**4. Early childhood education and learning for children with disabilities before the pandemic**

Learners with disabilities include those who have sensory impairments, cognitive differences, physical difficulties, emotional and behavioral difficulties,

communication disorders, and those with multiple disabilities [6]. Whereas some learners with disability may follow regular curriculum with adaptation or modification of the pedagogical approaches used, there are those who may need specialized syllabuses and intervention programs to access meaningful education. A majority of learners who follow regular curriculum with modification include children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical handicap, mild cerebral palsy, mild learning disabilities, mild autism, mild emotional and behavioral difficulties, communication disorders, and the gifted and talented [7]. They require additional support and care services such as therapy, assistive devices, and technology to access education. Leaners with disabilities who need special syllabus include those with mental handicap, deaf blindness, severe autism, severe cerebral palsy, multiple handicaps, and those with profound disabilities [8]. They learn social, communication, and activities of daily living skills at school [9]. In this chapter, we focus on reviewing literature on the pedagogical methods that were employed to enhance continuity of learning among millions of African children after the schools closed and how they favored or did not favor early childhood education (ECE) learners with disabilities.

Child-centered teaching approaches have been found to effectively enhance learning of children in early childhood education. This is predominantly learning by doing through imitation of teachers and their peers [10]. The approach has also been found to be crucial for learners with disabilities who have various challenges and need extra support [11]. Education for all children in their early years supports their development of social, communication, problem-solving, cognitive, and emotional skills [10]. This also applies to children with disabilities in early childhood education. According to Davis [9], the pedagogical approaches used for effective learning of these foundational skills among children with disabilities include: formulating clear expectations based on learning needs of the child, stimulating learning activities that enhances learners' participation in classroom, use of audio-visual material, real objects, or simulations to make the learning process concrete, break tasks into less complex tasks and build on already acquired skills and knowledge, peer learning, sharing the learning objectives and process with parents so they can help with homework. Other strategies include carrying out every day routines consistently and aiding active learning by use of immediate reward for good behavior, completing work on time, and participating in class activities. In addition, individualized education plans where lessons are modified to meet each learner's needs are also critical for children with disabilities [12]. Much as the approaches to support learning of these children are well articulated, they are often not practiced because of various reasons including lack of teacher skills, resources, and poor attitude of teachers among others [13, 14]. Moreover, children with disabilities are often stigmatized and discriminated against by teachers and pupils, further hindering them from full participation in learning.

Before the era of COVID-19 pandemic, access to education and other services was a major challenge for people with disabilities (PWD) including children in many low- and middle-income settings. There have been increasing efforts toward inclusive education, which recommends that children with special needs are accommodated within the mainstream teaching; however, implementation of this has been slow. Education for people with disability has been characterized by exclusion, stigma, discrimination, non-supportive attitudes of parents and community members, long distance to school, school environments that are not supportive (access, materials, equipment), and limited training for teachers on special needs education, limited involvement in planning and allocation of resources for learners with special needs as well as lack of enforcement and financing of the inclusive education *Perspective Chapter: Pedagogical Approaches and Access to Education among Early Childhood… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104921*

policies [5, 15, 16]. As a result, there was a major gap in education access for children with disabilities in many countries in Africa prior to the pandemic. Clearly, as we will lean from subsequent sections, the pandemic and resulting school closures worsened the challenges for ECE learners with disabilities especially those in LMICs where governments were least prepared to deal with these challenges. In the section that follows, we take a critical look at the pedagogical approaches that were used to support continued learning for ECE learners with disabilities in Africa.
