Hi, I am a preservice teacher at Salisbury University. I am currently taking a class on Inclusive Education and I have a question I was hoping some experienced teachers might be able to help me with. If you know of any other message boards that I might try please let me know, thank you.
How do I include students with more severe disabilities such as Autism into my general education class?
I will be grateful for any replies.
Sincerely,
Ashley Walser
Re: Including children with Autism in the general classroom
It depends on the needs of each autistic child. Autism is a spectrum so there is a huge range of skills within this population. The IEP team needs to identify these needs and identify the objectives that will be worked on in the inclusion setting. Then you need to acquire the appropriate training to help you become familiar with autism and the techniques that would be most effective to teach this child.
Don’t forget that autistic children have severe social impairment. Therefore, you should spend some time getting the “normal” children interested in helping this child. There are some excellent books available that explain autism in children’s terms. Teaching the normal kids to properly interact and help will improve the classroom experience for all involved.
Best wishes.
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The same way you would integrate a severly learning disabled child. If the child will benefit from a regular education setting, place them in there. This benefit could be academically or socially but it should not be to a cost to the general education population. High functioning Autism might possibly benefit from a general education setting but caution should be taken. The question of LRE should always be considered when making these decisions.