What's Your Excuse?

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Recommended: the pros and cons of inclusion for special education students

What’s your excuse?

Allen and Cowdery (2012) state ‘Inclusion is not a set of strategies or a placement issue. Inclusion is about belonging to a community – a group of friends, a school community, or a neighborhood’ (Pg.5). Inclusion of children with disabilities in 'normal' classrooms, happens to be a widely debated topic; whilst there are valid arguments on both sides and benefits for both inclusion and segregation, inclusion has become law (Holdheide & Reschly, 2008). Inclusion requires a great deal of work in and out of the classroom setting. One of the most prominent barriers is that of communication; with lack of time, funding and negative attitudes of not only parents, but the student body and teachers bringing up the rear (Teaching children with disabilities in inclusive settings, 2009). Teaching children with disabilities in inclusive settings (2009) mention that it is important for educators to realize, all children face barriers in learning not just disabled students. While thinking about these issues, it is also important to consider the benefits that could be gained from the inclusion of students with severe disabilities into integrated classrooms. Inclusion has had many success stories and although there is no perfect success rate; Inclusion has more benefits and learning capabilities for all students than segregation. Such benefits include opportunities for interaction, imitation and observation with typically developing children; whilst also promoting social-emotional, language and cognitive skills (Allen & Cowdery, 2012).

Communication difficulties can arise from many situations and has a multifactorial nature (Buckley, 2002). Inclusion requires good communication skills due to the amount of commu...

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Hultgren, S. (n.d.). Inclusion – What does it really mean? Retrieved from http://www.ct-asrc.org/docs/inclusion.pdf

MacBeath, J., Galton, M., Steward, S., MacBeath, A., & Page, C. (2005). The costs of inclusion. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.

Marotz, L. R. (2009). Health, safety and, nutrition for the young child. Australia: Thompson Delmar Learning.

Shaddock, A., Giorcelli, L., & Smith, S. (2007). Students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms: A resource for teachers. Commonwealth of Australia.

Teaching children with disabilities in inclusive settings. (2009). Bangkok, Thailand: UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.

Vanderbilt Kennedy Centre. (n.d.) Including students with multiple/severe Disabilities

in the general education Classroom. Retrieved from http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/kennedy_pdfs/TipSheets/tipsheet_ClassroomInclusion.pdf

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