How to support the inclusion of children with disability using embedded learning support practices
30 October 2024, 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm (AEDT)
John Forster, Patricia Snyder, Liz Hudson, Rhonda Livingstone, Liz Neville
Online
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About this webinar
Children with disability have the same rights as all children and should have access to the necessary supports and adaptions so they can enjoy those rights. This includes being able to access and participate in early learning and community programs alongside their peers.
Practitioners and caregivers who interact with these children should understand and use practices that support learning and development in ways that enhance equity and inclusion.
Embedded learning support practices are an evidenced-based approach that can be used to support inclusion for children with disability. Although developed in early childhood education and care settings, anyone working with children with disability can use these practices. This approach can support children with disability to learn important skills during everyday activities, such as at home with familiar people, in early learning programs and in the community.
This webinar will introduce a framework for embedded learning support practices for children with disability – including what and when children can learn, how to support learning, and how to make decisions about learning for children with disability.
After the presentations, AIFS Acting Director, Liz Neville, will be hosting a live Q&A with the panellists.
This webinar will help you:
- gain insight into the current Australian policy and practice context for early learning supports for children with disability
- understand what inclusive practice is, including the key features of inclusion (access) and practices that support inclusion for children with disability (embedded learning supports)
- develop insight into the key elements of an evidence-based framework for embedded learning supports and how this can be applied in practice when supporting children with disability
This webinar will interest practitioners who work in early childhood education and care sector and broader child and family sector who may work with children with disability and their families.
LIZ NEVILLE: Welcome everyone to today's webinar, how to Support the Inclusion of children with Disability Using Embedded Learning Support Practices. My name is Liz Neville and I am the Acting Director at AIFS. I've spent most of my working life in social work evaluation and social policy roles, and prior to joining AIFS, I worked in disability reform for over ten years, most recently in the area of early childhood. I will be facilitating today's webinar on the inclusion of children with disability using Embedded Learning Support Practices. I would like to start by acknowledging the Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung and Bunurong people of the Kulin nations who are the traditional owners of the lands in Melbourne where I am speaking to you from. I also pay my respects to the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land and waters. We recognise the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and we pay our respects to elders, past and present.
Before we dive into our discussion, I have a little housekeeping to cover. Live captioning is available. Please click on the link in the chat of the GoTo webinar dashboard to access these. For the recorded portion of the webinar, the captions will appear on screen in the video. There will be a live Q&A at the end. Please submit your questions via the questions box in the GoTo Webinar dashboard. This is a longer webinar than our usual webinars. It will go for an hour and a half rather than the usual hour. If you can't stay the whole time, don't worry, the webinar and Q&A will be recorded. It will be available on the AIFS website in about two weeks’ time. Check out AIFS news or the AIFS website under the webinar banner. A handout with lists of related resources, further reading and a copy of the presentation. Slides are available in the handout section of your go to webinar dashboard. Finally, a short survey will be open at the end of the webinar to collect your feedback. Today we'll be discussing how to support the inclusion of children with disability using embedded learning support practices.
Children with disability have the same rights as all children, and should have equitable access to, and participation in all social, community and education settings. Our discussion today will explore what inclusion and inclusive practices look like when working with children with disability. Research evidence suggests that embedded learning support practices can help children with disability learn important skills during everyday activities with familiar people at home, in early learning settings such as schools and playgroups, and in other child and family programs. This approach was developed in the early childhood education and care and early childhood intervention sectors, but also has broader application for anyone working to support the learning and development of children with disability in other services and settings. We'll be sharing a pre-recorded webinar and hosting a live Q&A with presenters and additional panellists during the recorded webinar broadcast. Presenters will discuss an example of an evidence-based framework of embedded learning supports for children with disability that includes what and when children can learn how to support learning, and how practitioners can be intentional when making decisions about learning for children with disability.
We'll also cover the differences between inclusion and inclusive practices, as well as the importance of professional learning and coaching to support the use of inclusive practices like embedded learning supports. Finally, we'll be framing this conversation within the broader Australian policy and practice context, noticing, noting rather the intersection with existing quality frameworks and latest reform directions. The framework of embedded learning supports is called embedded instruction. In some countries, including the United States, you may see some references to embedded instruction rather than embedded learning supports in some materials, but these are just different names for the same approach. The information and discussion in today's webinar will be at an introductory level. It will interest practitioners who work in the tech sector or broader child and family sector, including allied health professionals who may work with children with disability and their families. During the webinar, we'll be hearing from two presenters Distinguished Professor Patricia Snyder, director of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida, and John Forster, CEO of Noah's Ark, located in Victoria.
Their full bios are available in the handouts tab. But by way of introduction, Pat Snyder has over 45 years of experience across the early childhood sector, including as an early intervention provider, preschool teacher, director of Early intervention and Inclusive Early Childhood programs, and now as a leading researcher who works to support effective professional learning to enhance practitioners and caregivers use of equitable and evidence informed practices. John Forster is a strong advocate for children with disabilities, having an inclusive, full life. In addition to his work as CEO at Noah's Ark, he is a former National President of Early Childhood Intervention Australia and led the development of the first Joint Position Statement on the inclusion of children with a disability in Early Childhood education and care. He is also participated on many governmental advisory groups, and is a founding director of Practitioners and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention, also known as PRECI.
After the recorded webinar broadcast, we will be hosting a live Q&A discussion where we'll be joined by Doctor Liz Hudson, Policy and Research Manager at Children and Young People with Disability Australia known as CYDA, and Rhonda Livingstone, National Education Leader and General Manager at Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority, known as ACECQA. So, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions to all of our presenters today, as well as to Liz and Rhonda, who can provide us with additional insights into family's experiences and the Australian policy context. Now, let's get started with the broadcast of the recorded webinar, and I'll see you back here at 1:00 PM to answer some of your questions.
Thank you. Today we are joined by Patricia Snyder and John Forster, and I am grateful to have their company. John, I’m going to start with you. What do we mean by the term ‘inclusion’ in today’s webinar?
JOHN FORSTER: Thanks, Liz. So, today the real focus, or the specific focus, is on children with disabilities and their inclusion in education and care settings for children, but it’s about education embedded in learning, so it’s going to be relevant to people who are interested in other children who have learning difficulties. And because we’re talking about young children, then it’s relevant to, and it’s actually used by, families and carers who are working with children who are interested in introducing more intentional learning opportunities. But of course, it’s particularly important in early childhood education and care because in the Early Years Framework the Learning Outcome 4 is confident and involved learners.
