Students with Special Needs in Regular Classrooms

Students with Special Needs in Regular Classrooms

Promoting inclusion in learning helps keep the students actively engaged, improving education outcomes. According to Heward (72), cooperative learning for students with disabilities could help learners understand how to learn using the normal school curriculum. This is because well-designed collaborative learning helps to keep learners with disabilities more engaged, encouraging them to participate in normal classroom learning. In addition to helping to keep learners engaged, an inclusive classroom setting that takes into consideration the needs of all learners, including those living with disabilities, helps to facilitate positive social relationships, hence mutual support amongst students. Therefore, this discussion paper aims to explore whether it is appropriate to incorporate students with disabilities into regular classrooms.

Incorporating students living with special needs in an inclusive classroom is the right thing because it avails them of opportunities given to other learners. When included in a normal classroom setting, students learning with disabilities are more likely to be inspired by their peers, facilitating positive performance. Research by Armstrong &Thomas (16) shows that Latin American children with disabilities, especially those from poor backgrounds, are the most excluded in the normal school program, leading to poor performances among these learners. As a result of these learners being excluded, most never graduate from high school.

According to the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, states should recognize any person with disabilities by allowing them to participate in all national building projects (Armstrong, 16). Part of the declaration mandates that states ensure inclusion in all programs, including the education system. This is because, just like other children, students with disabilities can participate in regular classrooms by availing of supportive measures. When these learners have equal opportunities, they maximize their academic and social development achievement compared to those excluded from regular classroom settings.

I believe that schools should include students with disabilities in regular classrooms not just because the law requires it but also because it is morally correct to do so. Consistently, students with disabilities add to the diversity of the classroom, helping enrich the classroom with new ideas and making the classroom a more exciting and enjoyable learning environment (Anderson & David, 43-59). Furthermore, students with disabilities bring with them new strengths; it is unfortunate how people only view their shortcomings in terms of physical disabilities rather than seeing their high spatial ability and creative thinking. Therefore, I would advocate for inclusion in learning because it not only gives learners with disabilities the space to interact with others but also helps other students to gain new knowledge and ideas from students with disabilities.

Inclusive education subjects learners with disabilities to new technologies that help them succeed in regular classrooms. For example, students with communication and articulation disabilities can use alternative communication applications which translate using icon-labeled buttons, hence being understood by others (Armstrong, 14). Such a solution helps to strengthen the communication abilities of learners with communication disabilities, hence helping them to become independent people in life. Conclusively, teachers should understand that every child can learn, but each absorbing knowledge can vary, especially for students with special needs. However, accommodating these learners in the regular classroom can be helpful to the child and the rest of the classroom.

Work Cited

Armstrong, Thomas. “Reasons for FULLY including children with special needs in regular classrooms.” American Institute for Learning and Human Development. https://www. institute4learning. com 10 (2016): 16.

Anderson, David W. “Inclusion and interdependence: Students with special needs in the regular classroom.” Journal of Education and Christian Belief 10.1 (2016): 43–59.

Heward, William L., Exceptional children: An introduction to special education. Pearson Education/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2012.

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Case Study: “Students with Special Needs in Regular Classrooms–Is This the Right Placement?
Re-read pages 66-79 which discusses IDEA’s requirement for students to be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Remember that there is a continuum of alternative placement to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Placement of students with disabilities in the regular classroom is one of the options available to the IEP team as they make decisions about the LRE for the students. Typically, when students with disabilities are placed in a regular class as their LRE it is referred to as INCLUSION.

After re-visiting the text’s information, research and find two more articles that discuss INCLUSION as an option for students with disabilities.
Then, write at least two pages in response to the question, “Students with Special Needs in Regular Classrooms – Is This the Right Placement?
Make sure to list your references.
The book is named: Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education. 10th Edition. Heward, W.L. (2012)