Do special needs students should all participate in inclusion?

Question

In my own opinion, this is not always truth. Special needs children in a general Ed classroom are subject to other kids comments which can be very cruel. Also when they see that they can.y perform as good as their peers , they feel inferior and frustrated. Many parents feel that a general classroom is the best setting for their children with special needs. Students in a self-contained classroom are happier because they don't have the pressure of trying to level up with their peers. Also, kids can act really cruel to them by making negative remarks about their performance in the class.

Answer 1

As the sister, and the aunt, of people with significant developmental disabilities, I would love to be able to say that my sister and my nephew had wonderful experiences being included with their age-group peers. In a perfect world, kids with disabilties would be able to get an appropriate education in a general classroom setting, and they would be socially accepted by their peers.

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. You are correct that children in full inclusion may be subjected to cruelty from the other students, and that they may come to realize that they are not achieving the same levels as their classmates, which can lead to frustration and low self-esteem.

I am a special education teacher in a self-contained classroom and have had numerous students placed in my class after they have been in full inclusion. Usually these kids do have a poor self-image and have had some behavior issues. Also, the one-to-one aides that they have had have been well-meaning and kind people who lacked the training and experience that would have been needed to make the inclusion placement successful. Without exception, all of these students have made significant progress academically when they were placed in a Special Day Class, and they have all improved in self-esteem and enjoyment of school after they came to us. We have a smaller group of students and more staff, and everyone has an opportunity to feel success based on his or her own progress, without being compared to others.

There are always exceptions, of course - I am sure that there are any number of kids who have done well in full-inclusion throughout their school careers. And I have referred a few of my students, who had high levels of academic achievement and/or excellent social skills, to full-inclusion.

But let's be honest here. One of the big reasons that full inclusion is not the best situation for many people is that we all tend to socialize with people who have much in common with us. I love my sister who has Down Syndrome, and I call her and email her and send her letters, and I take her out with me when I am in her town. But our social circles are completely separate. She has a wonderful circle of close friends, including a man that she considers her fiance. They are sweet and supportive, and they were there for her when our father, and then our brother, died. All of her friends have developmental disabilities. I also have a wonderful group of supportive friends, and they all have average or above IQs. That's just life - we bond with those who have similarities to ourselves.

I have asked many teachers, social workers, parents, and advocates this question: How many friends do you have who have significant developmental disabilities? Almost all are embarrassed to admit that they honestly don't have any. That's not a shameful thing - it's just the way it is.

We all need to accept that there are people who have different needs and ability levels, and we need to treat them all with dignity and respect. But the reality is that people whose cognitive abilities or behaviors are out of the mainstream are not going to form strong social bonds with more typical members of society. I know I will receive lots of "thumbs down" responses for this, but I am speaking the truth based on more than 40 years of personal and professional experience. So all I can do is reiterate that, in a perfect world, there would be no need for self-contained special day classes, because every student's needs would be met in a general ed classroom. Sadly, we don't live in that perfect world.

Answer 2

As students become older, they should be given the opportunity to express where they prefer to learn. When they are very lyoung, it is important that they be with their peers as much as possible without them disrupting the learning environment and them being able to benefit from the general setting. Inclusion is not a panacea. However, we live in a world where we interact with each other everywhere. All children should have that opportunity in the school setting. As well, general education children should learn how to accept and respect differences. They should also learn to develop a compassion for everyone.

I do not agree that all children should be in a general education class all day. It is not practical nor is it always beneficial for all children. However, having competent teachers with a heterogenous class could in the long run benefit society on a whole. We just have to be careful to give students what they need not have one prescription for all children.

Answer 3

This is like saying that all children, no matter how physically limited they are, should be allowed to be on the track team, the football team, or whatever. Inclusion is NOT a good idea. Not only do normal kids make fun of them and bully them, but, as you say, the "special needs" kids see that they can not perform as well as the so-called normal kids and feel more frustrated or more "useless", "worthless", etc. Inclusion hurts everyone: the autistic child, the Down's Sydndrome or other special needs child; the "normal" child; the above-average child. This is like having a snail, a turtle, a rabbit and a sports car all compete in a race. It is not fair to any one. Believe me, my son, (a Down's Syndrome) was forced to go to school; he is now dead. If he could have been allowed to stay at home, he could have at least been happy.