LIZ NEVILLE: And too, John, I understand that’s an area that can be challenging, if you could tell us a bit more about the key issues, challenges, barriers for inclusion for children with disability in Australia.
JOHN FORSTER: Well, I’d start by saying it’s an exciting time at the moment. The work which is being done by the Productivity Commission and also through the review of the NDIS I think is really encouraging us to do more. Thinking about children with disabilities, it’s a complicated matter, and because children with disabilities have a very different and difficult history from a contemporary perspective. So, in Australia children with disabilities were excluded from the community for the first 70 years of the 20th century, so they were routinely institutionalised, and when we brought them back into the community in the 1970s we actually set up a parallel system for them where they were still most often segregated, and we called it early childhood intervention.
And it wasn’t really until the 1990s to the 1992 Commonwealth National Disability Discrimination Act when it became unlawful for people to be discriminated against on the basis of disability including early childhood education and care that we really started the inclusion project. And the consequence of that is then really for the first 90 years of the 20th century children with disabilities were out of the picture, and this is the period when our contemporary children’s services were being developed, so they were developed without children with disabilities being in mind.
The consequence of that is I think significant, and I’ve come to think of it through the notion of cathedral thinking, which is something which is used in architecture and in the environment, and it’s really the concept of things which need generational efforts. So, the idea with the cathedral was it would take 100 years to build, so the people who started it were unlikely to be there at the end of it. It has three basic concepts: you need a strong vision, you need a clear blueprint, and you need the application, the work skills to deliver on it. In the case of children with disabilities and inclusion, I think we now have a clear vision, and that’s really captured in the United Nations Conventions on the rights of children and the rights of people with disabilities, which the commonwealth government has ratified.
But what we are still working through is the blueprint, and that’s because we still have contested views about what it is that we want to get for children with disabilities out of being part of early childhood services. There’s a terrific review of the Commonwealth Inclusion Support Program by the Australian Institute of Family Studies which looked at this in 2022, and it was looking at the tension between people who thought about inclusion as access versus people who were looking at it as what it could achieve for learning. What’s interesting is that this isn’t just a – this is an international problem, it’s not just an Australian problem.
There was an interesting article recently, which I’m sure Pat sent me, which was looking at inclusion in systems in terms of China, Germany, and the UK, and what that looked at was these contested viewpoints both within the countries themselves, but then across the countries. What was really helpful for me, and I think is helpful how we think about this, was that the framework that they used was around access, acceptance, participation, and achievement, and I think those are the things that we need to be thinking about in terms of trying to move forward and get a clear blueprint for children, what we want them to achieve in our services. But as I was saying, I think it’s a really hopeful time.
The Productivity Commission’s work which it’s doing now around universal services in early childhood education and care is clearly identifying that the children who would most benefit from being in a high-quality early childhood service are often the ones who miss out, and I think that’s a really great starting point to think about how do we address that and what are we addressing. And I think the review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme very clearly articulated that we need to be thinking about more happening for children with developmental difficulties in our universal services, and that everyone doesn’t have to go into the intensive services in the NDIS. So, there’s a real motivator to move forward.
LIZ NEVILLE: Excellent, thanks, John, for that overview and the clarity about the vision and the blueprint, as well as talking about some of the current reform directions that are indeed enabling. Finally, can you provide an overview of the Australian practice context for inclusion of children with disability?
JOHN FORSTER: I think I’d make four quick points about practice. The first is that practitioners say they want more training, and that tends to be in the areas of understanding disabilities, but also some of the supports that individual children need, and again that’s an international issue. I did some work looking across Australia, Greece, and Malaysia, and that was the common theme about people being really keen for that learning. The second observation would be there is a lot more training which is available at the moment, and that’s terrific. I think at the moment that training tends to be very individual, and it’s very specific to a particular concern, and we’re not joining those trainings up. They’re not becoming something greater, and therefore it’s difficult to reinforce them.
So I think the real challenge in practice is this reconceptualization which is beginning around how do we move from what was fundamentally a group program in Australia for children’s services to something which can include that group universal program, a differentiated program where small groups of children can learn, and some individualised work with some children all within the same program and where children can move between those different levels. And there’s some, I think, very helpful work being done around multitude systems of support which is starting to really articulate that, and that will then make sense of the practice that we need to develop.
And then my final observation is that we really need to pay much more attention to implementation, and not only local support for change, but really looking at how our systems are aligned, so that different programs of support are all contributing in the same direction, and supporting staff are not pushing and pulling in different directions. But I’m sure Pat may have something else to say about that, but thanks, Liz.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, John, that’s great. Really appreciate that, and of course we here at AIFS are very committed to closing that research-into-practice gap, and that brings me to our next speaker. Pat, I’ll direct the next set of questions to yourself. John highlighted what we mean by inclusion, can you tell us a bit more about inclusion and how this differs to inclusive practices, and why is this distinction important?
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: Sure. So, I think that’s a really important and very good question, Liz. As we look on this slide, and as John alluded to earlier, we often think about inclusion as a noun or a thing, and when we use it in that way it really refers to the action or state of being included within a group or a context. As John mentioned, not only in the US but in other contexts when we think about this, we think about it as access to an inclusive classroom or some type of community-based learning context. But in contrast when we refer to inclusive practices we really are thinking about the actions or behaviours of the people in those contexts and what they’re doing to support children’s participation and engagement in that group or that context.
For the embedded learning support approach that I’m going to be talking about over the next few minutes, and which we’ve referred to in the United States as embedded instruction for early learning, and as we’ve been moving and thinking about this in Australia, John and his colleagues have been leading the charge to really think about these as embedded learning supports as he mentioned earlier. When we refer to inclusive practices, we mean the actions or behaviours of the practitioners, other adults, family members, as well as peers, and what they’re doing to support children’s participation and their active engagement in the activities and routines that are occurring for all children in the group or context.
