Accommodations for Inclusion

 

 Within the school system, the current trend is to include students with intellectual disabilities in the general classroom. This especially applies to those with mild disabilities but, an increasing number of children with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities are being included as well. While this reflects a dramatic change away from segregated classrooms, students identified as intellectually disabled are still often educated in separate settings. 40% of children with intellectual disabilities are still in self contained or segregated schools.

     The majority of general classroom options are at the elementary level. A student's success depends on a number of factors that include his or her age, support services available, curriculum adaptations and modifications, acceptance by the other students, the classrooms teacher's experience with and exposure to children who are exceptional, and the availability of community resources.

Examples of accommodations:

-Teach in small groups to allow practice and feedback Groups should be kept to 2-4 students

-Use Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), which is proven to be particularly effective for children with intellectual disabilities

Examples of Material accommodations:

-Highlight textbooks

-Provide supplementary content written in a lower level than that of the textbook

-Provide outlines for the chapters and, for older students, any lecture presentations

-Teach textbook structure (ie: headings, subheadings, differing print, introductory and summary paragraphs)

Examples of instructional adaptations:

-Be honest but liberal with praise and offer consistent reinforcements

-Use specific, evaluative feedback.(ie:"I like the way you formed your letters" instead of "Good work.")

-Use many instructional scaffolds

-Increase motivation by using thematic projects that allow children to pursue their interests and be active participants

-Reward effort rather than ability

-Promote transfer of learning by applying learning to other situations, objects, and problems in the learner's environment.
-Present tasks in an uncomplicated, brief, and sequential fashion moving from the simple to the more complex.

-Ensure mastery of new material through repetition and over-learning.

-Drill to overcome memory problems, and have students practice math and reading in a variety of ways with a variety of materials.

-Stop and activity a few minutes in and have the student tell or write about what they've learned, any item that confuses them, any questions they may have.

-Teach specific learning strategies.

-Read to the class to provide pacing and ensure better understanding.

-Start a dialogue by summarizing, generating questions, clarifying, and predicting what will happen next.

(From Children with exceptionalities in Canadian classrooms)