Answer 4

Schools cannot deny services to a child with special needs. In addition, according to IDEA 2004, district's must have a "Child Find" department. They are not only obligated to serve special needs kids, they are required to seek them out. The school has a very good referral system for working with kids that seem to have special needs. The child goes through a child study process to see if the child can be helped with more intensive academic services. It is only after two such plans that children are referred for testing. With Response to Intervention, they will actually have to go through three tiers of regular ed before being referred. Usually schools and teachers are vary aware when a child has special needs, but not all children get special education. The child has to show a pattern of failing to learn. So you can be the weirdest kid ever, but if your learning and behavior are OK, they are not going to refer you for services. When you do see special ed kids in regular ed, it is usually for the purpose of inclusion. And there are cases where the parent wants the child included when it may not be the best thing. There are no costs imposed on the parents of special needs students. The school however, gets more money for each special needs child, depending on the severity of the disability.

Answer 5

My brother is a special needs child and I have to say that in some way I agree with your views.

During primary school my brother was taunted by the other students because he couldnt perform tasks or sports with the ability that they could. This could not be attributed to the fact that his needs were not introduced to the others at an early age as he was with these students since the start of kindergarten.

Now he is in Year 8 and is in the Special Education Unit of the local high school and is doing really well. The classes are more focused and suited to his needs. He is however, included in full school events and participates in classes such as art, cooking and sport with the main stream kids.

so inclusion is important for special needs students but at the same time they need to have a learning environment that suits their needs.

Answer 6

Inclusion should be one of many options avialable to parents and special ed students. While you do make some valid opinions, I tend to think there are other things that both the parents and the school should take into consideration before considering inclusion:

1. Can the child maintain the work load (with in reasonable limits) that the rest of the class is expected to do? A child with the academic readiness of a first grader should generally not be in a class of sixth graders. Inclusion placement is determined by chronological age, not developmental and that can make it tough when you have kids with profound developmental and education delays.
2. Does the child have any behavioral or health issues that would make inclusion either too difficult or too dangerous? Children with severe behavioral issues (becoming physically aggressive when angry, flipping desk and chairs, etc )or who have severely compromised immune systems often need to be in a smaller, more easily controlled enviroment. Even the best teacher and the most dedicated aide would have a tough time keeping children with extreme behavioral issues from becoming a problem.
3. In line with the last point, would the child's needs/issues have a negative impact on the rest of the classes ability to learn or the teacher's ability to teach? A classroom teach can have up to 30 students to teach, a tight schedule to cover everything and keep the class moving at a faster pace to meet all her required course and testing goals. Many special needs students would not only have a tough time keeping up (and experience the feelings of failure and frustration you mentioned above) but if they have some of the behavioral issues perviously mentioned, may keep the teacher and the rest of the class from being able to work.
4. Does the school have the personel and willingness to truely make inclusion work? A teacher needs to have solid experience working with a variety of needs to teach in an inclusion setting. Her aides need to have been trained to work with the child or children they are assigned to. The admin of the school needs to be readily available and willing to step in when needed and the district needs to have ready funds needed to pay for the additional services (aides, adaptive technology, etc.) Too often schools see inclusion as a way to save money on special ed when in reality, successful inclusion can cost just as much as a placement in a special ed classroom.

We have expereinced both inclusion and special ed placement in pursuing our son's education (he has moderate autism). While his inclusion teacher had all the skills anyone could ask for, the experience and the full support of the school and district, in the end we felt it was not the best place for our son. We moved to a new district and quickly discovered the new school' idea of inclusion was to put him in with an untrained teacher, an inexperienced aide and to let him do as he wanted all day. After a few months of thier having behavioral issues, they were more than ready to agree to a placement in a class specifically for autistic children and we began to see dramatic improvements. It has been four years...our minimally verbal child now talks in complete sentences , with greatly improved understanability. His negative behaviors have all but vanished..it has been over 6 months since his last tantrum. He is more independent than ever and his cognitive development is catching up to his chronological aide (he is about a grade level behind).

Inclusion can be the perfect setting...for some kids. However, in many systems it is becoming the only setting..stand alone special ed classes are slowly disappearing as the education budgets get tighter. It is the hope of any successful special ed program to get it's students back into an inclusion setting whenever it is possible and appropriate, but it should not be the defining goal. Parents need to fight not only for the best choice for thier child, but for the idea of HAVING choices.

