Teacher Experts - Haggart on Inclusion (Archives)

Ann G. Haggart, Ed.M.
Topic: Inclusion (Archives)

1. What's all the fuss about inclusion? Haven't we been doing mainstreaming for years?

2. I teach first grade and I have a child with Down Syndrome in class. He is eight years old. He can't do first grade work so the team is considering keeping him in grade one again. He spent four years in pre-school. I'm torn. How many years are we going to keep him back? But I'm not sure at this time next year he'll even be on track.

3. How do I tell a mother we've tried very hard, but it's just not appropriate for her child to be in a regular education classroom. He needs much more help than I can give him. She's adamant that he be in regular education.

4. What is the best way to set up a program for the kids that I am responsible for servicing. These kids are functioning in the severe to moderate range of ability.

5. Inclusion for my school system seems to be meant for those students who are able to do curriculum oriented work. How do I communicate the idea of creating situations for my kids to participate in to my co-workers?

6. How do I get around the attitude of, "Oh, he doesn't behave appropriately?" or "What place does s/he have in the classroom in light of behaviors and functioning level?"

7. How do I make the aides understand the concept of participation as a plausible goal?

8. What are some strategies to deal with the idea that, "Oh, he functioning at the 6 month level, so he should be using toys for that level?" (The students range in age from 7 to 10 years)

9. How do I find time to get everything that's supposed to be done completed? I could literally fill my day with required things and never leave what is on its way to becoming a completely self-contained classroom.

10. Aren't self-contained classrooms supposed to be essentially obsolete?

11. In your opinion, what constitutes a child not benefiting from an age-appropriate placement?

Q. What's all the fuss about inclusion? Haven't we been doing mainstreaming for years?

A. Inclusion is actually quite different from mainstreaming. It assumes different things about disabilities and what should be done about them. Inclusion accepts the fact that children differ, one from another, and that our job as educators is to help children reach their own potential, whatever that might be. It doesn't use another child's potential as the benchmark for all children. Mainstreaming on the other hand, sees difference as deficit and tries to bring all children into the range of normal behavior.

Inclusion requires changes in environments, making them as accessible (not just physically) as possible for all children. In this model, special educators and related service providers use their skills to accommodate classroom activities and routines so that all children can participate in them and use them to achieve individual goals and objectives.

Q. I teach first grade and I have a child with Down Syndrome in class. He is eight years old. He can't do first grade work so the team is considering keeping him in grade one again. He spent four years in pre-school. I'm torn. How many years are we going to keep him back? But I'm not sure at this time next year he'll even be on track.

A. It sounds like your team needs some information about retention, as well as how to use the regular education curriculum to address the needs of children with disabilities. Educational researchers have been studying retention for over 25 years and the results indicate time and again that it doesn't work. Temporary gains in academic performance have been observed on white, middle class, six year old boys. However, even for this demographic group, any perceived benefits have disappeared by fifth grade.

As for children with disabilities, it's important to understand that maturation is not the key to improving their performance. They will not "catch up" with peers if given enough time. Rather, they need teachers who are willing to think of grade level curriculum a little differently than we do when programming for children with typical learning profiles. This involves separating the content of the curriculum from the hidden or embedded expectations which make up the greater part of the school day. These include things like learning to take turns, learning to ask questions, developing the fine motor dexterity which allows children to manipulate objects, hang up their belongings and eventually learn to draw and write.

These hidden expectations are often the most important part of the day for children with mental retardation. Ask the therapists and special education teacher on your team to identify the embedded language and motor tasks embedded in your daily work with children. That should help the team understand how the child your concerned about is benefiting from your classroom.

Children with disabilities also benefit, as all children do, from the incidental learning which takes place in every classroom: information about what's going on in the world and in their local community, stories and songs which teach them about nature and relationships. For children with disabilities, a classroom of chronologically-aged peers is also a great place to learn the culture of their age group: the music, the clothes, the popular games. This increases the potential range of their experiences. Things we take for granted, like learning to tolerate the noise of a cafeteria or the sudden sound of a bell, can make a difference in a family's ability to have a meal at a restaurant together or go shopping at the mall.