This slide really also illustrates this connection from access being the first step if you will, but really moving on and thinking about what are the active practices or actions or behaviours that are occurring by the adults and peers in that context that benefit the child’s learning and also their achievement of desired outcomes. So we see here that by ensuring that the child is participating and engaging, and has repeated opportunities in those everyday activities and routines to have those embedded learning opportunities, that we see promising evidence that the child can learn important skills that increase their participation and engagement and their independence, and also their achievement of the desired outcomes that we have for those children as priorities for those children.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, Pat, and certainly when you were speaking there, I could hear John’s points being drawn out about the consideration needs to move well beyond access, and we can see quite plainly there in your slide and with your description the level of intervention and impact and ultimately outcomes that we’re working towards. That was very clear and helpful. Going further, Pat, what’s the theoretical foundation for the embedded learning support framework, and what does the framework include?
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: When we think about child learning and how all children learn, we have come to use what we refer to as the three Rs of early learning. And many people when they hear the three Rs, particularly here in the States, they might think about reading, writing and arithmetic, and what we’re referring to here is a different type of three R, and that really is the primary theoretical foundation for the embedded learning support framework that I’m going to talk about. These three Rs focus not only on what children are learning, which is important, but more importantly the processes that support how children, all children, learn.
What we know from the science of early childhood development and learning is that all children learn in the context of nurturing and responsive relationships or interactions through repeated opportunities to practice skills in their everyday activities and routines to make those kinds of neural connections, and to have these interactions and opportunities in safe and stable and predictable and engaging and meaningful and motivating activities and routines. So, the embedded learning support framework aligns with this theoretical perspective, and we recognise that some children might need additional learning opportunities and supports, and in fact more learning repetitions or embedded learning opportunities within and across their everyday activities and routines, and in the context of nurturing and responsive relationships.
So if we go to the next slide, when we think about children who will benefit from those additional learning supports and opportunities it’s important to remember that these opportunities occur not only when early childhood intervention services are provided on a particular day or for a particular amount of time, but also as part of the ongoing activities and routines that are part of a child’s day, and those occur at home and in classrooms and in other community-based natural environments. This slide illustrates the importance of what my colleagues and I refer to as embedded learning math, and as we can see on this slide children have many everyday opportunities to learn skills, and by using the embedded learning support framework we really enhance the opportunities for children who might need additional learning supports in their everyday activities and routines.
So, in terms of the framework, Liz, if we go to the next slide, when we were first developing the embedded learning support framework in 2007, based on our experiences with inclusion and inclusive practices over many years, we knew that people were using some of these practices that became part of the framework. But as John mentioned earlier, we also knew from our research and our lived experiences, and from information that we gathered from a variety of stakeholders, that we needed an ongoing and organised framework, and a cohesive set of practices that we could evaluate for feasibility and usefulness and relevance in children and families’ everyday activities and routines and in the contexts in which they learn. And we wanted to also study if these practices that were part of the framework when they were implemented as intended resulted in child engagement and learning.
So, what we came up with was a four part framework, and you can see the parts of the framework focus on what to learn, when to learn, how to support learning, and then how to evaluate learning, and each of these parts of the framework have some accompanying practices that we support. As John mentioned earlier, practitioners, family members and others who are – and peers to support children’s learning in their everyday activities and routines.
LIZ NEVILLE: Great. So Pat, I guess going further there, what are the examples, or at least some examples of embedded learning support practices, and why are they inclusive practices?
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: Great question. So, on the next few slides, if we want to go to the next slide, I’m going to disconnect and think about and show some examples of practices that accompany each of the parts of the framework that we just reviewed. So those who want to use the framework and the practices engage in job embedded professional learning, including experiencing something we refer to as practice-based coaching to enhance their implementation of the parts and practices of the framework. The reason that’s important, that job embedded professional learning is important, is because use of these practices supports all children to belong, to be, and become, which we know are important and desired outcomes in the Early Years Early Learning Framework.
So, the example of the first practice that’s part of the what to learn part of the framework focuses on collaborating with families to identify embedded learning targets that are focused on what we refer to as priority skills, so the skills that will be targeted for embedded instruction. We know, all of us, that children are learning and using many skills every day as members of their families and their inclusive classroom communities. Target skills however are those that the team, which always includes the family, have identified as priority skills for the child to learn right now. Things that are within their zones of proximal development. So, we want to think about the child’s strengths, and what they might be ready to learn right now, and for which they would benefit from those additional embedded learning opportunities, or repetitions to learn them.
And when we learn target skills to embedding, again as I mentioned earlier, we enhance children’s engagement and their learning and their social interactions. So, as you’re considering what to learn in this particular practice, you want to think about what you’re supporting all children in the learning community to experience and learn, and then how you might identify a targeted skill that will help support that child to have those additional repeated learning opportunities in those everyday activities and routines that are part of a classroom. And if the child has an individualised learning plan, the goals or outcomes on those plans will also help inform decisions about identifying the target skills for embedded learning. When we identify those skills that need additional embedded learning support, and we align them with what all children are doing or learning, then these practices put what to learn into action.
So, if we go to the next slide, you might remember from the embedded learning support framework image that we just saw earlier that it showed a bidirectional arrow between what to teach and when to teach, or what to learn and when to learn, and this is because the what to learn and when to learn practices are interconnected. You identify target skills and you simultaneously think about when embedded learning opportunities to learn those target skills will occur. Embedded learning means that the opportunities to practice the target skills and learn them again happens in the child’s everyday activities and routines. So as a practitioner you want to consider which activities and routines will provide multiple or repeated, meaningful and motivating embedded learning opportunities to practice and learn target skills.
And as shown on this slide, an important concept that connects the what to learn and when to learn is a concept known as Fit, and just like puzzle pieces we want to consider the fit between the target skill and the characteristics or expectations of the routine or activity in which those embedded learning opportunities to practice and learn will occur. So for example, a child’s team might consider which routines or activities would be a good fit for a target skill focused on pouring liquid from one container to another. So, the team sits down and thinks about multiple opportunities for the child to pour throughout the day, and in which routines and activities would be meaningful and motivating for them.
So, for example, pouring liquids from a pitcher into a cup during breakfast or snack, pouring water from a cup into a funnel in the water table, pouring sand from a cup into a bucket in the sandbox on the playground, and pouring paint into a container as part of a shared painting activity. So, we can go to the next slide. Related to this notion of Fit, an activity matrix is sometimes a tool that’s used to connect what to learn and when to learn practices. The matrix is completed after the teams consider that what, when fit, and it helps them plan for and implement and evaluate embedded learning. So, on this slide we see an example of an activity matrix for two young children, Eliza and Isabella.
