Inclusion
All children have the same essential needs to support their growth and development. These include being loved and nurtured, being safe and secure, and having opportunities for learning through play. Play for young children is active, it involves learning through their senses and can be supported and enhanced where adults and peers play too.
Play is fundamental in helping children to learn about themselves, relate to others and the world, and for young children can take place in many different environments including home, playgroup, nursery and school.
Play is every child's entitlement but sometimes children with special needs may lose out. It can be that the special need becomes the over-riding concern so that opportunities to learn through play are restricted. In fact play can be even more meaningful in helping children with special needs to learn in a fun and purposeful way, but there are issues to consider of how best to achieve this.
The importance of play and leisure activities and the benefits that are gained cannot be over emphasized and yet for many disabled children these opportunities do not exist. Inclusion means including EVERYBODY! Inclusion means that each child is given the opportunities to develop their skills, interests and abilities. Inclusion means that children are supported in reaching their full potential.
