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Inclusive Learning: Meeting Each Student's Special Needs

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Creating an inclusive environment where each student feels safe and supported in an engaging and appropriately challenging environment is rarely an easy feat, yet it is essential to educating the whole child. Regardless of strengths and challenges, each student needs and is deserving of full membership within the classroom and school community. While each student benefits from this inclusive environment, it is critically important and often challenging to ensure it for students with special needs.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we focus on creating inclusive learning environments that develop students at all levels. You'll hear from

Timothy Shriver, chairman and CEO of Special Olympics. In that capacity, Shriver serves 3.1 million athletes and their families in 175 countries. He has helped transform Special Olympics into a movement that focuses on respect, acceptance, and inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities in all corners of the globe.

Evan Heller, a student who has been involved with and coached Special Olympics for eight years. Heller is also a member of the national Special Olympics Youth Activation Committee and his local Massachusetts State Youth Activation Committee. He is a recent high school graduate and this fall will be a freshman at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he plans to double major in psychology and English.

Latoya Dean, a doctoral student at the University of North Texas in the Leadership for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders program. She is also a Content Mastery/Helping teacher in Garland, Tex. Dean has worked in varies capacities with people with disabilities, and her current research interests include transitioning students with disabilities into adulthood, parental involvement, and interagency collaboration. She is interning this summer at the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.

Do you have an Evan or Latoya at your school? What can you do when the school year begins to help create inclusive environments to meet each student's special needs?

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Inclusive Learning: Meeting Each Student's Special Needs - Whole Child Education

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Download Podcast Now [ Right-Click to Save] Creating an inclusive environment where each student feels safe and supported in an engaging and appropriately challenging environment is rarely an easy feat, yet it is essential to educating the whole child. Regardless of strengths and challenges, each student needs and is deserving of full membership within the classroom and school community.

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The purpose of Inclusion Institutes is to provide the opportunity for school personnel and parents to plan the details of inclusion for one individual child who has developmental disabilities. The Sherlock Center believes that one of the major barriers to meaningful inclusion is the lack of dialogue about the purposes, curriculum, and procedural details that are part of effective implementation. More than 200 schools have sent teams to prior Inclusion Institutes to discuss and plan the details of inclusion for an individual child. The teams developed an inclusion plan using a process that not only works with individual children, but can be generalized to a larger school population.

Each Student-Focused Team Must Include:

One or both of the parents (or guardian)

The regular education teacher

The special education teacher

Additional Team Members may include (but are not limited to):

Principal

Special Education Director

Teacher Aide

Occupational Therapist

Speech/Language Pathologist

Physical Therapist

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ASCD's A Lexicon of Learning defines inclusion as:

The practice of educating all children in the same classroom, including children with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities. Inclusion classes often require a special assistant to the classroom teacher. In a fully inclusive school or classroom, all of the children follow the same schedules; everyone is involved in the same field trips, extracurricular activities, and assemblies.

The Lexicon defines special education as:

Educational programs for students who, because they have a disability of some kind, require special instructional help to reach their potential. This may include specially trained teachers, innovative technology or instructional materials, access to a resource room, or even external placement. The term sometimes (but not usually) includes programs for those considered gifted.

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ASCD's A Lexicon of Learning defines inclusion as: The practice of educating all children in the same classroom, including children with physical, mental, and developmental disabilities. Inclusion classes often require a special assistant to the classroom teacher.

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Whether you are a parent, teacher, grandparent or advocate of a child with special needs, these 5 websites will help you gain a strong understanding of inclusive education. In addition to providing you with the concept of inclusive education, the resources here will also offer strategies for inclusion, information about the laws surrounding inclusion, advocacy tips and how to access organizations that support inclusion.

The Inclusive Schools Network is a website dedicated to providing resources about inclusive education for educators, families, schools and organizations.

The site is highly interactive with school self-assessments, podcasts, and an online glossary of inclusion terms. Schools and families are also encouraged to celebrate Inclusive Schools Week with print materials, activities and planning tools. This site is sure to answer many of your questions about inclusive education or at least point you in the right direction!

This site is primarily dedicated to offering information about individuals (children and adults) with learning disabilities. The NCLD promotes inclusion by raising awareness for various learning differences and offers MANY ways in which those learning differences can be positively and effectively supported in the classroom. F

or teachers, there is a wealth of information on how to identify LD (learning disability) and strategies successfully instruct a student with LD. For parents, there are checklists, quizzes and tips to support their child at home and school. Thus, by giving all children the same educational opportunities, families and schools can create equitable environments.

Wrightslaw has been a resource for the special education community for years, providing information and knowledge about special education law, education law and children with disabilities. In addition, it offers books, training and an advocacy library.

In a special section under "LRE/Inclusion", there are FAQs and a Q & A on when and how inclusion is practiced in the American school system. This area is particularly helpful in dispelling common myths about inclusive education. Finally, you can also learn more about IEPs (Individual Education Plans) and what to expect during IEP meetings, revisions and goal-setting.

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5 of the Best Inclusive Education Websites You Need to Know About - Friendship Circle - Special Needs Blog

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Whether you are a parent, teacher, grandparent or advocate of a child with special needs, these 5 websites will help you gain a strong understanding of inclusive education. In addition to providing you with the concept of inclusive education, the resources here will also offer strategies for inclusion, information about the laws surrounding inclusion, advocacy...