The matrix shows the children’s target skills and the activities or routines in which they will have embedded learning opportunities to practice and learn the target skills. The matrix also shows the number of opportunities that the team has planned during each activity or routine, going back to that embedded learning math, to practice the target skill, the materials that might be needed to support the embedded instruction on the target skill, and who will support those opportunities and instruction, and also a place to record how many times the child actually does the target skill during the activity or routine. So, we can go to the next slide.
In terms of the how to support learning part of the framework, this slide shows how naturalistic instructional practices are used. We have a concept that we refer to as an ABC learning link, and that includes the essential parts of what we refer to as naturalistic instructional approaches. The A in the link is the [antecedent] 00:25:25 which means a prompt or cue for the target skill. A’s can be people or materials or events that are part of an activity or a routine that cue the child to do the target behaviour, for example to pour from the container into the cup during breakfast time. The B link is the behaviour or the target skill of pouring, and the C link is the positive consequence.
Of course, the positive consequence for pouring liquid into a cup during breakfast time is the opportunity to drink the liquid. So, a positive consequence follows the target skill behaviour in an ABC learning link. It’s something positive that people do, or that happens in the environment, that’s linked to the target skill behaviour. We know that natural or logical consequences increase the likelihood that the child will try to do or will do the skill again when similar A’s occur. So, if we go to the next slide you can see that this slide shows two examples of a complete ABC learning links for a child named Elija, who we saw before, who has a target skill focused on pouring from one container to another.
What we see on this slide is that all children, including Elija, are engaged in a breakfast routine and a shared painting activity, but the team has decided, as I mentioned earlier, that these activities or routines are a good fit for Elija’s learning opportunities focused on his target skill of pouring because they’re motivating and meaningful, and they provide multiple opportunities for Elija to practice pouring. So, what you see in this table are the ABC learning links and how they’re implemented. All parts of the learning links are essential because they ensure that the child is receiving naturalistic opportunities and instruction that occur as part of intentional teaching and embedded learning, and that Elija will learn his target skills that are linked to longer-term learning goals or outcomes. We want to go to the final slide.
This final set of practices focuses on the part of the framework focused on how to evaluate learning. These practices help us inform decisions about whether those embedded learning opportunities on the target skills are occurring, if those ABC naturalistic instruction learning links are complete, and if the child is making progress on learning, or has learned, a target skill, and answers to those three questions that you see on the lefthand side of the slide help guide those decisions. The first question is are we doing it, and that means collecting information about whether the adults and peers are providing those sufficient repeated opportunities for a child to learn target skills and activities and routines that are a good fit, and how many of them are complete ABC learning links, because if the team is not doing it then it’s less likely that children will learn the target skills. The second question in how to evaluate learning is, is it working, and this means that we’re gathering information to decide whether Elija and other children are learning or have learned their target skills.
And finally, the third question is do we need to make changes, and based on the answers to the first two questions the team might make changes in the number of embedded learning opportunities, the types of ABC learning links they’re providing, the activities or routines in which embedded learning opportunities are occurring, or they might update or change the target skill. We’ve built a number of data-informed decision-making resources that are tools that are available to support the implementation of these how to evaluate learning practices.
So, we’re going to end our session today about – of the webinar by sharing a short video that briefly describes what we think’s exciting about the embedded learning support framework, and that shows it in action in some preschool classrooms, and you’ll actually see a child practicing pouring during one of the activities on the video. So, for those of you who are participating on the webinar today, and who are working directly with young children, and are interested in what you might do, you might want to reflect on how you might implement the embedded learning support framework and the practices in your practice context. After the video, Liz is going to ask me some additional questions, John and me some additional questions, for more discussion.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, Pat. Thanks for sharing that video, it’s certainly helpfully brought to light some of the examples that you spoke to in the previous slides, and some heartwarming stuff about everyone’s passion for learning. If I can ask some follow-up questions. For adults that want to use the framework and the practices in their contexts, what implementation supports are available?
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: I think the good news is that through some of the work that John and I have been engaging with with others in Australia, we’ll soon be bringing an adapted version of the framework to Australia and thinking about what kinds of job embedded resources and supports will help practitioners, as well as families and others, to really understand and use the practices holistically. You’ll repeatedly hear John and myself talking about job embedded implementation supports, and what we mean by that are workshops as well as coaching supports as well as resources or tools that people can immediately apply in their practice context rather than more theoretical approaches to the supports for young children, and learning by doing if you will.
So we’ve taken a lot of our work from the perspective and used a perspective called implementation science which focuses on supporting – strategies that support people to use a framework like the Embedded Learning Support Framework in their everyday context, in their everyday job embedded context, or in a family’s home for example, which isn’t a job embedded context but it’s a learning context for a child. I think that we oftentimes begin our thoughts around inclusion, and John mentioned this briefly when he was talking earlier, about if we could just shift people’s attitudes and beliefs then inclusive practices will follow.
I think our work suggests that in fact it’s the application of teachers using those practices that I was mentioning earlier that actually shift attitudes and beliefs because once you feel like you have the confidence and capacity as a family member or a teacher or a therapist or someone else to be able to implement those practices, and you see not only the enhancement of your practice, but you also see it’s effects on the children as learners, then your attitude shifts with respect to I really am capable and support – feel confident to be able to support the learning of all children in my classroom and meet them where their support needs are.
LIZ NEVILLE: That sense of competence is very fundamental, yeah. John, is there anything you want to add to that?
JOHN FORSTER: I think what I would say, just echoing what Pat said was that if you’d asked me in the ‘90s I would've said it’s all about attitudes, because when I got involved back then there were teachers who really had the aptitude to be able to work with all their children in their classrooms, and I think what it’s taken a lot of work to do is to understand that some people very naturally come to that, but for others we really need to be specific in terms of supporting them to think about what are the opportunities and when are the opportunities.
So I’ve really been following Pat’s work probably for 15 years now, and getting more and more excited about this sort of making it concrete, what do we need to do in a very concrete way, because this isn’t abstract learning, it’s really breaking it down into the small things which need to be in place so that – and the opportunity and choosing the right activity so that the learning actually can happen.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, John. Just drawing that out a bit further, and it plays to some of the ideas that you’ve already both mentioned, but Pat, why should practitioners or other adults use the framework and practices in their context? There’s obviously a number of frameworks and approaches that are out there, so tell us more about why this is a good way to go.