Answer 7

ok well in my opinion, i say inclusion all the way but, i understand what you are saying and that too is a concern of mine for my future classrooms. However, i think that inclusion works best when implemented early on in the kindergarten and preschool years. These are the vital years where typically developing children are becoming to accept all the diversity around them. and this is also where interventions for the special needs students should be starting to be implemented and their levels assessed to determine whether their placement in a general classroom will be the least restrictive environment to give them better learning opportunities. also what needs to be addressed in the sensitivity to the child with special needs and whether their needs can be met in that classroom environment, they need extra support and the teacher can foster the sensitivity from peers by giving them roles in responsibility as an example, where they can have study buddies, or peer tutoring groups. i have seen this work well before.
the other end of this debate is that the student with special needs may become the 'hero' of the classroom and the students will flock to that person and basically do everything for them, i have seen this happen in classrooms before and in my opinion it is detrimental to the student with special needs, it could possibly encourage 'learned helplessness'.

another point on the inclusion debate, is that special schools are seen to be not supportive of inclusion. but on this point i argue that, they are, they are simply the least restrictive environment for the students placed there. all the placements undergo strict assessment in which criteria which has to be met in order for that student to be there in the first place. the special school community is a segregated one, that is inclusive within the environment..

hope any of my rant has helped with your question!!

Answer 8

This is true but if you have a good teacher and she makes thing clear to her students then there shouldn't be a problem in the class room. I am a mother with a child with special needs and he has always been in a classroom with his peers with the exceptions of a few classes but over all his peers just love him when hes there. The teacher always makes it a point to have a student in the class to take him either to lunch or the library or just walk him to another class. You have to get the other students involved with his education as well.

Answer 9

I think for some students, inclusion with accommodations and modifications works out great. My son is a 6th grade student with high functioning autism. He is mostly included, however receives extra resource time during his day. He works on a modified curriculum, but only the amount of work is modified, he does the same level work as the other students. He has a paraprofessional's support, however the IEP team will be weaning the para's support over the next 2 school years, and we're all hoping that he will not need para support when he enters high school in 9th grade. He's really beginning to resent the para in his life--not the person, but the idea behind it, he really wants to be like the other kids. Speaking of the other kids, they are NOTHING but completely supportive of him. Granted, these are kids who mostly have been around him since kindergarten, but these kids have been TAUGHT to be supportive of the kids like my son. Kids have been known to fight (not literally) over who gets to sit with him at lunch, and when he was doing his lunch group, the kids would all line up to get to eat their lunch with him. He realizes that he has to work harder than the other kids, just to keep up--yeah, that frustrates him, but you know what? If we're to meet our goal of having our son be a productive member of society who can support himself--rather than be a drain on society living off disability payments, etc.--then he best learn early on that he's going to have to work harder than other people. He'll say it isn't fair, he's right, it's not fair, but it's life.

This works for him. However, I know several kids who are in self contained classrooms who fell flat on their faces in inclusive settings, and are now thriving in a more self-contained room.

Also, on the kids being cruel, no teacher should tolerate teasing/bullying, etc., for a minute. Not towards any child, but especially not towards a child with special needs. If your school is tolerant of that attitude, then inclusion is less likely to work. In my experience, inclusion works when EVERYONE in the school building--from the principal all the way down to the lunch room ladies--believes in it, and realizes the benefit not only to the special needs students (who don't learn to model behaviors seen in a self-contained room), but also to the "typical" students, who at a young age can learn compassion, empathy, and genuine kindness towards those less fortunate than they are.

It's called an Individualized Educational Plan for a reason...it's INDIVIDUALIZED. What is successful for one student probably won't work for another.

Answer 10

Inclusion is not for all special needs students. It all depends on the type of disability that the student has and the amount of support that the student has. For example, my learning disabled HS students and my HS students with autism spectrum disorders are fully included, but they have the support of paraprofessionals in the classes. The also have academic support from special education teachers. On the other hand, my HS developmentally delayed students are not included (except one girl who is included in choir). Our students are on a prevocational/vocational track and their classes are geared to their learning style and their learning needs. Hope this helps.