 I love that story and, you know, I think it's those kind of stories that I hope you'll spend the time sharing today because they're what inspire us, they're what give us the fuel to go back, you know, to keep the fire burning and to be able to hear from a three-year-old, you know, what does it mean? What kind of person is she? And you know, a focus on her strength, she's a leader too. I'm going to tell you a couple of stories now about children who showed that same kind of leadership as that little three-year-old and, you know, if we could fast forward and, you know, look to see where will she be, you know, 10 years, 20 years from now, you can bet that same spirit she's showing at her preschool will be shining bright wherever that, you know, wherever she finds herself then. So before the break, we talked about the principles and you've now shared a few of the challenges that you face. Those are the value statements, right? Kind of those overarching beliefs that this is what inclusion means. And then if we believe in those things, then what does it look like on the floor? You know, tomorrow when you go back to work, what does it look like in your day-to-day work with children and families? And in the research that Special Link has done, they've identified 11 practices that can be self-assessed or evaluated. And again, those are provided in huge detail in this book, the inclusion rating scale, which is kind of like an early childhood environment rating scale on seven points. And you sort of see where you're at and set some goals for moving things along. So the practices, oops, where'd they go? There they are. There's 11 of them in total. Again, we could spend a whole day just learning about each of these. But I want to focus on two in particular this morning. And that is individual program plans and involvement of typical children. Last night over dinner, we had a little conversation about what's the transition to school experience like. And that's a whole other conversation that we won't have time for this morning. We could also be spending time talking about the physical environment or about what kinds of toys are in place or what role parents have. But just for now, let's talk about two of them. The individual program plan and the involvement of typically developing kids. And I think they're really linked strongly to the values and the principles. There's been a lot of research done by people who are researchers. I'm not. I'm more of an educator or a trainer. But Dr. Don Aliro at the University of Guelph recently completed a study that looked at how do those practices and principles hang together? And is there empirical evidence that we're actually measuring what we say we are and is this really what inclusion is? So I'll refer you to the Special Link website for those of you that are researchers. If you'd like to look at those in more detail on the report is up there. But for now talking about two in particular. Let me take, show you first this individualized program plan cycle. This is from a book by Ingrid Crowther who's an Albertan and someone who's written a book about inclusion in Canadian early childhood classrooms that I refer you to. And she talks about how do we do individualized program planning. So, you know, is it about pulling children out? Is there more to it than that? And she talks about we begin at the bottom of the arrow by observing. We get to know the children we work with. We watch what they like, what they don't like. Which children are they interested in and how can we kind of build on the things that they are already interested in to help them move along, you know, to reach goals. Then we begin planning. We plan based on our observations. So we don't just pull something out of a book and say, this would work for this child. No, in fact, we spend the time first observing and then we individualized that plan for that particular child. So again, the example about the one, the little one who needed some physical exercises to be done. They had a recipe from the therapist about which exercises they needed to do. They observed that this child cried and screamed every time they tried to do those exercises. They observed that the child was very interested in coming to circle and very interested in his peers and then they planned accordingly. So that's that kind of purposeful planning that we want to do as early learning practitioners. Once we've got a plan, then we implement that plan. If we go back to the top of the arrow, we begin to carry it out. We see, well, does this work or is it not working so well? What changes might we have to make to it? We reflect and we evaluate. We might tweak the plan a little bit. We might say, oh, well, if we do the exercises at the beginning of circle, everybody participates if we do it at the end. Lots of kids have left by then and then this little one doesn't want to do it either. So we plan, we change, we evaluate. And then finally, we adjust and we adapt and we make whatever changes we need to do. So just because the plan's working this week doesn't mean next month the same plan's going to work. Right? That's sort of, I think, something, the golden rule of childcare is being flexible when we're working with little people in early learning programs. We flex accordingly. So I love this as a model for what we do in our individualized planning. So the individual program plan cycle is something that's an ongoing commitment and our day-to-day work. And then if we take a look at involvement of typical children, if we were doing this rating scale, when I'm teaching my students, I'll often say to them, if you don't use anything else from the rating scale, use this one, involvement of typical children, and pay attention to what's going on between the kids. When you ask parents of children with special needs, how do you know inclusion is working, parents will often say, it's when my child gets invited to birthday parties. It's when my child gets invited for sleepovers. That's when I know inclusion is working. So it's not even what goes on in your setting, but extracurricular. What happens there? So what is the relationship like between kids with special needs and children who are typically developing? Are there real friendships there that are going on? And if you could just put that back up one more time, you'll see. And these are things that you can be paying attention to tomorrow when you're back in your programs. Is there a connection? Are children being included in social play? And in fact, this afternoon's workshop is all about social play because I think it's at the heart of what goes on in an inclusive preschool. And are staff being systematic about what they're doing with children to build bridges? Because it doesn't always happen naturally. You've got to be purposeful about it. And is cooperation really being modeled and stressed? And staff will often say to me, well, yes, of course, we don't do competition here. And then I'll say, have you ever said who can be first to wash their hands? Oh, because, of course, a child who is a little slower physically using a walker, a child who's not as good at listening and attending to directions. I mean, there might be other reasons why a child's not first to wash their hands. So we have to be cautious about that as well. To me, this is really the barometer of whether inclusion is working, is what's the social relationship all about. So here's Sean again. Sean in the dramatic play area, making soup with his friends. And we know where that led him to and the successes that he's had since. But I want to tell you that inclusion really does make a major impact on children who are typically developing as well. This picture is actually my youngest son Seth's preschool. Let me see if I can see him there. It's