Another idea that really struck me during our studies of classroom inclusion was the idea of including children with severe disabilities in the regular classroom. I had never thought that it was appropriate before. I know that there is a very wide range of students classified to have learning disabilities so it is hard to draw the line between what constitutes 'severe' and what not and I don't want to be insensitive, but in my own experience, children with severe disabilities never do well when placed in a regular classroom. I find it difficult sometimes, when working at the schools, to work with children with these types of disabilities. I am not quite sure how to act around them or what is appropriate to try and teach them. Since I am a substitute and they don’t know me very well, they are usually uncomfortable around me and I am equally uncomfortable. I am not against having students with disabilities in the classroom, I just have never seen it successfully done before.
The article “Holding Nyla” was, to me, a beautiful story about how including children with disabilities in the classroom is possible. Kissinger had some fears about Nyla in the classroom as well but instead of staying afraid of interacting with her, she decided to do the complete opposite and include her in every aspect of their classroom activities. She states afterwards, “As soon as I changed my behavior and began a relationship with Nyla, the other children began to see her as a classmate. I have never had a clearer lesson about the power of the teacher as a role model.” (Kissinger, p. 26) Very powerful indeed! Because Nyla was in their classroom, these kids got to interact with someone who was different than them. They came to understand Nyla’s condition and the equipment she needed to use and more importantly they got to know Nyla as a classmate and not simply as a girl with disabilities. My only issue with this though, is that this is a preschool setting. I am wondering how this might work out in elementary school, especially as you start to get into the higher grades. Just wondering if anybody has any other thoughts on this or examples that they can share where this type of classroom inclusion worked well.
I too have wondered what having children with disabilities would look like an integrated class. There is such a wide range between what children need. As a future teacher I wonder how I could make everyone feel like part of the class.
ReplyDeleteI did a little volunteer work at a Sunday school class at my church. There was one student in the class with special needs. Most of the time he was able to participate in all the activities, other times he decided that he did not want to be in the classroom. When this happened, either I or my fellow teacher would go after him and walk around the building with him. But, what if I had been the only teacher that day? What would I have done?
There are going to be challenges in having integrated classrooms, but I think my student enjoyed being in the class with other people his age. I feel like I have a lot to learn about this topic and I'm glad that we got to read the story about Nyla and see how all the students grew by sharing class time together.