Inclusion of special needs students into mainstream classroom?

Question

Inclusive practice is a philisophical shift...time will help improve it, but what else do you think is needed to make it successful?

Answer 1

there are PLENTIFUL of research literature exploring this question. besides managment/administration/legistration and funding policies, the most important of all is providing the "best fit" for each and every child with special needs.

to explore what makes it successful, start by looking at previous failures. attempts to inclusion fail bcos some children's needs are so disparent from the mainstream population and their special needs simply cannot be addressed within a mainstream classroom.

therefore, i would tink that the key to success is to (1) make clear distinctions between the learning needs of the special needs + normal kids (2) make clear distinctions within the special needs children (e.g. ADHD vs autism vs Down syndrome) (3) provision of professional staff to support the individual needs of these children within the general classroom.

it is not about "blending" the child into the mainstream classroom. it is about the mainstream classroom catering to the individual needs of the special needs child.

Answer 2

I think that principals need to stop seeing it as a way of cutting staff and realize more resource teachers are needed. Also, resource teachers need assistance with scheduling so they can be where they are needed when they are needed. Too often included students are scattered all through a grade level in different classes, so there is no hope of one resource teacher being able to help them all. Finally like any new a specialized way of instructing students, training needs to be provided so that both regular ed teachers and resource teachers learn how to work with each other.

Unfortunately, the inclusion people are asking teachers and kids to jump off a cliff without a parachute.

Answer 3

The biggest thing that needs to be a remembered in this situation is this:: NOT EVERY CHILD IS READY OR CAPABLE OF BEING MAINSTREAMED.......

Some children are ready and able to function in a regular classroom with little or no help...others are rushed through the process and are obliously not ready for the situation, others may never be ready for the mainstream classroom....each child needs to be evaluated within a few weeks of being mainstreamed, to re-evaluate the individual situation.....

Also teachers and other professionals in the classrooms need to have the proper training or at least have been able to observe the individual child in their restricted classroom to see what the child is capable of and how they interact in a small group before they are assimilated into the "regular" classroom

Answer 4

I think for inclusion to work, the regular ed. teacher has to be open minded.Not only to the child with special needs but to having another adult in the classroom,the child's one/one aide.The teacher and the aide need to know who is responsible for what,and work well together.There has to be a good plan in place.The teacher needs to be the teacher,and be creative,flexible and special.Special to do the extra work it does take to have a special child in the classroom.Inclusion may not work for everyone but when done successfully, what everyone gets at the end of the year is so worth it, the child with the special needs, the other students,and the teacher!

Answer 5

Administrators need to be proactive. Plans need to be inplace, teachers and paraprofessionals need to be trained and on board for the task at hand. Throwing individuals together at the last minute with the hope that this will work only insures stress and failure.

I've been teaching special education for 6 years and in the two school districts I've worked in I have seen the good, the bad, and the very very ugly.

Until there is money put into supporting special education personnel wise and training wise it isn't going to be as successful as it can be.

Answer 6

I hate inclusion for the fact that it forces our kids to work beyond their frustration level and receive bad grades trying to keep up with the other nondisabled students. It increases the negative effects already imposed by the ed. system making the kids feel inferior, depressed and not wanting to go to school. My childs teacher has an aid in her class. But they don't just go in and help the kids they're supposed to help. They circulate through the whole classroom and help everybody. The school told me it was because of the new IDEA laws with regard to overidentification. Regardless of what they want to pin blame on our children don't get the quality of assistance they need to perform work required of them. God willing it will improve in the future, but it's too late for my kids now and teachers don't care at our school.

Answer 7

I think the biggest issue is to stop letting students fly through levels of schooling when they haven't mastered the previous material. If we restructured the entire system so that there were several standards in each subject at each level that must be passed until a student could move on; the nation would be much more educated.

The students who hate school would study harder so they could get out sooner, and the smart students that suffer in boring classes could work up to their potential. This would benefit everyone. The catch is that the stigma of being held back would need to be eliminated.

Enough of my utopian view, I suppose, because this will never happen, but I think that paradigm would benefit everyone.

Answer 8

Maintaining one on one sessions to help the special needs child cope with having less support in the mainstream classroom.

