Students with Learning Disabilities and the Inclusive Classroom

Many of the problems with disabilities still persist in today’s society and people see it as a type of crutch on the individual dealing with the disability and on their children who are forced to learn at a slower rate to accommodate the other child. Also, children with disabilities sometimes have a problem when being integrated into the classroom or even being shown the real world. These students have a harder time functioning with others who they are unfamiliar with because they do not feel any comfort or security with a stranger. Thus, the concept of ability/disability turns out to be pivotal for the modern education system and society at large because it influences consistently the development of students and position of individuals with disabilities and excessive

“Disabling segregation” by Dan Habib solely focuses on inclusion within the classroom and the community. He, like most people, grew up in a society where those who have a disability were separated from those who are “normal”. Habib’s passion for inclusion did not occur until after the birth of his youngest son, Samuel. Samuel was born with cerebral palsy. After Samuel’s diagnosis, Habib wanted to do everything he could to make sure his son was included. In his speech, he talks about how inclusion in schools leads to higher marks on tests and assignments than classrooms that are separated. Habib stated that 56% of kids with disabilities spend their day in a separate classroom. He advocates for inclusion, not only for the sake of his son, but also for all children who are like Samuel and who may have never gotten the chance to succeed. Habib tells a story about a man who was very much like Samuel but was never lucky enough to be given the tools he needed for success. Due to the lack of resources, people in that man’s life held him to a much lower standard and he became resentful towards those who were not treating him like a real human being.

Over the course of this semester, I have had a valuable experience observing the children in the special services classroom at Coulter Grove Intermediate School in Maryville, Tennessee. During this observation, I did not only spend time observing the developmentally and physically disabled children that went to the school, but also their neurotypical peers that were put in the classroom as “peer buddies”. Peer buddies acted as friends to the disabled children in the classroom in order to expose the children to those with different abilities and challenges to them. The special services department covers the whole school, but I concentrated my attention on the children in the lower grades. These children were mainly white, but there was one young African-American girl. While the racial divide was uneven, the divide between the genders was around equal. Since the special services classrooms concentrated on children who needed more attention than children who were developing normally, there were more teachers than there is in a typical classroom. The number of teachers in the room varied throughout the day, but there were usually three or four in the classroom at any given time. I spent most of my time observing in the classroom, but also spent time in the cafeteria and playground, which opened me up to even more opportunities observing neurotypical children. In this final application paper, I will summarize my observations and analyze how exactly they match up to what we have

Contemporary students with learning disabilities such as ADD/ADHD are continuously perceived as incompetent to adapt to a traditional classroom setting with students who have no learning disabilities. Consequently, many students with learning disabilities are placed in classrooms that are designated only for students with learning disabilities. Schools use a non-inclusive setting when students with learning impairments like ADD/ADHD are placed in a “special class” with other learning impairment students. This non-inclusive classroom placement causes many learning impaired students to do worse academically and socially than if they had been placed in an inclusive setting. By definition, ADD/ADHD students that are placed in an inclusive

There are many different types of learning disorders in the world today. The two most common are ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Today’s classrooms have changed drastically since the 1950’s. Some of the differences would be class sizes, technology, and learning disabilities. One of the biggest changes in today’s education world is the abundance of students with some sort of learning disability. Studies have showed that there are more and more ways to help deal with kids that can’t seem stay focused. There are many different ways that teachers can handle students with a learning condition. The three newest types are allowing kids to work around the classroom for work/sitting in different styles

Children with learning disabilities are a population who are inherently at risk. They are at risk of not being able to utilize the presented curriculum, as their non-disabled peers do. They are also at risk of suffering from emotional stress and or low self-efficacy as they negotiate classrooms assignments and expectations. Our Exceptional Children text states that children with learning disabilities, “… often struggle with reasoning, attention, memory, selecting and focusing on relevant stimuli and the perception and processing of visual or auditory stimuli (p162 Heward)”. It also says that “Seventy-Five percent of children with learning disabilities exhibit deficits in social skills… and have a higher incidence of behavioral problems (p.169 Heward).” The effects of one or multiple deficits, of those stated above, have the potential to steer, even a willing child, away from academic and or social success.

Contemporary students with learning-disabilities such as ADD/ADHD are continuously perceived as incompetent to adapt in an ordinary classroom setting with other students without learning-disabilities. Consequently, many students with learning disabilities are placed in classrooms that are designated only for students with learning disabilities. It is because of this classroom placement problem that many learning-impaired students are doing worse academically and socially in a non-inclusive setting than in an inclusive one. A non-inclusive setting is when students with learning-impairments like ADD/ADHD are placed in a “special class” with other learning-impairment students. However, ADD/ADHD students that are placed in an inclusive setting

Carter and colleagues (2015) discussed why inclusion is important as well as ways to help benefit students with disabilities in inclusion classrooms. The authors discussed the jobs of paraprofessionals, as well as how peer support can go a long way in helping students, especially those with severe disabilities. By focusing on both academic and social skills, this plan will help students with disabilities learn how to socialize with fellow classmates and help them figure out about their own preferred learning style.

