Inclusive Education and sensitizing teachers towards children with special needs ZIET-KVS-Mysore

1. Dr. S.P. Goswami Head, Dept. of Speech Language Pathology, AIISH Mysore & Honorary Editor Journal of the Indian Speech and Hearing Association (JISHA) E-mail: goswami16@yaho.com Inclusive Education and sensitizing teachers towards children with special needs ZIET-KVS-Mysore

2. Inclusive Education When every child is welcomed and valued regardless of ability or disability. “Ignorance … is a guarantee of marginalisation.” Lewin (2000)

3. In the World approximately 113 million children are not enrolled in primary school (DFID, 2001), • Lewin (2000) highlights the potential for education to reverse the negative effects of social exclusion. • Estimated 25 million children out of school in India (MHRD 2003 statistics, cited in World Bank, 2004) Department for International Development of the United Kingdom ( DFID)

4. Many of whom are marginalised by dimensions such as poverty, disadvantaged gender, disability, and caste. While many educational programmes have attempted to reach out to these previously excluded children, those with disabilities are often forgotten, emphasising their invisible status in a rigidly categorised society.

5. What is disability? A focus on disability in global development not only raises questions of diverse local interpretations of the same issue, but also the need to accept the diversity of needs within this ‘group’ depending on both the nature of impairment and cultural context.

6. The medical model defines disability scientifically, as a physical, medically-diagnosed deficit which handicaps. It is impairment-focused, isolating the experience of disability from external influences such as societal attitudes.

7. In the UK, the medical model is reflected in the psycho-medical dominance of segregated education for children with disabilities in the 1950’s (Clough & Corbett, 2000) which was transported to developing contexts by colonialists and development agencies

8. This model can be seen, however, as being dominant long before the 1950’s, with philanthropic, charitable institutions being set up from the mid 1800s in both north and south, particularly for blind or deaf children, by Christian missionaries.

9. In India today, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which is responsible for people with disabilities, has a medically-inspired classification system whereby one’s disability either falls into the category of locomotor, visual, hearing, speech or mental (GOI, 2005).

10. These broad categorizations cannot demonstrate the extent or exact type of impairment, which could assist in assessment of medical, and in some cases educational, need, and have no bearing on the social aspects of disablement, perhaps reflecting cultural perceptions of what ‘disability’ means in India.

11. In most northern discourses the social model has overtaken the medical model, whereby cultural environment and attitudes which influence disabled people’s societal participation and citizenship status are seen as the handicap, rather than the physical impairment.

12. Hence it has a more human rights, as well as contextual, dimension. While the social model is salient in all contexts, it ignores the significance of the type and extent of impairment at the expense of highlighting the socio-political aspects.

13. DFID (2000: 2) appears to neatly combine both the medical and social models in its definition of disability as: “…long term impairment leading to social and economic disadvantages, denial of rights, and limited opportunities to play an equal part in the life of the community.”

14. This definition both combines health and social implications, and includes human rights and social exclusion dimensions in this complex, supposedly catchall word ‘disability’.

15. HEALTH CONDITION (disorder or disease) Body functions and structures Activity Participation Environmental factors Personal factors INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF FUNCTIONING DISABILITY AND HEALTH (WHO,2001)

16. Two types of disabilities

17. Inclusive Education is an attitude It means the doors to schools, classrooms and school activities are open to every child and they are afforded every opportunity to be included with their non-disabled peers. The focus is on giving every child the help s/he needs to learn.

18. Inclusive education is NOT • Dumping kids with disabilities into general classrooms without the supports and services they need to be successful. • Cutting back special education services as a “trade off” for being in the general education classroom. • Sacrificing the education of kids without disabilities so kids with disabilities can be included.

19. Special Education. . . is NOT a place

20. Special Education IS. . . …individualized supports that give kids with disabilities the extra help they need to learn from general curriculum.

21. Physical therapy Curriculum adaptations Communication board Speech therapy Language therapy Behavior plan Environmental accommodations

22. Each student has an IEP Each special education student should have an IEP • learning goals and objectives for the coming year • the services and supports the student will receive • accommodations for the student (different ways of learning or responding) • if and to what extent the general curriculum will be modified for the student • if and why the student will be out of the general education classroom and away from non-disabled students.

23. We Learn

24. Students can’t learn general curriculum unless they are in the room where it is being taught.

25. General Curriculum IEPs must have: “ A statement of measurable annual goals, including benchmarks or short-term objectives, related to meeting the child’s needs that result from the child’s disability to enable the child to be involved in and progress in the general curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for non-disabled children), or for preschool children, as appropriate, to participate in appropriate activities.”

26. Tied to General Curriculum • There must be a connection between the general curriculum objectives and this student’s IEP goals and objectives. • The Team must decide what the student will learn about each subject the class is studying. • The Team must decide which and how many general curriculum objectives are to be taught. • The Team must make general curriculum objectives functional and meaningful for this student.

