Acoger la discapacidad en los Servicios Educativos para la Primera Infancia. La experiencia de una Escuela Infantil Municipal de San Miniato, Italia.

Abstract

Inclusive education is a universal right which is based on the recognition of diversity. Educational services for the early childhood offer children with disabilities the chance to grow up in good environmental and relational contexts, which are able to promote individual capacities. The educational project carried out in San Miniato wholly recognizes children's protagonism and insists on peer relationships. Small groups, which are natural contexts for children's experiences in nursery schools, greatly contribute to integration. The process of reception of a disabled child which was carried out in a council nursery school in San Miniato was reported in order to highlight the extraordinary capacity of children to accept diversity, to empathize with others and to establish active and positive relationships with others. The richness and pleasure derived from the relational experiences contributed to a significant development of the disabled child. A careful planning of the environment, the educators' role, the family's involvement in the educational project, and networking with health services are factors which played a fundamental role in the experience, although children are still the main protagonists.