Back to Newsrack
Opening up classrooms to all children has resulted in an explosion in the hiring of integrating aides. Due to team or individual parent pressure, administrators fund positions and hire personnel as an expedient way to include children. Integrating aides, critical to the successful integration of many children with disabilities, need administrators to think through and act upon the many issues surrounding their hire and work expectations. For example, what attributes are needed by the person filling the position? Are there clear, written role definitions? What are the training and supervision opportunities? What will be the impact of having other adults in the classroom? Administrators must supply the answers. Attributes Attributes are what people bring to a position as part of their personality and style. These are as important as skills and knowledge to do the job. They are analyzed as part of the interview and reference check process. Critical attributes for integrating aides include: interest in and experience with children, ability to be organized, flexible, caring, able to get along with others, and able to take direction. Clear role definitions Exactly what are the expectations of the integrating aide? How is this position related to that of the classroom teacher, the special education staff, and the therapists? What are the physical requirements? These are critical components needing delineation in a job description. Too often the aide is expected to do the planning, the curricula decision-making, and most of the adult interaction with a child. These are not appropriate tasks for this position. If a person is expected to change diapers or to be able to lift 40 pounds, the potential hire must be aware of these requirements. The administrator is responsible for hiring and assigning staff who is willing to do and capable of the required tasks. Training requirements The integrating aide position is so important to the successful inclusion of many children that it should be viewed as a potential career, rather than a stopping off place for a certified teacher waiting for a teacher opening. The concept of the integrating aide as a career can be lost to the misguided notion that anyone can be an aide". A structured training program in place for each aide hired provides orientation to the philosophy of inclusion and opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for success. What is the training program content, who teaches it, when it is taught, and who participates are all the questions which the administrator should answer before placing any integrating aide in the classroom. Supervision Integrating aides require direct supervision and at least yearly evaluations. Too often no one is clearly assigned to do this. It’s the building principal’s responsibility; it’s the teacher’s responsibility; it’s a special education person’s responsibility, i.e., it’s no one’s responsibility. This is one of the biggest breakdowns in the administration of special education programming. Poor supervision places the integrating aide in the position of making decisions beyond his/her training and responsibilities. This reduces the effectiveness of the position and opens the school system to negligence charges. Impact on the classroom Integrating aides are hard-working. They usually work with children who have multiple needs – from diapering to reading support. Sometimes their assignments are children whose level of progress is very slow and the aide wonders what impact s/he really is having. One way to prevent burn-out is assigning an integrating aide to the classroom or grade level, rather than a one on one aide to an individual child. This structure clearly puts the classroom teacher in charge, allows all children the benefit of an additional adult in the class, indicates a sharing of responsibility, eliminates potential parent-aide-child difficulties (see article page 2), and gives the aide much needed variety in her day. Documented need Teams can be too quick to decide the need for an integrating aide. Some children have labor intensive needs (feeding, toileting, etc.) which clearly call for access to an additional adult. Some children have behavior that requires closer supervision than one adult in a classroom can appropriately provide. If the team finds itself in a position of asking for more than one integrating aide to a regular classroom, it should examine the make-up of the class assignments and/or how one aide can be used. Integrating aides are under –utilized in classrooms where whole group instruction and teacher directed activities are prevalent. If "best practices" are not the classroom norm, aides are not utilized to reduce teacher: pupil ratios and therefore are not needed. Fulfilling our responsibilities A child’s needs should be examined in the context of the classroom. Developmentally appropriate curricula, use of a variety of teaching methods and materials, access to technology, a planned, structured day, and teacher weekly planning time with specialists are much more important than an additional integrating aide. These things are harder to accomplish than hiring an aide. It is easier to keep fooling ourselves that we have fulfilled our responsibilities to children by providing many adults and many special services rather than changing the learning environment.
Paraprofessionals who work with children often form a special bond with the children and with their parents. This is especially true for children who have severe disabilities and their parents. Parents see the paraprofessional as their own personal link to the school; a person who will watch out for their child and report back to them about what is really happening in the classroom. This type of role relationship is unhealthy for all involved. If a child has a single person designated as a one on one aide, that child is apt to become separated from the rest of the class by this adult figure. This is an unusual interference to children’s natural reaching out to each other. An adult should not become a barrier to these informal, yet critically important times in a child’s social development. If a child has a single person designated as a one on one aide that adult becomes the sole teacher of that child. This creates a situation where the child does not have the clear advantages of professional instruction and interest from the person in charge of the classroom curriculum. If a child has a single person designated as a one on one aide, parents often create their communication link to their child’s education through this person, not the team. Thus, the parents do not obtain a broader view of what is happening with their child in class, and what is more important, why. If a child has a single person designated as a one on one aide other adults can easily slip into the perception that only that person truly understands or cares about the child. The paraprofessional then views him or herself as the critical factor in that child’s success, safety, and happiness in school. Parents can fall into this trap and become adamant that the designated aide is the only one who can be with their child. The reality often is that the unhealthy emotional needs of the adults are being met, not the healthy emotional growth of the child. No human being requires or wants constant attention from a single person. Somehow we forget this when it comes to children with disabilities. A variety of interpersonal relationships, solitude, independent work, and leisure time are normal aspects of a healthy life. The opportunity for this is available in typical classrooms. The team should not deny access to this opportunity to children with disabilities by assigning a single person as a one on one aide.
Seizures – Types And Causes One emergency which the Integrating Aide must know how to handle is what to do when a seizure occurs. A seizure is a physical condition caused by sudden, brief changes in how the neurons in the brain work. During a seizure there is a build –up of excessive electrical charges in some nerve cells of the brain. The brain responds to this condition by losing control over certain muscles in the body. When this happens, a person experiences a seizure. About one percent of the U.S. population (or more than 2 million people) have epilepsy, which causes seizures. In many cases, the cause of the epilepsy cannot be found. For others, the epilepsy can be attributed to head injury, brain tumors, genetic conditions, lead poisoning, brain development before birth, illness such as meningitis or encephalitis, or even severe cases of the measles. Epilepsy is not contagious!
The above is taken from Supporting Children in the Classroom: An Integrating Aide's Handbook, AGH Associates, Inc., page 101 and page 103.
Downloaded at schoolhousedoor.com |
