Inclusive practice in early years: a practical guide for multilingual settings

Inclusive practice in early years means organising the room, the routines, the way adults talk and the relationship with families so that every child can take part, belong and make progress. It is not a separate programme for children with an identified need. You promote it by removing barriers before a child meets them, adapting how adults communicate, valuing home languages, watching closely for who is and is not joining in, and challenging habits that quietly leave children out.

This guide is written for international nurseries and foundation-stage classes, where one group might include a dozen home languages, staff trained in several countries and families with very different expectations.

What is inclusive practice in early years?

A useful starting point is the joint position statement on early childhood inclusion from two professional associations, the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It describes inclusion as the values, policies and practices that support every young child and family, regardless of ability, to take part in a broad range of activities as full members of their communities. It names three defining features (see the DEC/NAEYC joint position statement, hosted by the University of North Carolina’s FPG Child Development Institute):

• Access: a wide range of activities and spaces every child can reach, physically and cognitively, with more than one way into each experience.
• Participation: adults use a range of approaches so that each child is actually engaged in play and belongs to the group, not simply present in the room.
• Supports: the things around the practitioner that make inclusion possible, such as training, time to plan together and regular communication with families and specialists.

Penn State Extension’s Better Kid Care programme turns the same three ideas into practical classroom actions, such as offering activities through words, pictures and touch.

Inclusion is also broader than special educational needs. It covers children new to the language of the setting, children from every cultural background, children whose families have just moved country, and children who find a busy room hard work. Treating every child identically is not the same as treating them fairly.

What good early years practice rests on

Curricula differ, but whether your setting follows a British, American, IB or Indian model, effective practice tends to rest on similar principles:

• Relationships come first. A secure relationship with a familiar adult gives a child a base from which to explore and to cope when things go wrong.
• Play is the main vehicle for learning, planned for, joined and extended by adults.
• Planning starts from observation of what children actually do and say.
• Families are partners. Parents know the child’s history and languages; practitioners know how the child behaves in a group.
• Practitioners reflect on what worked, for whom, and why.

Inclusive practice is what these principles look like when you apply them to every child, not just the typical child the room was set up for.

How to promote inclusive practice in early years: seven strategies

1. Audit the room at child height

Kneel down and look at the room as the children see it. Can every child reach the resources they need without help? Is there a calm corner for a child who is overwhelmed? Do the books, dolls, play food and photographs reflect the families in this group? In an international setting, that might mean labelling key areas in the home languages represented and making sure the home corner has cooking utensils children know from home.

2. Make routines predictable and visible

Transitions are where many children struggle. A visual timetable using photographs of your own room, a “now and next” board, the same tidy-up song every day and a two-minute warning before a change help children who find change difficult, children who do not yet understand the spoken language of the room, and children who are simply tired. Adaptations made for one child often help the whole group.

3. Adjust how adults talk

Short sentences, repeated key words, simple signs, objects held up as you name them, and generous waiting time all widen access to language. Commenting on what a child is doing (“You’re pouring the water into the big jug”) often draws more talk than a string of questions. Agree a set of signs as a team.

4. Treat home languages as a resource

Ask each family for a handful of words that matter to their child: greetings, the words for toilet and drink, and the name of their comfort object. Use them. Where a member of staff shares a child’s home language, plan how they will use it for comfort and learning, not only for translation when something goes wrong. Many children new to a setting’s language spend a period watching and listening before they speak it. That is a normal stage of learning a language and, on its own, not a reason to suspect a difficulty.

5. Observe participation, not just attainment

Most observations record what a child can do. Add a second question: where is this child during the day, and who are they with? A participation sweep, noting every ten minutes where each child is during free-flow play, can reveal that one child never goes into the construction area. Those patterns are where planning should start.

6. Offer several ways into the same activity

In the early years, differentiation is mostly about entry points. One playdough activity can include rolling and squashing for a child building hand strength, counting “cakes” for a child ready for number, naming colours in two languages, and a picture recipe card for a child who needs the steps broken down. Everyone sits at the same table doing the same activity.

7. Build a two-way partnership with families

Ask families what their child enjoys, how they settle them and which languages are used at home. Share observations in plain language, with photographs, and in the family’s preferred language when you can. In many international settings parents are closely involved and may expect early formal reading and writing. Showing how play builds those foundations, with examples from their own child, is part of inclusive practice too.