My (Kindergartener) son with autism could not cope well with being one in a class of 23 with no supports but a teacher and one assistant. He cried everyday after school. My K'er with speech apraxia and microcephaly was one of 22 with a teacher, no assistant. He was also miserable everyday.

When in an class for disabled students only, they had fewer problems and made greater progress!

To be successful, additional support must also still be available for the special needs child involved as a service pulled out from the main classroom occassionally......

Answer 9

Teachers who teach to the different modalities; visual, auditory, kinesthetic..etc
Teachers who accommodate and modify work
Teachers with some background in SPED
Schools with sensitivity training to accept differing abilities
A legislative which understand the need to pay highly qualified teachers

Answer 10

hey there was trying to answer one of your other questions but you put it to a vote as I was answering..It will be much more useful to you than the answers you did receive. Please forgive me for posting this here for you but thought it would be very useful to you. This pertains to your question about Accommodation Plans:

The following is from the US Office of Special Education Programs : Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities.

Accommodations are commonly categorized in four ways: presentation, response, setting, and timing and scheduling:

Presentation Accommodations—Allow students to access information in ways that do not require them to visually read standard print. These alternate modes of access are auditory, multi-sensory, tactile, and visual.

Response Accommodations—Allow students to complete activities, assignments, and assessments in different ways or to solve or organize problems using some type of assistive device or organizer.

Setting Accommodations—Change the location in which a test or assignment is given or the conditions of the assessment setting.

Timing and Scheduling Accommodations—Increase the allowable length of time to complete an assessment or assignment and perhaps change the way the time is organized.


If you go to the webiste they have tons of examples;
to give you an idea, this is what they have listed for Presentation Accommodations:

Visual Presentation Accommodations:

Large Print - Large print editions of tests and instructional materials are required for some students with visual impairments. It is recommended that regular print materials be manipulated to reformat test items and enlarge or change the font as needed. All text and graphic materials—including labels and captions on pictures, diagrams, maps, charts, exponential numbers, notes, and footnotes—must be presented in at least 18-point type for students who need large print. Students, working with their teachers, need to find an optimal print size and determine the smallest print that can still be read. (Copyright issues may need to be addressed). It is important for the print to be clear, with high contrast between the color of the print and the color of the background. When using large-print classroom material, consider the weight, size, and awkwardness of books. Large-print books are now available that look very similar to the same books in standard print.

Magnification Devices - Some students with visual impairments read regular print materials and enlarge the print by using magnification devices. These include eyeglass-mounted magnifiers, free standing or handheld magnifiers, enlarged computer monitors, or computers with screen enlargement programs. Some students also use Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) to enlarge print and display printed material with various image enhancements on a screen.

Sign Language - Sign language interpreters may be required for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. Sometimes an interpreter is only needed or allowed to sign instructions and to assist in communication. Some students may need all print materials interpreted while learning to read print. Interpreters need to be able to translate in the same method of sign language typically used by the student (e.g., American Sign Language, Cued Speech). Interpreters must not paraphrase, clarify, elaborate, or provide assistance with the meaning of words, intent of test questions, or responses to test items. Graphic materials may be described but should also be available in print or tactile formats. A standard video presentation of a test in sign language may be used to increase quality, consistency, pacing, and accuracy.

Tactile Presentation Accommodations:

Braille - Braille is a method of reading a raised-dot code with the fingertips. Not all students who are blind read Braille fluently or choose Braille as their primary mode of reading. Even if they use it as their primary mode of reading, Braille users should also build skills in using audiotape, compact discs, and speech synthesis. Decisions also need to be made about whether a student will use contracted or uncontracted Braille. Check to see if practice tests are available in Braille. Although still uncommon, "refreshable Braille displays" are electronic devices used to read and write text. The device is connected to a computer and produces Braille output on the Braille display. The Nemeth Braille Code is a system of Braille that makes it possible to convey technical expressions in a written medium to students who are blind or visually impaired. The Nemeth Braille Code contains numerous technical symbols that occur in mathematics and science.

