Do you support or oppose inclusion for children of special needs?

Question

How should the inclusive classroom look for the following children with various disabilities:

mild learning disability/speech impairment?

emotional disturbance?

autism?

mental retardation?

developmental delay?

Do you think inclusion works only for some individuals? Are their others who should not be included in mainstream educational experiences/activities?

Answer 1

The only people necessary to "oppose or support" inclusion are the parents and/or that child. Thats their decision and no one elses business. The parent can remove their child if it is not working for them. Everyone has the right to mainstream education if they desire it.

Answer 2

First let me say that I am the proud mother of 2 autistic boys, ages 4 & 6 (soon to be 5 &7), diagnosed when they were each age 3.

In my personal experience I DO NOT want my children with a mainstream classroom.  They would be completly disruptive, the other children would suffer, and my children would not benefit.  My children are not in a private or special school.  They go to our local public school, but in that school there is a special classroom that my 6 year old is in that they call a "self contained" classroom.  Every child in this room (and there are only 5) has some kind of disability or developmental delay.  The teacher has a special certification for children with handicaps and special needs and there is a teachers aide that is always present.  My 4 year old is in a preschool room, also in the same building where 1/2 are delayed to varying degrees and the other half are "typical".  In my 6 year olds case he gets one on one learing and his room joins the rest of the school for lunch, recess, and other all school activites.  So he does get that interaction with "typical" kids that the law is striving for.  My 4 year old is already mixed in with "typical" kids, but as it is only preschool, it's a different story, with different reasons.

I do agree with your question a bit.  The law has to talk about inclusion because they have to be politically correct and not make people feel discriminated against due to their "handicap".  But at the same time there are people on the other side of the equation who think that their "NORMAL" child will suffer due to some other kid that has problems.  And the law provides for that too.  There are some children with "special needs" that CAN and DO join mainstream classrooms, and you'd have a hard time telling that they have a disability.  But then there are others like my 6 year old that does not speak, not because he is unable, but because he does not comprehend.  There is NO WAY on earth he could fit into a normal classroom.  That's the problem with autisum.  My son can spell anything you tell him to, "spell mommy" or "spell Toy Story" & he'll do it verbally or in writting.  He can read to.  But you say "what is your name" or "what color is this", and all he does is repeat what you said.  He knows his name, he knows his colors, he just can't use them functionally.  Children like mine require special teachers & classrooms.  People that understand what is going on in his head.  You can't get that in a normal classroom setting, or with a teacher that has the normal credentials.  And I don't want any other child to suffer because mine is taking up all the teachers time.  So in conclusion, I do agree with you.  There are some that can, and some that can't, literally.  And I'm not ashamed at all to admit that my child isn't "normal" and can't do all "normal" things.  I'm not going to be that parent that is in denial & insist that my child be put with everyone else regardless of how it effects the rest of the class.  What we are doing is working great.  It's the best thing for my son, & he has progressed by leaps and bounds this year.

Answer 3

It does not matter what I or you support.  It matters what the law says.  It says that every child is entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment.  In the case of a child with special needs, the Least Restrictive Enviroment is determined by the IEP Team.  The IEP is a legally-binding doument.  It must be followed, whatever it says.  If a child is not going to be in the general education for the entire day, the IEP team must document when and why that is the case.

Answer 4

Children with mild disabilities do just fine in an inclusion setting.  The ones with moderate to severe disabilities can still participate in general ed, but the teacher needs to adjust his/her expectation level of what each particular student can do.  Of course, if the child has substantial difficulty with independent work, they will need an educational assistant to go with them to general ed. classes to help bridge the gap.

We have been doing inclusion at the middle school I work at for years, and most of the time it works out great for the kids.  If not, we go back to the table and make a different plan.  It can work, but the teachers have to be on board.

Answer 5

If defiantely depends on the individual child-it should be looked at as an option for all children in all of teh categories you mentioned

Inclusion is not an option in cases where the students needs cannopt adequately be met without major disruption to the mainstream class

Answer 6

It depends on the student and what they can personally handle or how they learn best.

Certainly I would never dream of recommending a mild LD or speech impaired student in anything other than consultative, or if needed, inclusion class; at least to begin with at initial placement.

That's why we have LRE (least restrictive environment), so students are not lumped into an unsuitable environment. In days of old in the US, if students had a problem they were shuttled off to a room under the stairs never to be seen by the "regular" folks. It didn't matter what that problem was, blind, deaf, mild intellectual disability, Downs, etc. If they had problems that appeared to impact them behaviorally, they were shuttled off to a padded room, even those with medical problems that could have been helped with proper medication, or even those who couldn't be helped but had something like Huntington's.

Answer 7

As someone who, despite had both a mild learning disability and a speech impairment (Yes, that is right I'm a "learning disabled r****d"), still manage to go to college and maintain a 4.00 GPA. Children with these kind of disabilities should be allowed to be included in classrooms with the "normal" children regardless.

Grant it the emotional disturbed should be seen by the school therapist for their emotional problems but they should still be allowed to be with the "normal" students. Not all school shootings have been done by emotional disturbed students. Just look at the Amish School shooting back on 10/2/06. That massacre was done by a 32 year-old truck driver.

I have a nephew that has a mild form of autism and back when he was tested back in 1998 at the age of 5 and he already had 11th-12th grade reading level. BTW, it has been reported that Albert Einstein had a mild form of autism. Should Einstein, the greatest mind of the 20th century, have been denied an equal education all because he was deemed a "r****d" by his school?  

I hate the term "mental retardation" with a passion but even if these students were "retarded" they should at least be given a chance to see how well they can perform in a regular classroom and how well they behave before the school system makes a judgement call. As far as the other students picking on this student, this just means that school administrators would actually have to do their jobs for a change and make sure that the other students don't tease this student instead of just sitting in their offices on their lard butts watching the seconds tick by.

I was developmental delayed; yet, I still function like the regular everyday "normal" person. BTW, I also failed to mention that Albert Einstein was also developmental delayed.

I'm living proof that inclusion does work. I would not expect to see a student with a severe/ profound disability in the classroom with the "normal" students but I would expect the school board to give students who have mild/ moderate learning disabilities at least a chance at an equal education.

Answer 8

Inclusion is something to be determined on a case by case basis.  Most students benefit from being around "normal" children, at least for part of the day.  Some kids can be fully integrated with just a little extra support.  You also have to weigh in the safety of the other children.  A child with severe behavior problems might present a risk because said children sometimes have violent tendencies.  In that case they need some isolation in a more restrictive environment.

-S