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: So one thing I want to make sure that I say and then talking more specifically about why, I recognise, as John alluded to, that many people are using some of these, or maybe even all of these, practices. What we really are trying to emphasise in the framework is we’re bringing the practices into a cohesive set of practices that really are concrete, and that guide people and enhance people’s already competent practice. So just like we meet children where they are, we also are meeting practitioners and families where they are, and helping them to understand how those four parts of the framework fit together and why that’s so important.
First of all we know around why people would want to use this framework, we know that recommended practice in our country, and I believe from what I’ve read from many of the things in Australia around intentional teaching and other things that are talked about in many of the guidelines and frameworks in Australia, we really want to think about more of a naturalistic approach to instruction, and that means having instruction occur in natural contexts and everyday routines and activities. So that’s one reason to really embrace this idea of embedded instruction and embedded learning supports. We also know that embedded learning supports and naturalistic instructional approaches have substantial empirical evidence, both here in the States but all around the world.
We know from that work that the use of practices like those that are in this framework enhance children’s participation, their engagement, and their learning. But we also know that this approach, and many others like it, are not always implemented in routine practice as intended, because although everyone agrees with the premises that are behind them, sometimes – not always, but sometimes – we find that people are not sure what to do on Monday morning, once they hear about this framework or other frameworks. So, that transfer of knowing about and learning about the practices, and then having the opportunity to actually do them, and to receive supports around the doing, both positive as well as supportive feedback about implementation, helps make sure that we close that gap between knowing and believing about them and really enhancing capacity and confidence to actually do them.
So again, it’s not something that’s distinct or unique, many of the practices are those that people are familiar with, but it’s trying to put them into a holistic framework that teams and families can gravitate to and really think about what they look like and sound like in action.
LIZ NEVILLE: Excellent, thank you. You touched there on a point that I want to go to for my final question which was about both this being relevant for teams in classrooms or centre-based contexts, as well as for families. I’ll throw to you too, John, but I’ll start with you, Pat. Can this framework, can the embedded learning support framework be used in different contexts?
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: Yes, and in fact some of our work has for many years also been implemented in home visiting programs, both early intervention home visiting programs, what we refer to as – what you all refer to in Australia as early childhood intervention home-based programs, but also in some of our universal home visiting programs here in the States, and then also we’ve worked with embedded instruction or embedded learning supports in community-based contexts as well. So as our families and practitioners are meeting families in places like the library, the playground, at church, in various places in the community, we’re able to bring those practices that are part of the framework into those contexts as well.
So, working with librarians for example at the local library about how to support the child’s engagement and participation, or a target skill during story time at the library. So, caregivers and teachers and others are able to support people in the community who are interacting with the children, or their peers on the playground, around these same principles and practices that are part of embedded instruction for early learning, or embedded learning supports.
LIZ NEVILLE: That’s very powerful. John, did you have any further observations about working across contexts?
JOHN FORSTER: Yeah, just a quick thing in terms of what we’re starting to do is think about how does this translate into an Australian context. So, you can’t just pick up something which is done in one place and plonk it down in another. So that’s really understanding the language, and here the importance of the early years learning framework, and making sure this is connected to that because it’s the foundational understandings in early childhood services, but broader than that, into the community. And also, the way in which we work is different in different places, so it needs to take into account the culture that is coming to it. We’re doing some work with Massey in New Zealand where there’s already been some adaptation done, and they’re certainly – it’s started, but they’re certainly closer in terms of the language and some of the approaches than the work which is done in California. So, it’s great to see that evolution.
I think the main thing I keep coming back to around children with disabilities is that in general children drive learning. So, it’s their interest and energy which drives adults to respond to help children learn. When children aren’t driving learning we really get into trouble, and I think the essence of the work that Pat’s talking about is that you need to be much more intentional when you’re working with children with disabilities. You need to have clearer structures about the opportunities, the nature of what you’re trying to do. And I think that’s what’s really important and what we haven’t had up to this point.
LIZ NEVILLE: Excellent, thanks, John. My takeaway there is about our own engagement that we bring to these interactions and the importance of that. And of course it’s fantastic to hear that this framework can be applied in contexts beyond the classroom and beyond centres. Certainly, relevant to our audience which is a broad audience of people from both ECEC as well as the child and family sector, and people who are keen to work naturalistically with families according to the strengths of those families and their children. I just want to bring our session here to a small pause, and thank you for your contribution. We’re going to move now to the live Q&A.
LIZ NEVILLE: And welcome back, John and Pat. And a warm welcome to Dr Liz Hudson, Policy and Research Manager at CYDA. And as well, welcome to Rhonda Livingston who is joining us from ACECQA. And they are now joining us for the first time today. So, look, by way of introduction for our new panellists, Liz has 20 years’ experience working in management roles in the community and employment industry and holds a Master of Education and PhD. Her research has explored the experiences of people with psychosocial disability during transition to the NDIS. She is also the former research manager of a national not for profit organisation, and former CEO of a specialised mental health and disability employment service. Rhonda has a wealth of experience from working in preschools and long daycare centres. As an assessor of programs for both government and non-government organizations, Rhonda was extensively involved in the National Quality Agenda reforms and contributed to the development of the National Quality Standard and associated resources.
She continues to support the development of resources and programs for both the education sector and regulatory authorities. Right. Well, we've had some great questions come through from our audience, both during the registration sign up and through today's webinar broadcast, and we'll try to get through as many of these questions as we can. A reminder to our audience that you can submit your questions via the questions box in the go to webinar dashboard. All right. So I'm going to begin. Rhonda, hearing from you, if we can. Uh, so having heard from Pat and John in the last segment talking about inclusive practice, how does this fit into the Australian policy and practice context?
RHONDA LIVINGSTONE: Thanks, Liz. And, firstly, I'd like to acknowledge that I'm here in Sydney on the land of the Gadigal people, and I just wanted to pay my respects to elders, past and present. But I'd also like to extend that respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us across all lands of Australia today. And it's great to see such great response to this webinar. And also, before I begin, I'd really like to thank Pat and John for their informative session. It was really insightful and reflective of what many of us already know and understand about inclusive practice in the Australian education and care sector. And great to hear so many links with our approved learning frameworks. And John, you mentioned about the Productivity Commission report that many of you will be aware of. That report related to early childhood education and care. And from the report, you can see that Australia has a really strong commitment to ensuring inclusive practice in our education and care sector.
