The Inclusion Plan for Children With Autism - Essay Example

Inclusion Plan Inclusion Plan Introduction As documented in researches, the disabled population forms part of the society, making them to have an equal entitlement to social services such as education access in order for them to become better individuals and self reliant. Over the years, policy developers have focused their energy on creating policies that advocate for the inclusion of persons with disabilities to enroll in normal schools rather than them being confined to schools that address their special needs. In this case, many learning institutions have had to make changes to their facilities in order for their environments to be conducive for persons living with any form of disability (Heward, 2012). Many view this as a step towards the right direction as this has influenced the physically challenged to compete with those that are fit for opportunities in society, which is a move from the conventional discrimination. With this, the establishment of an inclusive plan that helps in the successive integration of persons with disabilities into an ordinary class has become the focus of many institutions, making them to be reputable organizations. In this regard, this essay will design an inclusion plan for a child with autism, in which its development will be in line with the suggestions made by those with autism, their families, caregivers, the public and the various interested partners in the community. Background information Autism is a brain development disorder that develops in children before they attain the age of three characterized by challenges in social interaction, repetitive behavior and non-verbal communication. Autism is one of the disorders under the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis as in the past experts treated them as distinct subtypes. The other disorders that form the ASD umbrella are Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Syndrome, not otherwise specified. Asperger syndrome abbreviated as AS is a condition under the Pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) umbrella that influences immense social interaction difficulties and non-verbal communication with those affected by the condition exhibiting repetitive behavioral patterns. AS is a contrary condition as compared to the other Pervasive developmental disorders as because of there is the retention of cognitive development and those with this condition also maintain their linguistic. In terms of costs, a household that has an autistic child spends at least sixty thousand dollars on a yearly basis in relation to the management and education of this childhood disorder in special schools. On the other hand, autism tends to differ among children, meaning that a child may not suffer from the same kind of autism because the causes and management options tends to be different. The types of autism differ in terms of their severity, symptoms, and the disability levels that they influence on autistic children. Kanners’ syndrome or classic autism is the first type of autism while Asperger’s disorder and Rett’s Syndrome are the second and third types respectively (Cummings, 2008). Essentially, children with autism lack emotional contact with other children, portray sameness in routines, significant learning challenges, low concentration levels, and speech abnormality among a list of other social behaviors. Howard is a five year old child with Asperger Syndrome in which his diagnosis resulted from his having one-sided conversations and the focus for narrowing subjects. Essentially, Howard could not empathize with peers or with anyone, which may make it difficult for the boy to understand or relate with others. Howard exhibits some difficulties in reading the emotions of others and many at times may not see any humor in comical things. However, Howard’s parents had no interest in allowing their child to go to a special school, but instead opted to enroll the boy in an ordinary education class as much as it was going to be challenging for the institution and their son. Instructional planning Essentially, instructional plans serve as guides to the implementation of instructions, analysis, design, development, and evaluation of the same. The idea behind the designing of an instructor is that they serve as guides to the implementation of instructions, analysis, design, development, and evaluation of the same. Mostly, the society deems those with educational access as ‘educated’ which appears to be discriminatory to those that have an interest in learning, but have exceptional learning needs (ELN) such as those with Asperger Syndrome. Using this as the basis, the development of instructional planning is significant as it raises the standards and expectations of as this increases competency levels among individual learners with exceptional learning needs. Instructional plans should be inclusive of parents and other stakeholders in order for them to successful at making an impact on the children with exceptional needs through the special curricula. A class tends to have students that have different levels of comprehending issues and learning habits, which an instructional designer should consider before applying an instructional design model. The implication of this is that an instructional plan for ELN should follow the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, the evaluative aspect) stages in order for it to be relevant. As part of the inclusion plan, an instructional plan should not be rigid as it should be able to accommodate changes as per the needs that arise within the learning period in order for them to be effective (Heward, 2012)This can help Howard to achieve personal learning objectives while attending an ordinary education, which tends to be a competitive one. As much as instructional design systems tend to be universal, they should also be unique in terms of application and significance. Further, instructional designers should also not be rigid, but should focus on meeting the learning of the children with Asperger Syndrome when choosing an appropriate model by factoring in the needs of those that should benefit from the application. The inclusion plan Ideally, students with Asperger Syndrome tend to have unique learning needs as much as they have strengths in some subjects in which a team approach can be an effective way of handling in an ordinary education learning system. Therefore, the inclusion plan stretches to include parents, other students in the class, professionals that specialize in autism disorders. As per the successful implementation of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ Act, enacted in 2001, most schools began to develop an inclusive education option for children with disabilities such as Asperger Syndrome (AS). In this case, the application of a systematic instructional design has been significant as many of these children have registered substantive mileages in their learning as compared to the time that their instructors only used therapeutic approaches to handling their learning needs presented here. Further, students whom the inclusion plan strategies have been applied on have also registered significant improvements on their social experiences as compared to the therapeutic models that only focused on improving communications and motor skills. One of the integration ways that can be appropriate for Howard is the SCERTS model that allows for autistic children to learn in a regular class. This model is effective as it allows for an autistic child to attend an entire day’s class session like the rest of the students without experiencing any preferential treatment. Further, this model helps children with AS to develop social-communication skills without them having to cause commotion in the ordinary educated class. SCERTS generally means a student is able to experience (SC) social communication, (ER) emotional regulation, (TS) transactional support. Here, a student participates in the lessons by responding to picture symbols shown by the teacher and they have to do so by seeking the attention