Comments on: The Inclusion Room

By: samedifference1

samedifference1 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:17:29 +0000

Thank you for your comments.

Even though I am a passionate supporter of inclusion in any method of communication and for anyone with any DisAbility, this has only ever applied to those DisAbled children who are intellectually able to handle a mainstream education, and to those whose parents want one for them.

I realise and accept that mainstream education is not suitable for all DisAbled children, and that all parents do not want a mainstream education for their DisAbled child.

What I am saying in this post is that there is a difference between Inclusion and Integration. If the mainstream only offers us Integration into education, then most DisAbled children and their parents would rather have a special education where at least the differences are not so obvious or so unfairly highlighted.

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:41:23 +0000

I think there has to be a more considered approach to inclusion. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some children are better educated and more comfortable in smaller groups not the large busy classes of mainstream.

My son is autistic and is constantly chattering to himself, shrieking with delight or frustration and it would be totally inappropriate for him to be in the classroom making this amount of noise while other children are trying to concentrate and do their work. Children’s right to be educated must be balanced with other children’s right to be educated and this has to be negotiated for the best in each case.

He lives at home with his family in the community, we go to the local shops and access leisure opportunities in the local community. He is included in society in all other respects.

I also know of friends whose children have been forced by the local education authority inappropriately into mainstream schools for the sake of inclusion but whose education and development as ironically been set back.

We have to be sensible, not extreme or ideological about it.

By: samedifference1

samedifference1 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:50:24 +0000

Thank you for your comments. But:

“The rest of the children in the class will be required to go out into the world and earn their living one day, the SEN child will not”

This isn’t always true.

And I don’t like to think of them as ‘noises.’ They are reactions.

If you have some time, please google Facilitated Communication.

By: judy

judy — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:05:11 +0000

Mmmm….there doesn’t seem to be much appreciation of how difficult it is to fully ‘include’ children with additional needs. A child who can only communicate in noises because they have no speech for example, is difficult to accomodate inside a classroom where those noises constantly interrupt a lesson. It depends on the disability as to how it can be accomodated. The rest of the children in the class will be required to go out into the world and earn their living one day, the SEN child will not. I think considerations such as this have to be discussed to make an argument for both ‘normal’ children and SEN in mainstream schools.