‘Everything is there, but they don't bring it to your front door … ’ An analysis of the perception of early childcare by parents of children with disabilities

ABSTRACT

In Flanders, we are searching to implement inclusion in our educational systems, knowing that we have a strong focus on segregation and specialisation. Parents are often missing in the debate, while they are confronted with experiences of exclusion and discrimination. Our aim was to hear the parents’ voices on high-quality childcare for children with disabilities between 0 and 3 years old. As part of the evaluation of inclusive childcare practices by the Flemish government, we undertook interviews with 20 parents of children with disabilities (0–6 years). Some families are still in the early childcare centre and others are looking back, while already in preschool. We elaborated on what support parents find valuable and how this can be embedded in inclusive early childcare. We came to four themes: deciding on the childcare type parents prefer, negotiating power with professionals, exploring lived experiences in early child care and finally the evaluation of inclusion by parents in early care. We keep coming back to the importance of listening in involving parents of very young children with disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• parents
• disability
• accessibility
• early childhood education
• disability studies

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Inge Van de Putte and Lieve Carette who were also involved in this research project. We worked very closely together. We were all affected by the stories of the families with children with disabilities. We keep thinking warmly on the discussions we had after sharing the interviews and working on the analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Upbringing - Flemish Agency that is responsible for the upbringing of each child in Flanders and Brussels. It resides under the Flemish ministery of Welfare, Public Health and Families.