Having said all that, it's important to recognize that children with disabilities can learn quite a bit of the content being taught if the instructional methods are concrete enough and there is generalization to the real world. For example, all children in first grade are learning to use symbols to label their experiences. That's what reading and math are all about. Children with mental retardation can learn to do this as well. The difference may be that they may learn this important skill using pictures and objects rather than words and numerals.

I think your team needs a new set of questions. Rather than asking "how can we help this child catch up?" you need to be asking "how can we use the classroom and chronological peers to help this child become as functionally independent as possible?" Retention can not accomplish this. Careful use of an age appropriate classroom can.

Q. How do I tell a mother we've tried very hard, but it's just not appropriate for her child to be in a regular education classroom. He needs much more help than I can give him. She's adamant that he be in regular education.

A. It sounds like your school is still committed to everyone being on the same level as everyone else. What are the expectations? Are all children expected to learn the same things in the same manner? Are they evaluated in the same way? If so, there will be little room for a child who may be able to learn, but needs a different instructional approach to do so. Or the child who may have mastered the content being taught, but cannot demonstrate his knowledge on traditional paper/pencil tasks.

If that's the case, you should applaud this mother's arrival because her persistence may encourage a shift toward a more equitable model of instruction, one where planning occurs by concept and children are given different options for learning the content and demonstrating their understanding of it. That's good news for all children, since this instructional model is associated with higher achievement of children with typical learning profiles and is in fact recommended for the instruction of gifted children.

If however, your school does embrace best practices and celebrates the diversity of its student body, it may be that you can get to a place of shared understanding by examining some of the possible barriers to collaboration. Start by asking yourself, what type of instruction or accommodation is possible in special education that can't be provided in a regular classroom? If you say "smaller groups", check out how much whole group instruction you are using. Small group instruction is possible in regular classrooms which use cooperative learning and station or center based learning. Next, explore the role technology is playing in the child's instruction. Much of the rote drill, pre-teaching and re-teaching that used to be done in a resource room can now be accomplished with the help of a computer. Finally, check to see if there are other environments in the school (other than the regular or special education classroom) which can be used to address some of this child's needs. When teams think of the whole school as the "unit of inclusion" lots of issues about where instruction occurs are eliminated.

Q. What is the best way to set up a program for the kids that I am responsible for servicing. These kids are functioning in the severe to moderate range of ability.

A. A program for students with moderate to severe disabilities needs to focus on using the school environment to help them become as functionally independent as possible. It is a new way of thinking about curriculum and often uses the "hidden routines" of classroom life to address individual goals and objectives. For example, using getting off the bus as a time to practice weight bearing; using attendance as a time to respond to name, make eye contact and possibly return a greeting.

Q. Inclusion for my school system seems to be meant for those students who are able to do curriculum oriented work. How do I communicate the idea of creating situations for my kids to participate in to my co-workers?

A. I always start with a review of best practices in regular instruction--methods that teachers should be using with typical kids.

These include multilevel instruction, which basically means that classrooms revolve around activities which children can participate in for a variety of different reasons. (A good regular ed. reference on this topic is Carol Tomilson's work on Differentiated Instruction-- look on schoolhousedoor.com -- teachers' room--mailboxes--Dr.Susan Craig--Differentiated Instruction).

Next, I look at the entire school community for ideas for real life jobs my students could be doing. I think one of the places inclusion can break down is thinking that kids need to be in one place all day. They don't, but people need to be flexible and willing to let some children be double booked for specials (ex: 2 periods of music, or art, etc.)if that is the best place for them to address their education goals.

I usually find it helpful to remind colleagues that these children have a right to be in school and that they can be placed in a segregated setting only after it has been shown that they cannot benefit from an age appropriate placement with peers.

I spend a lot of time talking about "changing the environment" rather than changing the child.

Once a team is identified to work with a student, I sit down with the teacher and fill out a grid which (1) lists all of the classroom activities for a day, (2) notes 3-5 priority objectives for my students. (See schoolhousedoor.com -- media center -- AGH training materials -- Integrated Therapies: this text gives examples of how to do this)

We go through the day and identify the times during the school day that these objectives can be addressed. For example, the objective may be to initiate a turn-taking sequence. The teacher identifies circle time as a natural time to work on this, etc.

