A/P Kenneth Poon
Keynote Speaker
Associate Professer (NIE, NTU)
Assoc Prof Kenneth Poon is an academic, educator, psychologist, and advocate with a focus on persons with developmental disability and inclusive education.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Psychology and Child & Human Development Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. He also serves as Associate Dean, Education Research, as well as Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Child Development. Trained as a clinical psychologist and as an early interventionist, he has spent the past 20 years of experience working with persons with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
As an active researcher, his primary area of research is understanding the life course development of persons with neurodevelopmental disabilities and in examining how the home and school environments impact development.
Kenneth also teaches/has taught courses on early childhood intervention, autism spectrum disorders, and the assessment of children. His work extends to consulting with organizations to support children with autism spectrum disorders and more broadly, including students with special educational needs.
Presentation Topic and Synopsis
Forging Inclusion in Our Preschools
Preschool inclusion has, in the recent months, attracted quite some media attention. Children with developmental needs have always been in our preschool classrooms and have been supported with varying degrees of success. Recent refinements to Singapore's early intervention continuum has once again brought the spotlight to this issue.
In this presentation, an evidence-informed approach will be taken to consider how children with developmental needs can be included in preschools. Successful inclusion in preschools is possible for most children but it requires collaboration between various stakeholders. First, approaches for preschool teachers to include children with developmental needs will be considered. Following that, the role of preschool management in developing a system for supporting inclusion will be explored. Finally, the collaboration between preschools and parents will be discussed.
With this approach, the importance of the broader ecological environment is emphasised but the limitations will also be considered. The talk will end with a short exploration of future directions for the development of inclusive practices within Singapore preschools.