When fall arrives, and school is right around the
corner, parents start to worry about school clothes, packing lunches, and
coordinating after school activities. These worries are just a few of the many
that exist, but for parents who have children with disabilities these worries can
be slightly different. These parents want an educational experience that wills the
best for their child, and one that will extract their maximum potential. They
also want their child to be treated with dignity and respect as well as given
the same opportunities as the students who don’t have disabilities. The
educational planning for students with disabilities has expanded recently with
providing more options for the parent and child. There are special education
programs, but more recently certain schools have implemented programs in which
the child is mainstreamed into the regular classrooms. The increase of options
for these children ensure that they can and will be put in the program that is
best suited for them individually. The negative aspect of this lies in the fact
that who can really know what will be the best for that child without a test
run? It is a very important but hard decision that many parents face. They may
be asking themselves “will my child be more successful in a special education
classroom with a designated/trained educator but away from social interaction?
Or will my child be more successful mainstreamed into a classroom with peers but
not have all of the teacher's attention?” There is no definite answer to which
option is best because every child is different, but researchers have done
their part in trying to uncover the answer to this disputable question.
A qualitative study conducted by
Finke, McNaughton, and Drager (2009) was used in order to investigate the
experiences of teachers who included students with autism spectrum disorders
(ASD) in their general education classrooms. The participants were five elementary
teachers (K-5) that met the inclusion criteria and the study was continued for
a period of 15 weeks. At the end of this social experiment, integration of the
student with autism was viewed to consist of mostly positive effects on the
student with autism, the other students, the parents, and the teachers. This
study did show teacher comments of negative factors such as stress, pressure,
and disruptions, but "in their perception, the benefits for the child, the
teacher, and the peers outweigh any challenges” (Finke, McNaughton, &
Drager, 2009). Based on the experiences of the participants it was found that
successful inclusion resulted in increased understanding of diversity and
difference in the classroom by the “typically developing” students. The
integration of the student with autism into the classroom also increased the
teachers understanding of themselves. They now viewed themselves as teachers of
all students, not just those with autism. From this research we can conclude
that mainstreaming education would be a good choice for a child with special
needs. The only downside to this research is that only five teachers
participated, so the opinions aren’t as widespread and accurate of the whole
population as they could be.
In a similar study by Marshall,
Stojanovik, and Ralph (2002), the effects of mainstreaming a child with speech
and language impairments were observed. This study like the one done by Finke,
McNaughton and Drager was a qualitative study in which they interviewed a total
of 19 people (5 men) of their experiences of the integration process. This
study had more participants than the other, and had a different demographic of
those who were chosen to be involved; these participants were students in the
Faculty of Education. This study also focused on children with speech and
language impairments instead of just autism. Marshall, Stojanovik, and Ralph’s
study was short term and conducted the interviews after the student's first
teaching practice was completed, instead of after 15 weeks like in the
experiment done by Finke, McNaughton, and Drager. The interview questions were based on six main
themes, which centered around the effects, benefits, and consequences of
inclusion on the multiple parties involved. The interview responses from these
participants were pessimistically focused, and had a more negative view on
integration. As stated in the study “many of the attitude data suggest lack of
enthusiasm for inclusion under the present provision” (Marshall, Stojanovik,
& Ralph, 2002). Overtly negative comments were expressed when talking about
inclusion of these students in certain subjects. One participant said, “I
didn’t come in to teach children who are in wheelchairs, that don’t have arms,
that can’t see are deaf”(Marshall, Stojanovik, & Ralph, 2002).The
largest concerns from these participants of mainstreaming students with
disabilities arose from lack of resources such as time, energy, knowledge, and
training.
These two similar studies had opposite
results, which shows how debatable this issue still is. There is no right
answer because these studies rely solely on the opinions of the participants.
This can lead to the conclusion that the best choice for the child with a
disability is dependent upon the opinion of the parents and child and in what
they believe is best. In regards to mainstreaming, if the parents choose this
option for their child that means they believed that the benefits outweighed
the negatives, and visa versa. Choosing special education or mainstreamed
education is not what is important, its being given the opportunity to choose
and have the right to the education these students want and deserve.
What are your thoughts on these
educational options for those with disabilities? Do you think special education
or mainstreaming is more effective/beneficial? Do you agree with the first or
second research study? Comment your thoughts.
The links to the peer-reviewed articles can be found below for further reading.
Finke, E. H., McNaughton,
D. B., & Drager, K. R. (2009). “All Children Can and Should Have the
Opportunity to Learn”: General Education Teachers' Perspectives on Including
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder who Require AAC. AAC: Augmentative
& Alternative Communication, 25(2), 110-122.
Marshall, J., Stojanovik,
V., & Ralph, S. (2002). 'I never even gave it a second thought': PGCE
students' attitudes towards the inclusion of children with speech and language
impairments. International Journal Of Language & Communication Disorders,
37(4), 475-489.