of the teacher by raising their hand, which tackles the (SC) aspect (PCEDDE, 2007). Secondly, a student in this model has to sit in the company of other students without being fidgety or invading the space of others, which handles their (ER) aspect and doubles as a Behavior Intervention plan. Thirdly, the instructional designer that tends to be a professional uses support tools that have applicable communication symbols as a way of influencing the child with AS to participate in an ordinary education class. Other tools may include, Howard has a personal book, which helps not to desire to have an instructor’s book or a rubber disk that helps them understand where they should sit in the classroom (PCEDDE, 2007). Ideally, this inclusion plan can be applied to children with AS in the second grade, meaning that a different inclusion applies to a child that has developed better communication skills because of their age. For a fourth grader, the achievement of the (SC) goals is for a student with an exceptional condition such as autism to participate in an ordinary education class by cooperating and allowing other students to engage in the same activity with a basis on fairness. For the (ER) objective, a student in this model has to self-direct themselves to be at an appropriate arousal state from the time an activity in an ordinary class begins until it comes to a close. Lastly, the achievement of the (TS) objective under the SCERTS special curricula is through the use of a self-assessment tool that helps them gauge their social-communication and emotional control experiences at the end of a lesson. The other inclusion plan was the TEACCH model developed by the University of North Carolina in the 1970s, which requires the adjustment of a learning environment in order for it to be accommodating to learners with ELN and AS within a an ordinary education classroom. TEACCH is an acronym for Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication for Handicapped Children. Essentially, this model draws relevance from four vital gears that are task organization, specification of the works that need covering, visual schedules, and the layout of the learning space for the teaching of both functional and the learning skills (PCEDDE, 2007). The TEACCH approach is in an inclusive model as it also warrants families of those with AS to participate on the well-being of these children. Further, this model can be helpful to Howard as it can influence this child with AS to understand himself better by not viewing himself as inferior to the other students that are in the same an ordinary education class. The key requirement in this model is training for the instructional planners in order for them to foster the effective collaborative by the students that is applicable both at home and school. The implication of this is that the TEACCH model makers to be a collective responsibility for making the social experiences of children with AS to be better rather than leaving this responsibility to teachers or caregivers. In addition, the decision making aspect is also collective in that one party cannot make decisions without consulting the other parties hence making this approach to be more effective in helping Howard to integrate successfully into an ordinary education classroom. The application of this model can be for children in pre-school to those in the twelfth grade that have autism as it focuses on improving the social behaviors and the instruction uptake for the learners. How to make an inclusion plan/ model to effective and relevant For one, an inclusion plan should be one that puts into good use relevant matters that are in touch with reality for the children with Aperger Syndrome as this is essential in helping them to develop problem solving skills. An inclusion model should be able to influence the participation of students with AS by challenging them to be better and not making them feel inferior as compared to their peers within an ordinary education classroom (PCEDDE, 2007). Other than influencing participation, a special curriculum should also be able to provoke and sustain the interest of the learners with AS through a direct approach. Learning should also be rigid meaning that an instructional designer should be able to make changes to their teaching schedule as per the evaluations made on the students with AS so as to make the learning to be effective (Heward, 2012). Further, the use of different ways of accessing and communicating such as joysticks, touch screens, software, and switches that may be essential for them to successfully integrate into an ordinary education classroom. These tools act as aides to students with learning disabilities and AS through these devices in order for them to keep up with the other normal children. Essentially, most of the students that have AS may lack the authentic problem solving skills that a normal child has hence making them to have low productivity and performance in some aspects than in others. The advantage that this presents is that this might allow Howard to circumvent through the learning challenges through the application of an approach that better suit his learning speed, hence influencing the ability to comprehend the issues taught in a curriculum. The choice of an inclusion plan should be one that is tailored as per a child’s unique condition, meaning that each child should be approached differently if the plan is to be relevant to each of the students in the event that a classroom has more than one child with AS. The objective that enrolling children with Asperger Syndrome in an ordinary education schools is that it allows these students not to feel incapacitated as these challenges them to be better and self reliant rather than relying on the help of others to maneuver. For those institutions that are well-off, the use of assistive technologies such as speech synthesis software, word prediction software, spell checker devices among a list of other tools can also be significant in helping children with Asperger Syndrome such as Howard to integrate into an ordinary learning effectively. This can be an effective move as most children with AS that have enrolled in an ordinary education class may find it difficult to use the conventional learning materials. The teaching materials that an instructional designer opts to use should also be expanded so as to meet the needs of each child with AS effectively without having to apply general concepts in teaching them. Part of the inclusion strategy is the conducting of constant evaluation and assessment of the progress of Howard as a way of ascertaining whether the applied inclusion model is yielding results. The evaluation can also stretch to include parents so as to make the process to be seamless for Howard and the students themselves, which is a practical approach. The objective that propels the application of a unique inclusion model when designing an instructional plan is that it should be able to create an environment, which will help children with AS to succeed in their education despite them living with disabilities. This can provide an avenue for Howard to develop self-esteem and confidence rather than this child relying on other people for assistance in order for him to accomplish both the learning and societal tasks (Reid & Lienemann, 2006). In the end, an inclusion plan ensures that the ELN that children with AS may have are met effectively through collaborative efforts between the students, teachers, and their families through their learning institution, which in turn promotes their all round well being. References Cummings, L. (2008). Clinical linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Heward, W, L. (2012). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education 10th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education Press. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service (PCEDDE). (2007). Inclusive Education and Autism. The Inclusion Notebook. Reid, R. C., & Lienemann, T. (2006). Strategy instruction for students with learning disabilities. New York: Guilford Press. Read More