I think what teachers have to hear over and over again is that all children, even those with severe disabilities, benefit from the incidental learning which occurs in all classrooms and the benefit of contact with peers. (See schoolhousedoor.com -- media center-- AGH training materials -- Inclusion: A Teacher's Guide: this is a very readable text for regular education teachers)

Q. How do I get around the attitude of, "Oh, he doesn't behave appropriately?" or "What place does s/he have in the classroom in light of behaviors and functioning level?"

A. The behavior one is tough - it's usually about noises and/or screaming. I give teachers information about how the noise-making is often communication and then I talk to the other students, encourage them to ignore disruptive behaviors, or, when appropriate, to tell the child to stop.

Teachers need to be told over and over again that the noise probably bothers them more than it does the kids and to try to get past it..

Being sure that there is a back-up plan for caring for the child when behavior gets to overwhelming can often alleviate teacher fears, even if the plan never has to be used.

Q. How do I make the aides understand the concept of participation as a plausible goal?

A. Classroom teachers and aides need to understand that their primary responsibility is to do whatever it takes to encourage participation. (See schoolhousedoor.com -- media center-- AGH training materials--Supporting Children in the Regular Education Classroom: A Handbook for Integrating Aides)

One way of doing this is to assign the aides to the classroom, rather than to an individual child. The classroom teacher can then ask the aide to do whatever it takes to facilitate the child's participation, even if this means working with other children or doing clerical tasks so that the teacher has more time to work with the child with the disability.

I would also strongly encourage you to deal directly with the classroom teacher concerning your student's schedule, etc., and then together, you can work with the aide to implement the ideas you and the teacher come up with.

Q. What are some strategies to deal with the idea that, "Oh, he functioning at the 6 month level, so he should be using toys for that level?" (The students range in age from 7 to 10 years)

A. This is an embedded curriculum question. Articulate for the teacher the skills your student is working on. For example, cause and effect rather than "6 Mos". Find interesting cause and effect tasks which are also somewhat age appropriate. For example, turning on music with a switch, using a switch to activate a bright computer screen, or to make popcorn. Move the discussion away from age levels to actual tasks, behaviors.

Q. How do I find time to get everything that's supposed to be done completed? I could literally fill my day with required things and never leave what is on its way to becoming a completely self-contained classroom.

A. You probably need to reprioritize what you are doing -- which is hard if your IEPs are written for a traditional approach rather than for including all children in regular education classrooms. Your primary responsibility should be to help teams of classroom teachers, aides and peers use daily activities and routines to address the needs of each student on your caseload, rather than providing direct instruction yourself.

The best way to do this is to block schedule your time by classroom rather than student. A good reference on how to do this is an article in CEC's Physical Disabilities Journal: Craig, S.E., Haggart, A. And Hull, K. (1999).Integrating Therapies into the Education Setting: Strategies for Supporting Children with Severe Disabilities. Physical Disabilities.. XVII (2): 91-109.(Also see schoolhousedoor.com -- media center--AGH training materials -- Integrating Therapies.)

Q. Aren't self-contained classrooms supposed to be essentially obsolete?

A. They are still part of the continuum of services. The important difference is that children should only be placed in them after a demonstrated inability to be successful in less restrictive environments.

The problem for children with severe disabilities is that people assume they can't succeed in other places because they can't accomplish what other children are expected to do in regular classrooms. What they forget is that this is the purpose of the IEP: To identify the goals and objectives of individual students, which when met, are the criterion for success.

Q. In your opinion, what constitutes a child not benefiting from an age-appropriate placement?

A. I think it is almost impossible for a child NOT to benefit from participation in an age appropriate classroom. The problem is that many "good" teachers do not run age appropriate classrooms -- classrooms which recognize a range of ability and where there is ample opportunity for choice-making, physical movement, conversation with peers, and the use of activities and projects to learn new concepts.

If children with disabilities are placed in regular classrooms where everything is teacher directed (all children are expected to learn the same things in the same way), they will still benefit from the stimulation of peers, just not to the extent possible when better teaching methods are the norm.

What's important to recognize is that the decreased benefit is NOT due to the severity of the disability, but to the restricted type of learning opportunities provided in the age appropriate classroom.