Introduction
How would it have felt to be isolated from your peers, brothers, and sisters everyday when you were a child? I do not know your answer but I am sure good would not be it. Inclusion involves having the support services brought to the children with disability in the ordinary classrooms, not relegating them into special classes away from the normal children.
It is a practice that is gaining momentum in recent times thus begging the question, “What is making inclusion to be more popular than having special education for the disabled children?” This essay tackles this question, showing the benefits of having an inclusion system as opposed to the special schools for disabled children.
Inclusion: What is it?
Inclusion in education refers to the process of incorporating children with various disabilities in normal educational classes. Normally, inclusion falls into two categories, either full inclusion or partial inclusion. Partial inclusion involves having the disabled children in a regular class at sometimes and in a special class at other times. On the other hand, full inclusion is having the disabled children in the regular class always.
Both forms of inclusion have benefits, which lie into two broad aspects, those for the students with disabilities and those for typical students. It is also important to note that integration is not inclusion; the former mainly involves the physical presence of the disabled child while the latter involves this child being involved in what other members of the class do.
Benefits of Inclusion to students with disability
One major benefit that a student with disability gains from being in an inclusive classroom is social growth. In a research, disabled children in typical classes developed better social skills and spent most of their time in the field or doing other communal activities as opposed to those in special classes who spent a lot of time in the classes (Katz & Mirenda, 2002, p. 15).
The argument that they cannot integrate with others due to their disabilities does not hold much water, neither does the assumption that they risk ridicule from the normal students and so develop antisocial tendencies. The integration with typical children is especially more fruitful in cases where the children are introduced to inclusion at an early age.
Inclusion at this early age should therefore be encouraged as it helps both sets of children to learn to live with one another encouraging the disabled ones to be more social. Another positive impact that inclusion has on the disabled participants is the boosting of their self-esteem. Children with special needs tend to be very sensitive especially in matters of learning and education (Reid, 2005, p.42).
Activities in an inclusive class such as circle time create room for all the participants to be appreciated by their colleagues since they encourage mutual understanding. In a special class, a disabled student’s peers may not necessarily recognize his or her effort in such activity and so he or she does not get the appreciation that accompanies such plays.
Responses from their peers may increase the chance of disabled children to develop self-concept. Further, the concept of self-esteem even in normal children is dependent on the reaction of other people to what they do which translates to the way they form an opinion about themselves.
Boosting disabled children’s self-esteem is important for then they acquire social and emotional independence, which enables the society to reap from the special talents that they possess. Inclusion promotes the growth of engaged behavior among the students with disability.
According to Katz and Mirenda, several studies indicate that students with developmental disabilities show a higher level of engagement when learning in an inclusive classroom as opposed to learning in a special class for the disabled (2002, p. 17).
This is explained by the observation that when inclusive classes were left without an educator, the members with disability tended to be less alone as they were found with at least one other student (Katz & Mirenda, 2002, p. 17). This scenario is plausible given the fact that proximity goes hand in hand with engagement.
In addition, another dimension of this argument is that since the most basic way of learning is through sight, the disabled students get to learn on interaction through their peers who are not disabled. Furthermore, there is a great expectation for them to behave in a manner similar to the typical students, which fosters their learning process of living a normal life.
According to Katz & Mirenda, the opportunity for disabled students to interact with their counterparts without disabilities also produced academic benefits (2002, p. 14). Students with disabilities can acquire the basic communication and common motor skills from their peers without disability through cues, consequences and prompts they are given.
Moreover, the idea of expectation replays itself; that is, through the silent expectations from normal children, students with disabilities feel compelled to achieve their own goals of acquiring motor skills as well as communication skills.
Benefits of Inclusion to students without disability
Inclusion is like a double-edged sword; it benefits both the disabled and the typical students. Surprisingly, it helps the typical students in included classes to improve their social life and future interactions. The key element here is; typical students get to appreciate other people more, through their interaction with the disabled students.
Their sensitivity to the needs of others is enhanced through their experiences in class. In return, this experience sets typical students to become leaders later in life, for understanding and appreciating others no matter their status underscores the basic principle of a good leader.
Further, including normal students helps them to be more understanding and supportive of the initiatives of other people, an element that might lack in typical students learning exclusively away from their disabled counterparts.
A possible counter argument may be that the disabled children have a negative impact on the normal ones. Well, the argument is shallow as experience shows that odd behaviors from the disabled children actually diminish gradually in an inclusive class and do not rub onto the other children.
It is important for the society to encourage cooperation between children of various abilities; for through this, the society can truly achieve a generation, which upholds tolerance within the societal constructs. Interestingly, studies carried out to investigate the impact of inclusion on able students revealed another interesting observation.
They found that “the presence of students with severe disabilities, even those with challenging behaviors, did not negatively impact the amount of engaged time for typical learners” (Katz & Mirenda, 2002, p. 18). Typical students in an inclusive classroom have the duty of giving prompts and facilitating motor and communication skills among the disabled students.
This, it seems has the positive impact on their engagement and hence fosters their academic performance. Contrary to most people’s expectation that disturbances especially from students showing a high level of disability (e.g. shouting in class) would result in a performance drop of the typical students, research proves otherwise.
The way forward
I hold the view that inclusion is the best option in the education system for students with special demands as long as its implementation follows succinct laid down structures without overlooking the loopholes that come with the whole process.
For a successful implementation of the entire process, proper training of the teachers who are to teach in the inclusive classes and provision of supportive devices for the disabled students is paramount.
For a teacher in a typical class, it is not good news to change over to an inclusive one. Therefore, collaboration must take place where the two teachers participate in teaching. In the end, even the typical class teacher will appreciate and embrace the disabled children.
According to Lombardi, inclusion also means provision of specialized services and education outside the normal classroom for a limited period (1999, p. 10). This means that inclusion does not cut cost on the education of those with special needs. The educators therefore have to be prepared to handle any eventualities and embrace chance because change is inevitable if inclusion will be realizable.
Conclusion Inclusion is not a revolutionary idea; it should be implemented gradually and properly so that its benefits may be realized. It may present a challenge in its implementation at first, but it benefits everybody in the end. The disabled children gain more confidence, exposure and engagement skills.
On the other hand, the typical students learn the art of tolerating others and improve their interpersonal skills, which are important later in life. Even though the inclusion process might prove hard to implement, it is a cause worth pursuing for the good of.
Reference List
Katz, J., & Mirenda, P. (2002). Including Students with Developmental Disabilities in General Education Classrooms: Educational Benefits. International Journal of Special Education, 17(2), 14-24.
Lombardi, P. (1999). Inclusion: Policy and Practice. Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Reid, G. (2005). Learning Styles and Inclusion. London: Paul Chapman publishing.