too far away. He circled in yellow, isn't he? Yeah, he's in my son. Does this work? There he is. That's my boy, Seth. He's 22 right now. And this is a little boy named David who attended his preschool with him. So let me tell you a story about Seth and David. They started daycare at about the same time. And when I first started going there with Seth, I would see David at that time. He had some pretty significant physical challenges. And he would come to daycare on a little scooter board. And he lay on his belly and he moved his little hands. And he'd sort of scoot in and out amongst all the grown-ups at the cubby area hanging up our kids' jackets. And I would think, oh my goodness, someone's going to step on that child. And slowly, slowly over the next few years, David made a lot of progress. He had some surgeries done on his legs. First, he used a walker. He used some canes. Oh, and by the way, the little scooter board. The other children were so interested in the scooter board that the staff were smart enough to order about 10 more for the gross motor area. And much to the chagrin of all the preschoolers, David was the fastest of everybody. So he was like a little speed demon on there. But slowly over the next few years, the children grew together and Seth would tell me every now and then what David was up to. And I would see today he's using a wheelchair. And a few months later, he was using his walker. One day in kindergarten, I came in to pick up Seth after school at his center. And he came running towards me and leaped into my arms. Mommy, mommy, guess what, guess what? David walked today all by himself. Seth was as excited about David walking as if it would have been him learning to ride his bike without his training wheels or his first tooth fellow. I mean, the celebration that was going on in that preschool that day, the hugging and kissing that was going on between David's mom and the rest of us, the celebration and the joy had such an impact on all of us. And I look at my kid and I think, you know, I have three sons. They're all good boys. But Seth is the one who benefited from having attended an inclusive preschool. And he's taken that with him all the years since. So here's another picture. This is my son, Seth, at his grade 12 graduation. And when he came home at the beginning of grade 12, he said, mom, guess who's president of Grant Park High School, the biggest high school in the city of Winnipeg. And I looked at him for a minute and I thought, no, I know it's not you. I just knew he wouldn't have run for student office. But he said to me, mom, Ed, Ed is president. And I knew who he meant right away because Ed had been attending middle school and high school with my son. There's this picture there. Here's a boy who had gone not to my son's preschool, a different preschool, had gone through inclusion over the years, came to high school and ran for president and won. And I thought to myself, how remarkable. You know, actually at the beginning, I had a little bit of a moment where I thought, was that a joke? Like I thought maybe the kids were just doing something mean. And my son was so offended that I would even think that, mom, you know, he had the best platform. It was about no bullying and not smoking in front of the high school. He has to like wade through clouds of smoke to get into the front of the door, you know. I had a recycling program and I'm thinking to myself, what's different here? These are children who have grown up since preschool years experiencing inclusion. And come high school, why wouldn't Ed run for office? And why wouldn't the other kids vote for him? That's what happens when inclusion works. Okay, here's Danny. Danny, as you can see, is a young man with Down syndrome. His mom got in touch with me after hearing me speak at an event in Winnipeg. She's a professor at the University of Manitoba. She wanted to tell me about her boy. He had been to inclusive preschool, to an inclusive Montessori program. Initially, his elementary school wasn't too sure whether he could come, but mom had taken him to the daycare so the school could see him working there and succeeding there. He went through inclusive education. In that picture, he's getting the Duke of Edinburgh Award from the Prince Edward himself for a trip that he and two other boys took to Churchill to see the polar bears there. He's an active community volunteer. Here's a few more pictures of him. Here's his first part-time job at Safeway. So Safeway is one of the employers that's got a commitment to hiring persons with disabilities as part of their workforce. And he worked part-time at Safeway through his high school experience. Then he's now at the University of Manitoba and he's working part-time as a childcare assistant at a childcare center close to the university. And it's a rule now in Manitoba that to work in childcare, even as an assistant, you need to take at least one 40-hour course in early childhood education. So there's no more people working in childcare who are completely untrained, at least one course, right? So Danny had to take that course too. So he went to Red River College and he was accommodated in the sense that he had someone help him, someone read him the tests orally, and he answered orally, but other than that, he completed the curriculum for the program. He ended up with a B-plus in his course and he got a job working at the daycare. So can we just see that picture again? He's very proud. The arrow was pointing to his name badge, which says Danny, childcare assistant. What were some of the challenges of his new job working in a childcare program? The staff at the center had to say, oh, so we're gonna have someone with a disability as part of our team. What's that gonna be like? But they accepted it. Danny himself wasn't too sure what it meant to work at a childcare program. He'd been to one himself, but that was back in the day. His first day of work, he arrived wearing a suit and tie because that's what teachers do. And so they told him, no, it's really okay for you to wear jeans and a hoodie. He was also had a lot of coaching around, it's important that you tell us where you're going. So this whole idea about working as part of a team. But he was really embarrassed to tell the girl teachers that he had to go to the bathroom. So a couple of times he sort of would deke out and they'd have to remind him, Danny, before you leave the room, please let us know where you're going. He is counted into ratio. You know, he works with the school age children. Here's a picture of him with those kids. So he's supervising free flow snack at the end of the day. What do you think the message is for these school ages when one of their teachers is a person with Down syndrome? So not only are they benefiting from preschoolers attending the program with various additional needs, but one of the staff as well. Just think it's a remarkable story. And again, the next generation of inclusion that we're seeing. So back to these inclusion practices. And you know, where are the places where we are challenged through involvement of typical children? Where are the places that we're challenged when we try to individualize, when we try to accommodate and modify? And I want to remind you about what that British study pointed out, that you need to identify, understand, and then work to correct those barriers. So it's not always easy. In fact, most of the time, it's hard. But by putting your heads together, you know, by strategizing, how will we make this work? How will we get through those challenges? I just know that you will. And so we're not gonna stop for full discussion of those practices now just because, of course, I've got way too much content. We want to try to get you out of here for lunch at the right time.