ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in this book. The aim of the book is to make clear the rationale for inclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in mainstream provisions, while providing current and future practitioners in early years settings with a range of practical tools and strategies that can be adapted to enable them to include children with disabilities successfully. The nature of the inclusion debate has changed over the last thirty-five years, and the term 'inclusion' is itself contentious, having moved from meaning 'the inclusion of SEND children in mainstream provisions', to a broadening understanding of who should be included. Latterly, in what might be argued is the biggest circumvention of the issue, there has been debate around where inclusion might take place, meaning within any school community, including special schools, resulting in the oddly contradictory position that a child can be segregated whilst at the same time being included.
