Impact of inclusive education on early childhood development: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Promoting bidirectional development between typically developing children and children with disabilities in inclusive preschool education is a critical yet underexplored area. Employing a meta-analysis methodology, this study examined this question by incorporating 15 experiment studies that met the established criteria, resulting in the generation of 33 independent effect sizes from a total of 1268 participants. The results from the random-effects model demonstrate a positive and favourable impact of inclusive preschool education on children’s development (SMD = 0.583). The moderation analysis results indicate that the impact of inclusive education on children’s development is significantly moderated by children’s age group and the type of children, while the activity domain and intervention approach do not exhibit significant moderation effects.