INCLUSION OF DISABLED STUDENTS

Inclusion Of Disabled Students

Abstract

The term Inclusion refers to bringing the support services to children with disabilities within their normal classroom setting. The article "Special Education Inclusion" mentions that inclusion commits to putting the child with disabilities in the regular classroom environment, so that they can benefit from being around their peers (Stout 2001). Inclusion is stated by Robert Fieldman as integration of all students, even those with the most severe disabilities, into regular classrooms and all other aspects of school and community life (2004). The success of these practices rides heavily upon the teachers and school being flexible with their instruction methods and only pulling the child out of class when necessary services cannot be given in the regular classroom. Here the students can be challenged, feel accepted and learn from the higher expectations placed on them. Inclusion can be deeply disturbing because it challenges our unexamined notions of what "ordinary" and "normal" really mean (Pearpoint and Forest? 1997). To understand inclusion? we must look at its definition ? origins? implications? and past and present research. In the educational setting? inclusion means that all students? including those with mild and those with severe disabilities? be placed in the least restrictive environment available. This often means the regular classroom.

Full Inclusion Of Disabled Students Is Desirable

When the inclusion of a disabled student into a general classroom is appropriate, the class will run smoothly and students will not be disadvantaged by the heterogeneity. Nevertheless, the controversy over including disabled students in the general classroom has been hotly debated for the past few years, often from the perspective of the disabled student. But the question of how such inclusion affects non-disabled students, now that the classroom is opened to students with disabilities, remains.

Segregating children in special classes or programs denies these children access to normal experiences.

Segregated services have not resulted in adequate education for handicapped students.

Inclusion is not synonymous with mainstreaming. While mainstreaming is viewed as a benchmark where students "earn" their way back into the classroom? inclusion establishes the student's "right" to be there in the first place. Services and supports are brought to the regular classroom as needed. The current inclusion movement challenges educators to look beyond mainstreaming to find inclusive strategies to meet student's individual needs. Inclusion calls for a more complete merger of regular and special education (Hines and Johnston? 1996).

Inclusion is a philosophy. The philosophical position of inclusion is based primarily on two arguments:

(Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children? 1996)

True inclusion exists in all facets of life (Schleien and Heyne? 1997). All- inclusive schools set an example for students' other areas of life. For example? a parents of a 12 year old boy with down syndrome living in a small community have found the community recreation programs to be inclusive for all children in the family. In the sports programs? the parents feel their son is "treated like a team member? with only subtle ...