A mixture of local children and children with a range of conditions all work and play together at the organisation's summer school, writes Anne Dempsey
The children sit in a circle around Joanne Cullen as she holds up an illustrated book and tells the story of the small mouse and the very noisy night.
Next door in the Montessori room, Naomi Duff asks each child in turn to select a picture card from a bag and - with no peeping - show it to the group, who shout out clues so that the pictured object can be guessed.
There is nothing unusual in any of these activities, which are part of pre-school learning countrywide.
However, in these colourful rooms in Sandymount, Dublin 4, wheelchairs and special chairs are side by side with others; the children's concentration and ability levels vary widely; and children who speak with difficulty or not at all fully interact with those who chatter non-stop.
These are the headquarters of Enable Ireland, which runs one of Ireland's few fully integrated pre-schools. Its sixth annual summer camp began on July 3rd and continues for the rest of the month.
The centre has a year-round facility which is attended by 36 children aged two and over. Half are local children (there is a waiting list to join), while the other half are service users - children with a range of conditions including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy and developmental delay.
The summer camp, running each weekday morning during July, is being attended by a total of 20, again a mix of local children and service users.
Caroline Mannion is the pre-school group leader. "The pre-school was integrated in 2000 and is going very well. We have a team-based approach where the therapists - physio, occupational and speech - work out goals in collaboration with the teaching staff, so there is a strong speech and language input," she explains.
"The children all play together. When they reach the Montessori class they can become more aware if someone is a little different and ask questions about it. They can be very thoughtful too and help each other, and while that is caring, they are not here to take on the adult role but to be children themselves.
"Each child has a key worker who concentrates on specific aspects of development. Parents of children who are service users also attend family meetings while the other parents often ask for reports on their child's progress, which we give."
She adds: "Every child has different needs, no matter what their situation. I think all our children get a sense of themselves, a place to be happy and safe - the same philosophy as a regular playgroup really."
The emphasis at the camp is off formal learning and squarely on informal fun. "The first camp was extremely stressful as we were trying to cover all bases with a bigger group," says Mannion.
"Now we are much more relaxed and pace things differently. We open the two rooms into one big room; the children have more space and it's about play and expression. The dress-up clothes box is out, we will spend time out of doors, there is supervised swimming, music therapy and an outing with parents each Friday.
"The summer camp allows the teaching staff to spend more time with the children who have been with us for many years and are now leaving so we get to say a proper goodbye."
Pre-school "graduates" move on to mainstream education, to another service or to Enable Ireland's own special school on site.
Patrick Kavanagh, aged five and a half, has been attending Sandymount with his mother Sharon Fortune since he was six months old. He attends the Montessori group three days a week, his local playgroup in Shankill two days a week and is enrolled in his local primary school, starting in September.
Patrick, who is tall and blonde and has a big smile, has cerebral palsy, which affects his movement and his speech. He uses a communication tool rather like a laptop with pictures.
"He loves coming here. He calls it little school, while the other playgroup is big school," his mother says.
"Patrick is very friendly and outgoing but he can't play with other kids cycling up and down on the road at home, which is very hard for him. Here he is the same as everyone else. He will have a special needs assistant when he goes to school, though I don't know how he will feel about that because he is very independent."
Caitríona Allen from Ranelagh was looking for a playgroup for her daughter Deirdre, now three and a half years old, when she heard of Enable Ireland's integrated approach.
"I was immediately interested. As a teenager in Donegal, I helped out at the swimming pool with children who had challenging behaviour and I have retained an interest in special education.
"We have a playgroup at the end of our road in Ranelagh, but I wanted to come the extra distance with Deirdre to give her this experience," says Allen.
"From the beginning I found the atmosphere very welcoming. I liked the energy and there is a great focus on communication. Deirdre goes to a Gaelscoil pre-school in September. She has loved it here - she calls it going 'on holidays'. I don't know where she picked that up, but it might be the way she still associates it with last year's summer camp."