The inclusion of children with disabilities into the regular education classroom has resulted in many studies on teacher attitudes. Current research has examined teacher beliefs about inclusion, their concerns, and issues pertaining to their ability to cater effectively for children with disabilities in their classrooms. Despite this, there appears to be little research investigating potential associations between teacher attitudes and beliefs toward inclusion, their education levels, and teacher training. This study investigated the attitudes and beliefs of 36 general and special education/early intervention teachers in Victoria. Results of the study show that teachers with higher educational qualifications in special education were more positive about inclusion.

Relationships between pretend play and word production were investigated in 10 hearing (H) and 10 toddlers with hearing loss (D) who attended an auditory/oral early intervention program. All children were videotaped interacting in free play with their hearing primary caregiver at 28, 29, and 30 months of age. Group comparisons were made for the scores for highest and mean levels of pretend play and for the underlying structures of decontextualization, decentration, sequencing, and planning. Relationships with word production were then explored for the two groups separately. Results showed significantly higher levels of pretend play for all dimensions for the hearing children and an association between level of pretend play and word production for the children with hearing loss. Associations between word production and sequencing and planning were found for both groups of children. Word production was associated with decontextualization for the hearing children and with decentration for the children with hearing loss. We discuss theoretical implications of the findings together with implications for intervention with toddlers who have hearing loss.

The social engagement, social attention skills and social competence of 10 hearing preschoolers and 10 preschoolers with hearing loss were investigated during free play in inclusive oral kindergarten settings using a three-level hierarchical model. When comparing the types of opportunities, at the first level, the children with hearing loss created significantly fewer opportunities through visual regard and interaction. At the second level, for social attention skills, this group scored significantly higher on distractibility, and significantly lower on alert, sustained and focused attention. For the third level, social competence, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups. Discriminant Function Analysis showed that the function that discriminated maximally between the two groups of participants was composed only of amount of interaction at Level 1. Children scoring highly on this function were also more likely to have the ability to focus their attention and manage divided attention, to be reciprocal, and to demonstrate mutuality and problem-solving skills with peers.

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ThIrTY prEsChooL ChILDrEN (10 with typical development, 10 with an intellectual disability and 10 with a hearing impairment) were videotaped during play. Data was collected for each participant group, covering the number, length and nature of social engagement opportunities (SEOs) and the children's attentional states during SEOs. The typically developing group had SEOs of longer duration than did the children with an intellectual disability, although not significantly longer than those of the group with a hearing impairment. The children with intellectual disability were more frequently disengaged during SEOs. The typical group's SEOs were more visual and interactive than those of the other two groups. The typically developing group was more attentive than the group with a hearing impairment, and was more likely to display aware-alert and sustained attention than were the two disability groups. For higher-order attentional states, the typically developing group was more likely to achieve focused and divided attention than was the hearing impaired group, which was more likely to exhibit these states than was the group with an intellectual disability.