Fernández Monteira, Sabela2025-07-112025-07-112025-04-28Monteira, S.F. Creative Approaches for Inclusive STEM Learning in Early Years. Early Childhood Educ J (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01922-x1082-3301https://hdl.handle.net/10347/42444This research aims to contribute to the field of inclusive early childhood education. It is a case study that explores creative approaches to STEM (science, technology, education, and mathematics) education in the context of an inquiry-based design project. The participants are three children (two girls and one boy, 6 to 7 years old) with diverse cognitive abilities and their teacher. The children created and tested prototypes, identified problems and developed solutions. The two research objectives are to examine children’s creative products and processes; and to identify the features of the pedagogical approach that supported their engagement in the project. The data set consists of classroom video recordings and pictures, unstructured interviews with the teacher, and field notes. Results show that all children were able to successfully develop original and functional products through creative processes. In addition, the teacher’s strategies that supported the children’s performances are identified. Her practices were responsive and positioned the children’s emotions at the center of teaching. It is suggested that a creative approach, paired with tailored scaffolding in an emotionally safe environment fosters inclusion.eng© The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/STEMInclusionDesign-based learningInquiryEmotionsCreativityjournal article10.1007/s10643-025-01922-xopen access