Hello, early years educators!

As a fellow educator, I have spent years supporting children with disabilities in early intervention, and promoting inclusion for these children in their community preschools is one of my passions.

While offering training and advice to early years educators, I noticed that teachers were quick to adapt activities and implement strategies to support learning for children with disabilities during one-on-one interactions. However, when it came to circle time, many educators struggled to continue implementing the same strategies when teaching the whole group.

I understand that leading a whole class during circle time can be challenging, especially when trying to engage all children with different learning styles and at varying development levels. This often left children with more significant educational needs unable to participate actively in the group.

In 2017, I collaborated with a small group of enthusiastic preschool teachers to address this issue to find ways to include children with disabilities during circle time. I observed the children, identified barriers, and developed simple strategies that could be easily implemented during this busy time.

When I met with the group of teachers again to share our findings and discuss overcoming these barriers, they welcomed the new ideas. They immediately reported the benefits for the children and how confident they were in planning a more inclusive circle time.

I even had the opportunity to present our strategies at the World Down Syndrome Congress in 2018, and I want to share this information with all early years educators through "It's Circle Time! How to make circle time inclusive to all children."

With these simple strategies, we can create more inclusive classrooms for children with developmental delay, language delay, Down syndrome, or autism during Circle Time.

Let's work together to ensure all children feel included and valued in our classrooms.

I am excited to announce that this workshop is now free to watch because I want to spread the word and help all early years educators feel confident in supporting children with additional needs in their early years.