Poon, Kenneth K.

In this presentation, Ms Tan Peng Chian talked about “Including preschool children with developmental needs: Factors influencing teachers’ Intention and use of inclusive practices”.

There is increasing attention to, and acceptance of, that providing high quality early childhood intervention in a timely manner enhances the development and well-being of young children and their families. This paper covers the important topics in intervention and special education provided for young children from birth to six years old, as well as describes the local early childhood intervention system in Singapore. Based on a review of both local and international literature, this paper first provides an overview of the local early childhood education and early intervention landscape. After that, a brief summary is provided on the evidence-based practices in inclusion of children with developmental or special educational needs, identifying special needs in early childhood, personnel preparation and professional development, transitioning from early childhood to formal schooling, and family engagement and collaboration. Linking the findings from the literature to the local context, recommendations for advancing early childhood intervention services in Singapore are provided under each topic as well as summarised at the end of the paper.

The student profile, model of service delivery, and support practices for young children with disabilities receiving early childhood intervention (ECI) in Singapore is reported and contrasted in this study. The supervisors/managers/principals of eight Early Intervention Program for Infants and Children (EIPIC) centers, eight Integrated Child Care Programs (ICCP), six privately run ECI centers, and 65 preschools participated in this study. Overall, autism spectrum disorder was the most commonly reported diagnosis in this study. EIPIC and privately run ECI centers supported mostly children with disabilities (frequently those with more severe disabilities) and provided more specialized education and therapy support, whereas ICCPs and preschools educated them alongside typically developing peers. EIPIC centers provided the most resource and teacher support for young children with disabilities. Issues pertaining to the reported rates of disabilities among the young children and support models/practices are discussed.

The early childhood years are foundational to every child’s development and outcomes in life (Shonkoff et al., The developing brain. In: National Research Council, Shonkoff JP, Phillips DA (eds) From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2000). However, children with disabilities or at risk of developing disabilities may struggle to achieve the same levels of competencies in developmental domains as their typically developing counterparts. Research has established the importance and effectiveness of quality Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for children with or at risk of developing disabilities. The early childhood window holds the most promise for effective intervention and development. This chapter examines the context of ECI within Singapore in three sections. The first section provides an overview of the formative years of ECI development in Singapore from 1950 to 2000 and describes the expansion of ECI services from 2001 to 2020, offering a brief description of the support programs offered in a range of inclusive to specialized settings. The second section presents key findings from the small but growing number of ECI studies conducted in Singapore. This section describes key findings in the areas of identification and assessment, child profile and needs, inclusive education models and programs, support practices and support needs, and family-centered service provision. The chapter concludes by offering recommendations for the road ahead for Singapore’s ECI field. Recommendations include improvements in universal developmental screening and monitoring, providing supports within preschool settings to facilitate the move toward inclusive early childhood education and enhancing the quality of current early childhood professionals through a tiered approach of training and ongoing professional development.

This paper compares conceptions of teacher quality in two education systems – Singapore and Hong Kong – that consistently perform well in international assessments of student achievement. Both systems constantly refresh their expectations of teacher competencies, with recent iterations, which offer a just-in-time opportunity to learn from how they now conceptualise quality teaching. This paper will provide the context surrounding each jurisdiction’s education system, how each views teacher quality, and how each has rethought the concepts of teacher quality according to their unique contextual circumstance. The paper then compares these concepts articulated and enacted by each country, linking these to the wider international literature and scholarship in order to glean insights into what teacher quality is or how it might be reconceptualised to meet future needs.