27. What is the class learning How do the IEP goals fit into the general curriculum? • Goals may be different but need to be related (like learning to recognize a triangle when others are learning the angles in a triangle) • Student may need to be taught in a different way (like doing hands on activities instead of listening to a lecture) • Student may need to work in a different way (like using a computer instead of pencil and paper)

28. It’s not about the place!!! • All students must have access to general curriculum. • This is true no matter what class they are in. • Even students in the most segregated classes MUST have access to the general curriculum for their age and grade.

29. Least restrictive environment (LRE) • Describes where a child will get services • It should put the fewest possible restrictions on how much time is spent with kids without disabilities.

30. What the law says about LRE Each public agency shall ensure that to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities…are educated with children who are non-disabled and that special classes, separate schooling or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in the regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

31. LRE • Starts with the assumption the student will be in the general classroom, with supports as needed. • If that won’t work full time, pull the child out of the general classroom for part of the day for therapies or resources. This should be done as seldom as possible. • Only if all other options fail should the child be separated from the general classroom.

32. Ideas for disability awareness • Preferential seat- front seat • Involve other kids – let them know what assistive devices kid/s uses • Teach students some sign language or Braille. • Not able to understand - give students a paragraph in their mother tongue and then test them on it. • Not able to communicate – give students a puzzle to do together but don’t allow them to talk.

33. Have students use a wheelchair or crutches for a day. • Have students communicate using only body language or gestures. • Dyslexia – give students a paragraph to read with the letters switched around. • Sensitivity to noise – have students take a test while there is a lot of unexpected noise in the background.

34. Accommodation or Modification? • Accommodations are used when the student is expected to learn the same curricular content. But the student may be taught in a different way or need changes in the environment. • Modification are used when the student is expected to learn less or different curricular content. This could require the modification of assignments, tests, worksheets and other materials in the classroom.

35. What are accommodations? Accommodations are changes in teaching methods. It can include changes in: • where you teach, • who teaches • how you teach • how the student can respond • materials you use.

36. Know the Curriculum! • You have to know what you are trying to teach (curriculum) before you can change how you teach it. • If you make the wrong changes, you can end up teaching a different concept than the one you wanted the student to learn.

37. Room Accommodations • Special chairs or cushions, lower or high table or chair, titled desk top • Different or additional lighting (not fluorescent), sitting by a window for natural light • Sitting close to the blackboard or teacher, sitting away from others • Stand instead of sitting or sitting instead of standing

38. Picture schedules, visual cues or visual timer • Quiet times or places to help concentration • Color coding • Visual organization of the room and supplies • Keeping materials for student and handing out as needed • Have at least part of the room bare with nothing on walls, ceilings or floors

39. Teacher Accommodations • Don’t use strong cologne- such as fragrance , perfumes (hard on allergies) • Don’t wear a lot of jewelry (distracts kids with ADHD • Count to 10 before letting anyone answer questions (processing time) • Vary teaching methods • Projects for extra credit or in place of timed tests • Giving instructions one step at a time instead of all at once

40. Individual Accommodations • Fewer problems on a page, large print or dark print • Read things to students and give verbal tests • Use a tape recorder (taking notes and giving reports) • Sensory breaks • Communication device or sign language • Use a touch screen, voice activated computer, switch controls or adapted keyboard, mouse, calculator • Peer tutoring or peer taking notes

41. Small group work instead or individual assignments • Assistance with organizing • More time to transition to next activity • Change the materials (counting actual objects, tape recorder) • Change how much or what kind of personal assistance a student gets (prompts, verbal cues, gestures, physical assistance

42. Modifying Grades • Use a grading system to show the combination of what they learned and how hard they tried. • Give extra credit for consistent effort and completing assignments. • Give extra points for positive behaviors or extra assignments.

43. Base assignments and grades on meeting IEP goals • Reduce the amount of writing by using T/F, multiple choice or fill in the blanks, or oral tests • Give child less to learn at a time • Allow students to take classes as pass/fail

44. If adaptations aren’t enough • Schools often add an adult educational assistant to work with the student 1-to-1 • Or they may take a student out of class (called pull out ) for pre-teaching, skill building or one-on-one instruction. • Use of education assistants and pull out instruction should be carefully planned. Is it too much isolation from other students? Does it make the student miss too much class time?

45. Is pull out best? • “Pull out” means removing the student from class for a small group of 1-to-1 instruction. Ask: • Why can’t the skill be taught in the general classroom? Are there ways to change it so it could be taught there? • While the student is in pull out, s/he misses what is going on in the general classroom.

46. How do you help the student catch up on what s/he missed? • How will skills learned in pull out time help the student spend MORE time in the general classroom?

47. Me and My Shadow • Is having an adult with him/her all day making the students MORE dependent? • Does the educational assistant take away the student’s need to communicate and make choices? • Does having an educational assistant there make peers less likely to interact with the student? Is the student ever alone with peers?

48. Is the student at least arm’s length away from the educational assistant when possible? • Would the student be better off having help from several different people rather than always the same assistant? • Don’t glue an adult to the student every minute.

50. Children with disability