Including One, Including All: A Guide to Relationship-Based Early Childhood Inclusion

The authors are teachers at The Little School in San Francisco. The book targets preschool teachers and advocates methods of including all children in the school. They show how to determine strenths and challenges and build relationships with the children and families through their Engage-Reflect-Plan cycle. Includes a comprehensie Contents page, three Appendices and References.

INCLUDING ONE, INCLUDING ALL; A GUIDE TO RELATIONSHIP-BASED EARLY CHILDHOOD INCLUSION tells educators how to build strong relationships with families and kids, creating an inclusive learning environment. A review of the idea of inclusion and description of a method that strengthens it is basic to chapters packed with notes, sidebars of supporting detail, and case history examples.

In one of the most promising books on early childhood inclu- sion to appear in a long time, the authors present a new way of thinking about and approaching inclusive education. Books about inclusion frequently describe teaching approaches that only an intervention specialist can implement. This approach, developed in a mainstream preschool classroom by a teacher who studied the basics of quality early childhood education, consists of strategies that will enrich a teachers’ everyday interactions with all children and families. It is based on the idea that meeting the needs of children with autism or Down syndrome, for example, involves first understanding who they are as individuals. The authors describe how to engage with children to dis- cover and nurture the internal resources each child brings to relationships with teachers and peers. The process helps teachers see unique ways to foster connections between chil- dren and to create a community of inclusion in the classroom and among teachers as an alternative to the psychological separation that frequently occurs between children. Photo sequences and descriptions of teachers using inclusive strate- gies bring to life the philosophy and steps of this approach. They include, for example, techniques for developing a child’s sensory integration profile and for understanding a child’s unique approach to self-regulation and the ways a child can calm herself when overstimulated.

Including One, Including All: A Guide to Relationship-Based Early Childhood Inclusion is a fine pick for any early childhood library. It teaches how to create a program that supports kids with various behavioral and learning challenges, offering a review of inclusion, a description of the Engage-Reflect-Plan cycle, stories and tools to support kids, and more. It's a survey preschool teachers will need.

Lead author Roffman is cofounder and director of The Little School, a relationship-based inclusive preschool in operation since the mid-1980s. Here, she shares ideas and inspiration for developing an early childhood program that supports all students, including those with behavioral, physical, and learning challenges. Classroom scenarios, illustrated with b&w photos of innovative equipment, toys, and activities in action at The Little School, demonstrate ideas for creating safe spaces to allow children to work out their aggression in play, and props for helping children sit still for longer periods of time. The book is for child care providers and preschool and elementary teachers and aides. Roffman holds a degree in early childhood education. (Annotation 2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

This is a wonderful book - for teachers and for parents of special needs children. It will help all of them understand the child they are working with, and help them to work together to help that child.

This practical and engaging book chronicles the reflections and actions of teachers within a preschool setting whose primary emphasis is establishing strong relationships. It records the process of the teachers in responding to and meeting the needs of a few children with special sensitivities while establishing an environment that nurtures all the children in the classroom. By following the challenges of relating to the children and their parents, of helping children to relate positively to each other, and of being sensitive to the needs of staff - it emphasizes the impact of relationships in enabling all children to thrive and learn. This is a compelling narrative of working with a few children with special sensitivities and needs within an ordinary preschool class and the challenge of forming relationshiops that enable positive growth for all children. That is detailed is the care in getting to know a child and his family, the search by teachers for the "fit" with a child, and the process of finding ways to facilitate a child in acquiring a sense of himself and his relation to others. The very personal way in which it is written makes the book both engaging and provoking. Because all the children are unique with individual needs and abilities, the insights shared by the authors are applicable to working with all children.