“Inclusion in the Early Childhood Classroom avoids a deficit paradigm and uses narrative case studies to show how early childhood contexts can be designed so that diversity is an expected, naturally occurring element.”

—Susan M. Benner, Director of Graduate School of Education, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, University of Tennessee

“By including real-world classroom stories of children with various special needs, along with examples of some effective and some not-so-effective teacher responses, the authors help readers understand how different child abilities affect membership in the preschool classroom.”

—Doris Bergen, Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology, Miami University

In this engaging book, the authors share stories from their practice and research about several young children with a variety of developmental delays and disabilities and their teachers. They explore the ways that teachers and children respond in real classrooms to real challenges, examining both those opportunities that are capitalized on as well as those that are missed. The book addresses a wide array of issues that contribute to our understanding of “what makes a difference” in the inclusive early childhood classroom: the role of development, ways of honoring different learning styles, building a sense of classroom community, addressing power dynamics, and responding to conflict with both teachers and peers. This practical resource introduces a framework that will inspire early childhood teachers to reflect on their own practices and take action to develop new strategies for teaching in inclusive classrooms.

Book Features:

• Examples of many types of classroom settings that include children with special needs.


• A list of alternative strategies in response to real classroom situations.


• Reflection questions that encourage teachers to think about ways to implement approaches suggested by the authors.

Susan L. Recchia is an associate professor and coordinator of the Program in Early Childhood Special Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Yoon-Joo Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Childhood, Bilingual, and Special Education in the School of Education at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.