From the journal Educational Programs for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities: Can They Be Both Effective and Inclusive? Written by James McLeskey and Nancy L.Waldron, indicated that some LD students obtain better achievement outcomes in inclusive general education settings, while others do better when they have some extra resources to help with them. However, The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was established in 2001 to improve academic achievement, accountability, teacher quality, and evidence-based practice (Yell, Shriner, & Katsiyannis, 2006). If that is serious, it could be a significant issue for us to think about students with special needs in order to provide them the same opportunity to improve their academic achievement, accountability, teacher quality and evidence-based practice. Below is the report from 2015 Building a Grad Nation report co-authored by Civic Enterprise and Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Education.

The focus on least restrictive environment, and not singling out students with disabilities, has manifested in a desire to see all students succeed in the general classroom. General classroom teachers often do not have the time and support necessary to provide individualized, intensive instruction to multiple students in addition to general education duties. Too often this means that students with learning disabilities slip through the cracks and do not receive adequate instruction, or achieve their academic potential (Fuchs et al. 13). Students with disabilities are just not getting the small group or individualized, high quality, specialized instruction with consistent monitoring and feedback that is necessary to meet their specific needs (Eller et al. 84). Thankfully, a new answer may be emerging to counter these persistent

As a student, the way you learn is important to you and the classroom environment hugely affects the way you learn. Although there is a variety of learning styles, tactile, visual, and auditory, there is also a variety of environment types, one of them being Inclusion. Inclusion is when children with or without disabilities are taught in the same classroom. Many argue that kids with disabilities disturb other kids learning process or prohibit some of their learning opportunities. But it turns out, both kids with or without disabilities benefit from Inclusion. Inclusion teaches to kids how to interact with everyone, students with special needs thrive academically, and socially, and kids make more friends and become more accepting of each other.

What is Inclusion? Inclusion is for those individuals (children) with disabilities and special education, which gives them opportunities to work with other peers with non-disabled individuals in general education classrooms. When a child of disability and special education is placed into a mix classroom there are not alone they bring along support services to the child rather than moving the child to the services which is better for the child to learn and feel more comfortable.

In today’s world, we recognize many kinds of learning disabilities that affect people and the way they learn. Particularly, many studies like to focus on these learning disabilities and how they affect students in our education systems. A learning disability is defined as a condition that causes difficulties in acquiring skills and knowledge to the same level as others of the same age and many students today suffer from learning disabilities, both severe and mild. In order to better teach these students, the standard protocol used to be to take these students, classify them as “special education,” and place them in special education classes outside of the general curriculum. This often resulted in these students being singled out with a negative stigma and the students, both those with disabilities and those without, not receiving as high a quality of education as they could have been. Today, it is much more common to see an inclusion classroom in schools. An inclusion classroom is a general education classroom with both special education students and general education students, combined into one class that works together. This is a much more humane way of teaching and provides numerous benefits for students of all kinds.

According to the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, 89% of children with moderate learning difficulties, 24% of children with severe learning difficulties and 18% of children with profound multiple learning difficulties are educated in mainstream schools. A practice so prevalent must surely be effective. However, that is not always the case. It’s disheartening watching these mainstreamed students struggle socially and academically. Either looked over or coddled by general education teachers, teachers without the proper training, no less, expected to properly instruct these students with intellectual disabilities. The kids that are always expected too much of or doubted indefinitely. These are the children that don’t belong in a general education classroom. While mainstreaming, the act of blending general education and special education classes, can possess benefits for both general education and special education pupils, it should not be implemented in school systems as it creates a more disruptive environment that campaigns for inhibited learning. But that’s only the inauguration to the series of issues present here.

The knowledge about children with special education need gained through formal studies during pre and in-service training is another factor that has attracted considerable attention in the past. Previous training on special and inclusive education was considered an important factor in improving teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of an inclusive policy (Avramidis, Bayliss, & Burden, 2000). Farida et al., (2012) and Ahmmed, Sharma, & Deppeler, (2012) studies on primary school teachers’ attitude concluded that teachers with special education training showed more positive attitude than their colleagues without training. Similar findings were reported by Vaz et al., (2015) where teachers who reported having training in teaching students with disability upheld positive attitudes towards inclusion (Beta = .29, p = .032). Avramidis & Kalyva (2007) also found that teachers without any training had relatively negative attitude towards the philosophy of inclusion than their counterparts. Some studies also found teachers, who have knowledge and information about inclusive education had relatively positive attitude (Batsiou et al. 2008). In-service training also influenced teachers’ attitude which was investigated by Lifshitz, Glaubman, & Issawi (2004). This study found that after the intervention (in-service training) score on teachers attitude increased significantly. As most of the research in the past found consistent positive connection between the training and