And so, for example, in the first volume of the report, inclusion is mentioned 150 times, which clearly indicates that the Australian government is exploring and deeply investing in promoting inclusive practice. And as Pat and John have mentioned, inclusion is a basic human right. The United Nations Conventions on the rights of the child. State that all children have the right to an education that develops their ability to achieve their fullest potential, that prepares children for life, and also that respects their family, culture, languages, and identities. And inclusion is for everybody. It is broader than providing access for children with a disability. It's about it's about embracing diversity. It's about providing opportunities for all children to fully participate and belong. And it is about equity. It's about every child getting what they need, not about every child getting the same. And I think it's really important to note that implementing inclusive practice is not additional work in education and care, but it's what services are required to do under the national quality framework.
And Pat and John's references to routines being an important part of the learning process, which really, um, aligns care closely with the national quality framework. And inclusion is deeply and holistically embedded in all aspects of the approved learning frameworks we use here in Australia. As Pat and John mentioned. And it applies to all children, not just those who may have a disability or a developmental challenge. And we know that all children benefit from inclusive environments when services embed practices that provide equal attention and support for every child to fully participate in the program. And our frameworks promote the view that all children are competent, capable and active citizens, and it moves away from that view of of of children as having that sort of from viewing children with a deficit lens. And the national quality framework recognises all children's capacity and right to succeed, regardless of diverse circumstances. And this is reflected throughout the guiding principles of the NQF and particularly in the principle, equity and equity.
Inclusion and diversity underpin the framework, and this is seen in practice through celebrating and welcoming diversity, recognising children's capacity to succeed regardless of diverse circumstances, requiring educators to hold high expectations for the learning and development of all children and supporting children's individual learning paths, and also encouraging the implementation of additional support if barriers. If barriers to success are identified. And I know there are many educators and service leaders joining us today, and they would know that a key aspect of the NQF is the national quality standard. And it's made up of seven quality areas that promote quality outcomes for children and families. And when we think more about some of the concepts that Pat shared in terms of the embedded learning support framework including, most importantly, that children with a disability or developmental difficulties have ample opportunities to learn skills in their naturalistic environments.
It draws me to think about how these concepts beautifully complement practices aligned within a number of the quality areas of the national quality standard. So I just wanted to identify a couple. For example, in Quality area six collaborative partnerships with families and communities. Educators develop and maintain effective partnerships to support children's access, inclusion and participation in the program and in quality area five. Relationships with children. Children are seen as co-learners along with their peers in Quality Area one, the educational program. That's where educators intentionally and I think, John, you made the point about the importance of intentionality. So in are educators intentionally plan programs that are based on children's individual knowledge, strengths, and abilities? And as Pat said recognizing the important learning opportunities in routine activities and in quality area three, that's the one that relates to physical environments. It's where educators use the environment as the third teacher, supporting the access and participation of every child, and considering appropriate resources and adaptations of environments that promote the development of specific skills and knowledge.
And alongside that national quality standard, the approved learning frameworks recognize that inclusion is a part of everything that educators do with children. The learning frameworks, including the belonging, being and Becoming Early Years Learning Framework, highlight the importance of belonging and being and becoming on children's learning and development And the framework support educators to hold high expectations for children and their capacity to learn. The learning frameworks also note that equitable means fair, not equal or the same, and that some children need greater access to resources that support their participation in services. And in version two of the approved learning frameworks, many of you will recognize that they've just been refreshed and the learning outcomes were expanded to include the Disability Discrimination Act or the DDA and the Racial Discrimination Act, including how services make reasonable adjustments to ensure learning engagement for all children.
And as Liz mentioned, the DDA is a law that protects Australians from discrimination based on disability and it supports children with disability, their families and carers to access and fully participate in children's education and care services in the same way as other children, and all education and care services must comply with the DDA, and it requires services to support the access and participation of children with disability. As part of this requirement, services must ensure that service operations, policies and practices do not discriminate against children or others with disability, either directly or indirectly. They must also identify barriers to access and participation, and make reasonable adjustments so that all children can access and fully participate in the service. Reasonable adjustments are those changes to policies or practices, procedures or programs or environments that engage a person with disability to access and participate in the service on the same basis as others?
And it often benefits both the child with disability and the wider service, including other children and staff. Any costs associated with making a reasonable adjustment are an investment and a benefit to the service, as they may be in a better position to accommodate children with a disability in the future. And I just wanted to give an example of reasonable adjustment. It could be adjusting the layout of equipment and learning areas, so that there's enough space for a child to easily move around with a mobility aid. Or it could be changing a policy that requires a child to be toilet trained before moving into the preschool group. And before I share some of the resources that you might like to explore further, I thought I could share what quality, inclusive practice might look like in an education and care service. It can be evident when children are communicated with in a way that they understand best, when they have the opportunity to learn and to try new things, when they can choose who they play with and when.
When they have their interests, knowledge and ideas incorporated into the program. When they have the opportunity for uninterrupted play, as well as when they're viewed as capable and competent Incompetent learners when they feel safe and valued, when they have their voice heard, and when they're able to make decisions that affect them, including having choices in the educational program and routines. And we have a diverse range of freely available resources on the Issaquah website, which we really encourage you to explore. And this includes our suite of resources on the DDA, which was developed in partnership.
LIZ NEVILLE: I'm very sorry. To cut across. If it's all right, I'm conscious. We do we do give our folks access to resources on their website. So, I might just to ensure we have time to pick up the questions that we are receiving. I might just ask that we rely on people going to that, that link that's available in the go to webinar. And at this point I'm going to hop across to Liz Hudson. And Liz, very thankful that you've been able to join us. And I guess a question I'm sort of coming from perhaps a different perspective. The thing I'd like to know really is what is it that families, most want practitioners to know in the context of early learning?
