What are the benefits of preschool inclusion?
- Inclusion / Mainstreaming protects children with special needs from the negative effects of discrimination, negative attitudes, and labeling.
- Socio-emotional, cognitive and language development of young children with special needs who are attending preschool classrooms is positively affected.
- Children with special needs learn adaptive behaviors more easily by imitating their peers in preschool settings and taking them as role models. For this reason, their behavior develops better in general education classrooms than in special education schools.
- Children with typical development have more positive attitudes towards their peers with special needs and their prejudices decrease.
- All children in the classroom benefit from the teacher's adaptation of the classroom environment, education program, teaching methods used, and individualization for the child with special needs.
- It is more economical for children with and without special needs to be educated in the preschools than to be educated at separate schools.