Supporting children with SEND without waiting for a label

Inclusion does not have to wait for a diagnosis. If a child is struggling to communicate, manage transitions or join in, adapt now and record what you tried and what changed. That record helps the family and any specialist they later consult.

Handle conversations with families with care. Some parents are worried about labels, and attitudes to additional needs vary between cultures and between families. Start with what you have noticed and what you are already doing, then ask what they see at home. Practitioners who want a structured grounding in this area can find it in qualifications such as the CACHE Level 3 diploma, which includes a unit on children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Worked example: planning for three children in one room

The following is an illustrative example, not a real setting. Imagine a nursery class of 20 children aged three to four (FS1 or Pre-K, depending on the curriculum). After two weeks of observation, the team notices three children who are not yet fully taking part.

Each adaptation follows from something observed and has a simple sign that it is working. Review the plan after three weeks with the team and families. Where staff change often, a written plan also keeps knowledge about a child from leaving with one practitioner.

How to challenge poor practice in early years

Exclusion rarely looks dramatic. More often it is a habit: a child routinely taken out of group time because “he can’t sit still”, adults discussing a child in front of them, a child told to “speak English” at the snack table. Challenging this is part of everyone’s role.

First, separate two kinds of concern. Anything suggesting a child may be at risk of harm is a safeguarding matter: follow your setting’s safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures straight away and tell the designated person. For everyday practice that falls short of inclusive, a conversational approach usually works better:

1. Be specific. Describe what you saw, not what you think of the person: “At snack time, [child] was asked to say ‘water’ in English before he could have a drink.”
2. Talk privately and soon. A quiet conversation the same day is kinder than raising it weeks later in a meeting.
3. Start with curiosity. “What do you think was going on for him?” invites reflection. Colleagues are often repeating habits from a previous setting or their own training.
4. Offer an alternative. “What if we let him ask in Arabic and then model the English word back?” gives your colleague something to do, not just something to stop.
5. Refer to shared expectations. Your setting’s inclusion policy takes the personal edge out of the conversation.
6. Follow up, and escalate if needed. If the practice continues, raise it with the room lead or manager.

For room leads and managers, the aim is a culture in which this kind of challenge is normal: regular supervision, peer observation and a standing slot in team meetings to discuss one child who is not yet fully included. Building that culture is a distinct skill, covered in leadership qualifications such as the CACHE Level 5 diploma, whose units include championing equality, diversity and inclusion and developing professional supervision practice.

An inclusion checklist for your room

Use this with your team once a term. Any “no” is a place to start.

• Every child can reach the resources they use most without adult help.
• Children can see their own families, languages and cultures in the room.
• There is a quiet space a child can choose to go to.
• The daily routine is shown visually, using photographs of this room.
• Every adult uses the same agreed signs and key words.
• Staff know a few words of each child’s home language.
• Observations record where children are and who they play with, not only what they achieve.
• Each child not yet fully taking part has a short written plan any adult could follow.
• Families have been asked what works at home, in a language they are comfortable with.

Frequently asked questions

What is inclusive practice in early years?

Inclusive practice in early years is the way a setting organises its environment, routines, interactions and work with families so that every child can take part, belong and make progress. It covers children with special educational needs, children new to the setting’s language and children from every background. It means removing barriers in advance and adapting to individuals, not treating everyone identically.

What does good early years practice look like?

Good early years practice is built on secure relationships with familiar adults, play as the main way children learn, planning that starts from careful observation, genuine partnership with families and regular reflection by the team. In the room you see calm, predictable routines, adults who talk with children rather than at them, and resources children can choose and reach for themselves.

How do you reflect on inclusive practice in early years?

Choose one child who is not yet fully taking part and look at an ordinary day through their eyes. Where do they spend their time, who do they play with, and where do they get stuck? Discuss it as a team, agree one or two changes and review them after a few weeks. Keep reflection regular, specific and focused on children rather than on individual staff.

How do you challenge poor practice without damaging working relationships?

Speak privately and soon, describe exactly what you saw, and start with a question about the child rather than a judgement about your colleague. Offer a practical alternative, refer to the setting’s shared policy and follow up a few days later. Safeguarding concerns are different: report them immediately through your setting’s procedures rather than raising them informally.

For practitioners and teachers who want to study early childhood education in more depth, Taito Education offers the Master of Education in Early Childhood Education, awarded by Guglielmo Marconi University, Italy, and studied fully online over one year. Details are on the MEd in early childhood education online page.