DR LIV HUDSON: Thank you so much, Liz. And thanks to the other panellists and to the presenters today. It was just and it's terrific to see the numbers of people that are present at this webinar, which indicates the interest in this area. CYDA, which is the national representative organization of children and young people with disability, engage regularly with our community, including families, parents and caregivers. So, in answer to your question around what families would like to would like practitioners to know I'm actually going to draw on a 2020 survey that we did in partnership with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and University of New South Wales, and which developed a report called Taking the First Step to an Inclusive Life. And I'm going to draw on that to, to indicate, firstly, just some of the challenges that families feel when they're engaging with early childhood and education care sectors. But then talk about what were the I guess, the practical, inclusive practices that link to Patricia's, uh, information that she provided about the, the framework. So whilst it wasn't the survey wasn't directly related to the learning it was. There are many aspects of the framework which resonate, including the first of the three hours, which is around relationships and the of the respondents. I've got some really good news that the 83% of respondents said that they felt welcomed by their AC sector, which is just fantastic news. But also that the majority of the respondents had showed a strong preference for their child to be part of the mainstream setting of both early childhood education and care and schools.
Some of the challenges that they indicated were that there was staff training, educator training, not appropriately trained to support children with disability, limited responsiveness to families request to collaborate with them, and to address challenges to inclusion that the 50% that complaints led to that were unresolved. And it was probably due to lack of funding and expertise in that area. And the children were unfortunately, were being excluded and segregated from things like excursions and activities. You know, walk to the park or something and that there was there was lack of communication between the educators and families about the child's learning progress. Distressingly, and unfortunately, a third of respondents said that their child experienced bullying, restrictive behaviour, and discrimination. And that there were no clear policies on inclusion. And the final kind of challenge was this lack of high expectations of children with disability that Rhonda also mentioned earlier.
So some of the just quickly, some of the inclusive practices that that families would like to see is that to work really in partnership with, with families to develop individual education plans that are linked to if they're on the NDIS, the NDIS, NDIS plans that there be regular communication with families, and that the training for educators is to improve the expertise. They recognise that there's limited training opportunities and skills shortages that impact. So, it's not a criticism of the educators themselves, but rather the settings to improve that, that training. Also to prepare children in the setting for education in the mainstream schools. And that policies on conclusions should be developed and that there be disability allies within the SEC setting, not just educators or designating a disability ally, but that their role modelling being disability allies and supporting them in the settings so that children themselves can become disability Allies and as already mentioned, that having a really high expectation of what, expectations of children with disability and their abilities. And that starts with respect. And there's a number of resources that we've already mentioned that Liz has already mentioned. That help highlight that. And also to finally just say, to recognize the child as an individual, not as a a disability.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thank you. Excellent. Thank you for those further perspectives. They're fantastic. Patricia, I'm going to go to you. I'm picking up a question here from our audience. and that is how does this framework that you've been describing to us, how does it support children who are neurodiverse? Is it inclusive of children with neurodiversity.
DR PATRICIA SNYDER: Yes. And I'll talk just a little bit about an approach here in, in the States that I believe is also made its way to other countries, including Australia, that aligns with the embedded learning framework that that John, embedded learning support framework that John and I have been talking about and that's referred to as naturalistic developmental behavioural intervention or NDB. And while initially it was designed for use with children who were neurodiverse recent work here in the States suggests that it's also useful for children with a variety of additional learning support needs. And one of the things I talked about, many of the features that I talked about during the webinar are part of what folks here are writing about around naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions. So I think the nice thing and you mentioned this earlier and John did as well. We want to of course know what children's functional abilities are as well as their needs for accommodations or adaptations. But moving beyond the diagnosis, I think the nice thing about the embedded learning support framework, as well as the, NBI intervention frameworks are that they all feature these, these common features that we focus on the child's learning and that implementation occurs in natural settings. So that of course is something we talked about already in daily routines that there's the opportunity for embedded learning opportunities that follow the child's lead. Again, something we've, we've talked about the use of natural or positive consequences, which we've, we've talked about as well, and the application of those ABC learning links and uh, Rhonda mentioned also providing opportunities to learn developmentally appropriate. Right, individualized, developmentally appropriate but also prerequisite skills. So, for some children who may need additional learning supports around things like learning around generalized imitation skills, for example and then having opportunities to apply those skills in their everyday activities and routines. And then the fifth feature that we've talked about as well, and that connects with the three R's and the embedded learning support framework, is an emphasis on the child's social and other types of active engagement with others, with materials and others in the learning context. And so, again, we're not thinking about how we're forcing a child who might be neurodiverse or culturally or linguistically diverse to fit in, but rather we're identifying the strengths, preferences, motivations, and individualized learning styles of that child. And we're fitting the practices with within that framework and thinking about the multiple intersectionalities that we see around all of the characteristics, right. Who's the learner essentially, and how do we match those practices to who the learner is? Excellent. Thanks, Pat. That's really helpful. I'm very happy. To see that that connection, because I think we need to make progress to move beyond. Yeah. The diagnostic label. So helpful. Thank you.
Pat. John, I'm going to go to you. And I suppose particularly bearing in mind you know, your role as CEO at Noah's Ark. I've got a question here from one of our audience. It says, is there a method for sharing this knowledge with parents and caregivers to mirror this framework in the home environment. Do you have any suggestions about how to facilitate that sort of sharing of knowledge and approach?
JOHN FORSTER: As I think Pat has alluded to, this actual framework is used with families in Florida throughout Florida. So, it's been integrated into a home visiting program model. So that's a challenge for the future. But I think it's also if we have practitioners in early childhood services who are modelling this sort of behaviour and understand it, then that is a way for families to, to learn and understand it. So, I think it's also about having that opportunity to be exposed to the language and, and to be comfortable with that.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, John. Liz, you're nodding there. Did you have further thoughts about sort of parents and caregivers being dealt in here and how to work well with teachers and with SSA staff?
LIV HUDSON: Thanks, Liz. Yes. I was nodding because John talked about, you know, that kind of the language, how important that is. And I think that goes back to, uh, the point I made earlier about having respect and high expectations of children, but also listening and in partnership between the families and the, uh, practitioners and in the natural settings, whether the natural settings are at home or in the sector or at school or in out-of-school care, you know, that that relationship is so critical.
And the between the partner with the between the parents and caregivers and the educators, including the educators, giving them up to date knowledge on the child's learning experiences and what they've learnt.