Tactile Graphics - Tactile graphic images provide graphic information through fingers instead of eyes. Graphic material (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, diagrams, illustrations) is presented in a raised format (paper or thermoform). Tactile sensitivity (recognizing graphic images through touch) is less discriminating than visual reading, making many diagrams too complicated to understand without significant additional information. Additional information can be created through word descriptions.

Auditory Presentation Accommodations :

Human Reader - A qualified person may be provided to read orally to students who are unable to decode text visually. Readers should use even inflection so that the student does not receive any cues by the way the information is read. It is important for readers to read test items/questions and text word for word exactly as written. Readers may not clarify, elaborate, or provide assistance to students. Readers need to be familiar with the terminology and symbols specific to the content. This is especially important for high school mathematics and science. Graphic materials may be described but should also be made available in print or tactile formats. Readers must be provided to students on an individual basis—not to a group of students. A student should have the option of asking a reader to slow down or repeat text. This cannot occur when a person is reading to an entire group of students.

Audio Tape or Compact Disk - Written tests and instructional materials are prerecorded on an audio cassette or compact disk (CD) that a student accesses by listening. Classroom directions, assignments, and lectures could also be recorded. When taping lectures, students should sit near the front of the classroom, use a small microphone, and tape only parts of the class that can clearly be replayed (e.g., turn the tape recorder off during small group discussions). Advantages include ease of operation and low costs. The greatest difficulty with an audio cassette is rewinding if a student wants to repeat material. This is not as difficult with a CD that can be programmed. Audio versions of tests and other written materials need to be supplemented with a print or Braille version of the text so a student can have access to complicated graphic material. When using a two-sided cassette tape, students may need to be reminded to play the other side. Spot check audio formats before use to make certain everything is working properly. Copyright issues may need to be addressed. Audiotapes and CDs must be signed out, collected, and kept in a secure location.

Books on Tape - Books on Tape is a service provided by Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic for which students and schools can apply. Students call a toll-free number to borrow textbooks for a specified period of time. A special tape player may also be needed.

Recorded Books - Recorded Books are produced on tape or CD and can be borrowed from libraries or purchased from bookstores. Many online bookstores also carry recorded books, making access even easier. Some of the tapes contain the full book and some are abridged (e.g., Reader's Digest version). These tapes play on standard cassette or CD players. Tapes or CDs for children often include a book for following along. Students who can see print may want to obtain a print copy of a taped book to follow along.

Audio Amplification Devices - Some students may require audio amplification devices in addition to hearing aids to increase clarity. A teacher may use an amplification system when working with students in classroom situations that contain a great deal of ambient noise.

Multi-Sensory Presentation Accommodations :

Video Tape and Descriptive Video - Many books have been made into movies, giving students a visual and auditory way to access literature. Videotapes are now often closed-captioned. Captions are visible when activated by a decoder. Built-in decoders are required on all 13-inch or larger television sets. Descriptive video is a descriptive narration of key visual elements, making television programs, feature films, home videos, and other visual media accessible to people who are visually impaired. Key visual elements include actions, gestures, facial expressions, and scene changes. Inserted within the natural pauses in dialogue, audio descriptions of important visual details help to engage viewers with the story.

Screen Reader - A screen reader is a computer application that converts text to synthesized speech or to Braille (read with an auxiliary Braille display). Computer literacy is essential for screen reader use. Screen reading software allows students to listen to text as it is displayed on a computer screen. Students can choose to listen to any text multiple times. Some products work by having a student lay a page on a scanner. When a student activates the machine, it reads the text aloud using an optical character recognition (OCR) system. Mathematics formulas are normally displayed on screen as graphics that cannot be read by a screen reader.

Visual Cues - Students who are deaf or hard of hearing need visual cues in the classroom. Teachers should keep their faces visible to the class when speaking, pass out printed material before class, repeat questions asked by other students, and summarize classroom discussion.

Notes, Outlines, and Instructions - Written notes may be taken by another student and copied. A teacher could provide a print copy of instructions and assignments. Students could also be given a detailed outline of the material to be covered during the class period and an outline of material to be covered (syllabus) at the beginning of each grading period.

Talking Materials - Many classroom materials are now available with auditory components. These include calculators, "talking" clocks, thermometers, timers, and voltmeters.