Every child has the right to learn, to belong, and to grow — regardless of ability.

Small Steps, Big Changes for Preschool Inclusion is Malaysia’s first resource of its kind: an essential companion for turning the belief in inclusion into everyday practice in our preschools, and beyond. It centres the practice of presuming competence and ensuring access in supporting children with disabilities.

The book brings together Lai-Thin’s professional expertise and lived experience — as a disability-inclusion advocate, inclusive education specialist, and care partner to family members with disability and neurodivergence.

Designed to be usable with any curriculum, this resource equips preschool teachers, school leaders, parents, and advocates with practical tools and strategies to make early childhood education truly inclusive.

Inside the book, you will find:

Classroom-friendly strategies to support children with diverse learning needs and abilities, enabling every child to participate meaningfully.

Approaches to address challenging behaviours with compassion and understanding, not punishment.

Ways to foster respectful interactions between children with and without disabilities.

Strategies for effective collaboration among teachers, families, support professionals, and community — embedding inclusion into school life.

Practical guidance for supporting children with disabilities, and their families, navigate transitions: from home to preschool, between classrooms, or into new learning environments.

About the Author

Lai-Thin is an inclusive education specialist and disability-inclusion advocate. She holds a Master’s degree in Special and Inclusive Education (Erasmus Mundus) and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology (HELP).

Lai Thin currently serves as Project Lead for the National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC), where she coordinates initiatives that strengthen early childhood intervention and inclusive education practices in Malaysia. She is also a member of The OKU Rights Matter Project, writing resource briefs and advocacy papers, as well as co-curating resources.

Growing up with a neurodivergent sibling and being a dementia care partner, she learned that true support means centering the autonomy and lived experiences of people with disabilities. Blending personal insights and professional expertise, she works to challenge ableism and build systems that uphold the dignity, rights, and full participation of persons with disabilities.

Cover Art

“I wish I could go to school” by Branden Lim

Branden’s painting portrays a preschool setting with a ramp and small steps, symbolising accessibility for all children. Faceless figurines represent diversity, highlighting inclusion regardless of appearance. Branden, a wheelchair user with spinal muscular atrophy, created this piece to advocate for equal access to education for all children, regardless of any disabilities.

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/whos-stupid

Isaac Bowers, Equal Justice Works (on Huffington Post) The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) released "Student Debt and the Class of 2013," its annual report on the student loan debt of four-year college graduates. So what is the current state of student debt? Here are the eight key lessons that can be gleaned from this informative report: 1. The vast majority of students continue to have to borrow to go to college. According to the report, 69 percent of the college seniors who graduated from public and private nonprofit colleges in 2013 had student loan debt. 2. The amount students borrow is still rising. The average amount borrowed was 28,400 -- two percent more than the class of 2012. 3. Ominously, 19 percent of that debt was private student loans. Private loans are far riskier than federal loans. As TICAS emphasized in a recent report, almost half (47 percent) of private loan borrowers in 2011-12 borrowed less than they could have in federal loans. Remember: stick with federal loans until you are forced to take out private loans!

Human Rights Norms Include:

educational access, equal access, progressive introduction of free education, right to higher education.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 26: Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Article 13.2: (c) Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education.

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 13

Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 13 (Twenty-first session, 1999). The right to education (Article 13 of the Covenant). E/C.12/1999/10 (8 December 1999).

Article 13 (2): The right to receive an education - some general remarks

6. While the precise and appropriate application of the terms will depend upon the conditions prevailing in a particular State party, education in all its forms and at all levels shall exhibit the following interrelated and essential features:

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(b) Accessibility - educational institutions and programmes have to be accessible to everyone, without discrimination, within the jurisdiction of the State party. Accessibility has three overlapping dimensions:

(i) Non-discrimination - education must be accessible to all, especially the most vulnerable groups, in law and fact, without discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds (see paras. 31-37 on non-discrimination);

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(iii) Economic accessibility - education has to be affordable to all. This dimension of accessibility is subject to the differential wording of article 13 (2) in relation to primary, secondary and higher education: whereas primary education shall be available “free to all”, States parties are required to progressively introduce free secondary and higher education;

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7. When considering the appropriate application of these “interrelated and essential features” the best interests of the student shall be a primary consideration.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 28.1: States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular: (c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (“Protocol Of San Salvador”)

Article 13, Right to Education:

3. The States Parties to this Protocol recognize that in order to achieve the full exercise of the right to education:

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