LIZ NEVILLE: Great, thanks so much a further question here which I might direct initially to you, Rhonda, at least in terms of your, your regulatory remit so there's a question about how practitioners work in educational settings or related settings that do not appear to be implementing appropriate supports. I mean, you've provided a fairly exhaustive explanation, Rhonda, on how things are supposed to work. What about when things are breaking down? What suggestions do you have for practitioners?
RHONDA LIVINGSTONE: There's a couple of different support programmes and John’s Noah's Ark programme to, is a great support for educators and service leaders. But the Australian government funds a very comprehensive program, the Inclusion Support Agencies across Australia, to support educators build capacity within their setting to support children with disability. And also, there are some resources available, I understand, in that program for innovative solutions. If services come up with some innovative and creative ways of supporting inclusion. And I understand that many state and territory uh education departments also have similar programs for kindergartens or preschools to support that inclusion as I said, we had the great pleasure of working with Liz Hudson and the team in the in the development of those DDA resources that we've got on our website. And they're very practical resources. They include fact sheets. There's some there's some packages for staff meetings to, uh, provoke conversation. There are some infographic posters, there's topical tip sheets and there's also a recruitment and induction package. And as I mentioned, the team meeting package, because we really think services would benefit from support in terms of ensuring that educators and service leaders, when they join services, are aware of those obligations under the DDA. But also, there the responsibilities under the National Quality Standard in terms of inclusion as well. So, there's lots of great resources and support available for services and educators and service leaders.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, Liz. Excellent. Thanks, Rhonda I have one minute left, and I just wanted to give John, uh, perhaps you a further opportunity to identify any other sort of really key resources that are available on this topic within Australia.
JOHN FORSTER: I think there are resources. I think site is certainly a place to go. I think the various parent organisations like the Association for children with disabilities, Kindred Kind, which are in different states, are very useful in terms of their thinking from a parent perspective raising Children network has a lot of information, places gathering more information siblings Australia is another point of contact in terms of, uh, linking with other children who have, uh, linking families who have children with disabilities and understanding impact on the broader family. So, I think those are all directions that we can we can go in but if I can, I just I mean, I think Rhonda's given us a wonderful outline in terms of what our intentions are and how good those intentions are. I think Liz has captured some of the difficulties of getting that into an implementation for the from the parent’s point of view. How does this actually work for my child? And Rhonda mentioned the Inclusion Support program and its most recent review recommended really exploring multi-tiered systems of support going forward. And I think this is about how do we really think about what the program, the early childhood program needs to look like to be effective. And when I was involved in starting the Victorian Inclusion program in. In the 1990s, it was moving from funding going to parents to employ usually their neighbours to go into the kindergarten to support them. And I wanted to highlight that because we've only been developing this for a very short period of time.
So, I think there is a lot of work which needs to go into thinking about what this program looks like and then how we can support staff, and then how we can communicate it to parents to really meet those, those high standards that Rhonda's talking about.
LIZ NEVILLE: Thanks, John. And harking back to that cathedral thinking you were telling us about before, I really appreciate that I'm going to bring our, uh, Q&A session to a close we're on time. So, this is the, uh, closure now of today's webinar I'd like to thank all of our panellists, Pat, John, Liz, and Rhonda. It's been an insightful discussion. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and perspectives with us thank you to the audience for joining us today and for your comments and questions and I also want to thank the communications team here at AIFS and our child and Family evidence and evaluation team, who've done a great job in supporting us today the webinar recording will be available in a few weeks’ time, and you can subscribe to AIFS newsletters to be notified about the release of the webinar.
And again, there will be a short feedback survey emailed to you after the webinar ends. So, we'd be grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to fill that out on our behalf finally, we look forward to seeing some of you, hopefully at our next webinar, which is on supporting families to Navigate Tough times: The impact of financial and housing insecurity, isolation and discrimination. Thanks for joining us. Take care and we'll see you again soon.
Presenters

John Forster has been CEO at Noah’s Ark Inc in Melbourne, Australia, since 2000. Noah’s Ark supports over 1,600 children with disabilities and their families each year, through services provided at home, in children’s services and school in Victoria, ACT and NSW.
John is a strong advocate for children with disabilities having an inclusive, full life. He is a former National President of Early Childhood Intervention Australia (ECIA) and led the development of the first joint Position statement on the inclusion of children with a disability in early childhood education and care by Early Childhood Australia and ECIA in 2011.
John has participated on many governmental advisory groups, including the Victorian Disability Advisory Council and the Victorian Government’s NDIS Implementation Taskforce. He is a founding Director of Practitioners and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention and is the co-author the resource book Participating and belonging: inclusion in practice with Alison Webster.

Dr Patricia (Pat) Snyder is a Distinguished Professor of Special Education and Early Childhood Studies, an affiliate Professor of Pediatrics, the David Lawrence Jr. Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Studies, and Director of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. Over her 45+ year professional career, Pat has been an early intervention provider, preschool teacher, director of early intervention and inclusive early childhood programs, higher education faculty member and researcher. Pat’s current projects focus on working with diverse stakeholders to develop, validate, implement and examine effective professional learning, including practice-based coaching, to enhance practitioners' and familial caregivers' use of equitable and evidence-informed embedded learning, social-emotional, and other recommended practices to support desired outcomes.

Liz Hudson is the Policy and Research Manager at Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA). Liz has a PhD in the social sciences, a teaching background; Master of Education and Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Liz’s research interests include NDIS, disability rights and social inclusion, community mental health and disability service provision, person-centred and recovery-oriented practice.

Rhonda Livingstone is the National Education Leader, ACECQA and brings a wealth of experience to this role, having worked in preschools and long day care centres and as an assessor of programs and services for both government and non-government organisations.
Rhonda’s extensive involvement in the National Quality Agenda reforms saw her contribute to the development of the National Quality Standard and its Guide, assessment and rating tools and processes, and the training and testing program for authorised officers. Rhonda continues to contribute to the development and delivery of resources and professional development programs for both the sector and regulatory authorities.
Facilitator

Liz Neville is the Acting Director of AIFS. Her background is in disability, aged care and community services, and she has qualifications in social work, education and evaluation.
Liz has previously worked in management roles in service delivery and peak body organisations in the not for profit sector. She has also worked as as a senior manager in provision of government advisory services. Before joining AIFS, she was a senior executive with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Featured image: © gettyimages/Jacob Wackerhausen