As a practitioner it is important that you help encourage children to have positive attitudes towards other children and people who may be different from them, this is so that children will be swayed from developing a negative and prejudiced views.
In order to achieve this you can: • Creating an environment, both physical and emotional, where everyone is invited to participate as much as they want to and everyone is treated with respect and kindness.• Giving children the freedom to explore their ideas about disabilities through play and conversation, while guiding them to be aware and respectful of the feelings and perspective of child who have special needs. Practitioners should also encourage them to be respectful to people that came from different cultural backgrounds to them, that come from different families and people who look and sound different from them. Research has shown that nurseries that demonstrate inclusiveness throughout their practices have an amazing opportunity to help shape children’s attitudes and behaviour towards people different to them e.g. disabled. Research has also shown that children who have repeated experiences with children with disabilities develop a much better understanding and acceptance that usually aren’t there in children who haven’t had that exposure.
Shaping children’s attitudes while they are young is a tremendous responsibility and privilege that can have long-lasting effects.
