I felt this was the right thing for us, because we had the right support. We attended an Early Childhood Education Care Setting that wanted our son, that cared about inclusion as much as our family did. So how do you find these places if you’re not feeling the love where you already are? I’m of firm belief that it’s about finding the right nest for your child. Having conversations and knowing what to ask for is sometimes the most difficult step. Saying you’re looking for a place with a positive culture around inclusion and experience with behaviour is a good place to start. Asking about how your child’s learning will be reviewed is another worthwhile conversation.
When I examined my own values, the importance of delivering services that enabled children & families to be included in society was more important than anything I’d been involved in before. So what do I mean by that? Naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions fuse an in depth knowledge of typical child development with the science of learning. These practices are effective when used with ALL children. It is a move away from special services for special people, to working in group environments, building the capacity of our mainstream communities. Wanting to support children in the least restrictive way first. For this to be effective, young children need rapid intense teaching of skills that support social & emotional development that can be practiced in group environments. Using models & systems with continual assessment & review processes, ensures quality of individual services. This is a big shift in how our child education, care & disability services have been traditionally delivered.

So what brought me to the decision of wanting social inclusion for my son? Due to my working experience as an OT, having witnessed families fight for the inclusion of their child I already knew the benefits. Social inculsion will ultimately reduce the vulnerability of people with disability. The more present children with differences are in our community the more they will be accepted and embraced in our culture. The more aware society becomes that children have intellectual & behavioural differences and that they are not something to fear. The less people will show pitty & the more willing communities become to embrace change & deliver appropriate supports that enable mainstream community participation. This means parents can maintain relationships & friendships, continue working, have a life not governed by attending appointments in free time. Children have positive experiences with their peers and the skills of educators working with our children on a daily basis are enriched, which benefits a whole classroom!
I’d been putting off conversations about schooling for Iggy because I was scared. Scared he wasn’t ready yet, scared he wouldn’t cope, scared my dream of an inclusive school opportunity maybe wouldn’t be a reality considering his needs. Yet again he’s taught me something! Holding him back isn’t going to help him. I know he needs more intervention, exposure to rich language environments at a critical age of brain development. An inclusive school education that is willing to work in partnership with our family will provide that, 6 hours a day 5 days a week. Finding what the right supports are for Iggy in a new setting is going to be key to this being a success. It’s going to mean transition, training, assessment and review, again & again. It’s going to need National Disability Insurance Scheme funding that’s flexible, responsive and collaborative with department of education & early childhood sector to be supportive of inclusion. It’s going to fail if parents are made to jump through more hoops than necessary or departments try to buck pass. Choosing inclusion is the hard choice. The NDIS tell us they want less reliance on specialist supports long term, I hope they start funding young children appropriately to enable more families to do this. The fantastic attitude, inclusive culture and behavioural experience evident at my first meeting with our local school has helped me get to this point. When the principal said to me “it’s not a child’s job to be ready for school, but the school’s job to be ready for the child” I was floored, maybe times really are changing. We’ve got another chat there with Iggy this week, I’m deep breathing already.. Wish us luck!!