Disability Inclusive Education
Disability Inclusive Pre-Primary Education Landscape Review
This landscape review provides USAID and its partners with a better understanding of how disability inclusive pre-primary education (PPE) manifests across a range of contexts, including in contexts of crisis and conflict. The research team examined five questions related to an area of PPE:
- How is PPE for children with disabilities being defined, both within USAID and globally?
- What types of assessments (e.g., assessments to identify learners with potential disabilities, assessments of development milestones, learning assessments, etc.) exist at the pre-primary level for learners with disabilities, if any?
- What training model(s) worked best to provide teachers with the resources and support they need to best meet the needs of pre-primary learners with disabilities? What models did not work or did not follow international standards, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) or international disability communities?
- What instructional models worked best to improve classroom instruction and pre-literacy outcomes among pre-primary learners with disabilities?
- What challenges or barriers exist that keep pre-primary learners with disabilities from accessing PPE and/or that keep PPE models from being fully inclusive?
The review included an extensive literature review of 129 documents from both academic and grey literature and two surveys developed to capture gaps in the existing literature and current practice in the field from the perspectives of donors, practitioners, and advocates.
The authors recommend that implementers take several steps to improve their programming in the areas of screening, teacher training, and instructional strategies, including:
- Perform referral mapping before implementing screening.
- Train teachers on environmental accommodations they can implement for children with possible disabilities.
- Ensure that all pre-primary teachers receive pre-service and in-service training on Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
- Ensure early intervention for learners who are blind, deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have intellectual or developmental disability.