HOW INCLUSIVE EDUCATION BENEFITS CHILDRED WITH VARYING NEEDS (My Review)

HOW INCLUSIVE EDUCATION BENEFITS CHILDRED WITH VARYING NEEDS

Phil Star, P 7. 3-15-16

- SYNTHESIS -

One World School Philippines, a school in Makati that offers a specialized curriculum that cater the needs of children with special needs. The school offers programs from preschool to elementary in a curriculum that allows children to learn at their own pace while developing their social skills with peers and friends that accepts children with special needs as they are.

They believe that a learning environment which puts together the specially trained teachers and children with wide-ranging sets of needs and capabilities, such as gifted and talented, the average or typical learners and children with mild, moderate and significant special education needs, can be beneficial to everyone, inclusive education that is.

It was also highlighted that the school trains students to be the best versions of themselves as they study to become well-meaning members of society and compassionate individuals towards their peers and the people around them.

- ANALYSIS -

Researches provide information about the advantages and disadvantages of inclusive education. Some of these were discussed as follows:

One of the benefits of mainstreaming is that it helps in preparing students for life outside of school, including college and work. In these areas, children and adults must interact with many different people, both with and without disabilities. Having children with autism spend time in regular classrooms provides the opportunity to interact with different children, not just those with disabilities. Some studies have shown that early inclusion can help children with autism improve both IQ scores and social skills.

Besides helping those with autism and other disabilities, mainstreaming helps children in regular classroom. It fosters an environment of tolerance and friendships. It helps students learn to accept, relate and become friends with those that might be “different.” It helps teachers grow personally and professionally by giving them an appreciation of differences in children and learning new teaching techniques.

Close collaboration between both groups of children can result in increasing of responsibility of normal students, and stimulate their understanding that disabled people require additional help and concern. Moreover, inclusion can assist non-disabled students to develop positive approach to people, who are different, and not to take differences (not only as to health, but also by race, nationality, social position, etc.) as something bad or negative. Studying together with disabled children, normal students will learn how to appreciate their own abilities and skills, how to become hardworking and persistent to achieve success in life.

But there are also some NEGATIVE moments in inclusion. In the majority of cases, disabled children feel uncomfortable in regular schools among normally developed children. There is a great deal of negative reaction and attitude, first of all, from normal classmates (like teasing, indifferent or ignoring behavior, making fun, etc.), and even inadequate approach from the side of teachers and administrative personnel, making the study process unbearably hard and far than unpleasant.

Disabled children more important is the fact, that in public schools many disabled students suffer from the absence of specially trained teaching personnel to guide and to assist them in studying along with normal children. Besides, in regular schools there is an obvious lack of special services and facilities, which are required for disabled children.

In case of inclusion, non-disabled children cannot receive proper attention of their teachers, because studying together with the disabled requires a lot of additional efforts and time from the educators. Often teachers feel stressed and anxious with the presence of disabled students, expecting some disabilities and slowdowns in their comprehension also. It results with problems in educational process for both groups, but especially for usual children, and it causes distractions and losses of attention.

Undoubtedly, inclusion requires some special training and preparation for teachers, and in the absence of it, educational process can hardly be successful, regardless of the experience or talent of such a teacher. Special student requires a special approach, and that is why teachers of public schools are prevalently against the inclusion of disabled children. The teachers underline that some additional support and improvements of existing educational system are necessary to make inclusive education more successful.

- REFLECTION -

There are a lot of viewpoints on the matters of inclusion. Supporters of it consider that in any case a child has to start education with regular school, and to be removed only when proper positive effects could not be achieved any more. Many people (parents and mostly school academic staff) are against inclusive education, due to numerous psychological and behavioral problems which considerably interfere with the process of learning. The idea of inclusion is very good, but it must be beneficial to all the participants.

Therefore, to make inclusion of disabled children more effective and successful, some proper sufficient steps, like arranging of teachers’ trainings, providing public schools with proper facilities, supplementary services and aids, must be taken. Teachers must learn, how to prepare both groups of students for collaboration, how to build educational process and keep everybody involved, how to choose correct behavioral strategy and stimulate it among the children, how to satisfy needs of special students in the classroom. In such case nobody would feel stressed or abused, and inclusive education would become efficient, helpful and exceptionally challenging.

- RECOMMENDATION FOR POLICY -

It is important that inclusion be considered based on the child, not the diagnosis. While many children with autism are very successful in mainstream classrooms, others need more specialized and individualized lessons. For these children, a smaller classroom, with both teachers and aides, who can provide intensive teaching and individual attention, might be best. Whether included in a regular classroom or a smaller, specialized classroom, parents and teachers need to work closely together to make sure that each child’s educational needs are met.

Many children with autism have been successful in mainstream classrooms. Some require additional supports, such as an aide that stays with the student, helps him transition from one task to the next and is available to help when the child becomes frustrated. If the student is disrupting the class, the aide can take the child to the resource room. A thorough assessment will help parents and school officials determine where the child will be best served and what supportive services are needed to help him succeed in a regular classroom.