Social Implications of Inclusion

[quote=”danceteach”]Hello, I am a student teacher in a California credential program. I need advice from teachers on how to improve social implications of inclusion.

I recently read an article about a study which found that more students with learning disabilities felt lonely than students without learning disabilities, despite full inclusion in general education classrooms. What advice do you have about how teachers in a general education classroom can teach other students to accept and respect students with learning disabilities? Also, is there anything that can be done to help students with learning disabilities perceive that they are more accepted?[/quote]

Well, are they accepted is the first question? Are they invited to the other children’s parties, are they included in games at recess? And are they as successful in school? Unsuccessful children feel lonely in school. Does the school have an honor roll and are the LD children ever on it? Is the homework assigned with the LD student in mine or do they have to spend hours doing it at night with their slower reading skills or writing skills?

And most important of all, what is class size? If it’s up to 24/25 or more, all the kids will feel lonely. That size class is too big to create any real sense of community in the room. In that size class teachers must spend all of their time managing students, not teaching them.

In our schools, we have a half-hearted inclusion going on. Real inclusion would mean much more than we’re doing. Until then, LD kids and others too are likely to feel lonely.

I’m a student teacher (teaching full time) in Kentucky. I have an EBD class and I discussed individual differences and the effects of labeling. I want them to be respectful of each other and differences.

There are many good articles in the “FOr Teachers” section of this site that address exactly these questions.

I just did a research project on social integration and the LD child. Some of the research says that a huge way to improve peer acceptance is by teacher acceptance. The teacher has to make it clear that the LD child is valued and “liked” by the teacher. Rick LaVoy talks about this in his video “Last One Picked, First One Picked On”. He offers a number of very specific strategies teachers can use, as well as pointing out what we do wrong. This is a companion video to the Fat City Video “How Hard Can This Be”? It should be a requirement for everyone who works with LD children in general ed or pull-out.
Some schools have guidance counselors who have peer groups/social skills groups that are often helpful.
In terms of how a child can perceive himself as being more accepted, a couple of the journal articles I read said that the LD child was usually accurate in his perceptions of not being accepted by peers. I wouldn’t worry as much about trying to make him “feel” accepted when he probubly isn’t, but rather to help him “fix” the behaviors that cause him to be rejected, helping him improve his self-confidence and self-concept, and referring him to the guidance counselor for help.

My son has had two good: Grade 3 and Grade 5. Two ‘poor to lousy’ — Grade 2 and Grade 4. In the good years, the teachers were both positive, likeable people who MADE SURE every child in their class felt included. Both classes gave me an impression of ‘group cohesiveness’, and we had NO instances of teasing or bullying in either situation. NONE!

In Gr. 2 and 4 it was different — Gr. 2 was dreadful, as the teacher I believe actively allowed my child to be picked on (my fault, her sin!). He was miserable for the whole year. In Gr. 4 it was more ‘too busy’ ‘too busy with the choir’ ‘too busy’ to look at what was going on, and we had a major instance of bullying that went on all year long. Luckily my son doesn’t have problems controlling himself (other than the average) and so after one huge blow-up early in the year where verbal retaliation got him in big trouble, he was able to ignore the bullying for the rest of the year — kick me signs, taunts, etc. Teacher saw NONE of this, and since my son was coping I made no further waves. In this case she did not actively add to the problem, she was just ‘absent’ while too busy.

In all cases, the classroom atmosphere was directly a result of the teacher’s leadership skills — the previous poster is right on.

Good luck in your future career — I hope you will be a great leader and your classroom will be, as Mr. Grade 5 said to me, ‘A Safe Place to Learn’!