FULL INCLUSION

[Guest guest]

Good morning Judy,

FULL INCLUSION..... THE ONLY WAY

I have 5 children in full inclusion. Four with Down syndrome ages 15, 13, 9 and 6 and one 8 yr old with Prader-willi syndrome.

Pros' EVERYTHING. My children get the experience of the real world, which doesn't have pockets of special shopping centers, special rooms at the movies or any other social outing area..they are part of their real community. My children know what it is to be in a group of neighborhood peers.

This has not been easy. It requires the team to put together a sound IEP with all the supports and services your child needs in their surrounding so that the teacher has the supports and services she needs to educate your child. That is the key. I do have 1:1 for each of my children as a classroom/school support. The person is assigned to my child but is not with my child exclusively unless necessary...such as he/she is in need of their BIP procedures in place. They know they are working positive praise as in the FBA every chance they can. Their role is to achieve independence skills in my child. I can not say enough about full inclusion. I do have 8% pull out for specific therapy for one child. It would not be in his best interest to have that done in front of peers. I have had lots of help to get here. Have you heard of Dr. Jill England? She came to the school and met with staff to give examples of "how to" not only staff wise but financially wise make this work best for the school, particularly my children.

The CONS.... I have had a teacher or two not buy into it so we have had to work on educating and a couple par professionals I have had to let go because they didn't understand their roles. The huge CON is it is a full time job on the parent really. Once it is all in place it flows smooth. Now that the two are 2nd graders, I rarely get called to help.....but look out, it all starts over for middle school and again in High school until you pave the way. But for Kindy...come on.....there is NO REASON our kids should not be in gen ed at that age.

HUGE reason...our kids are visual learners...put them where they see appropriate interactions..role models you wan them to model after..that is the key.

Beth PringleSW Florida PODS Angels (Parents of Down syndrome) Family Support Group, inc.501©(3) organization3422 SE 11th Place Cape Coral, Florida 33904 Pringleclan@... http://downsyndromeangels.blogspot.com/www.pringleadoptionjourney.blogspot.com

Hi Everyone!We're in the process of observing kindergarten classes for my son, Reece. The EIC preschool he's currently in recommended a special ed class. So we observed it and were disappointed that they were only offering 10 minutes 2x/week for mainstreaming. I know that we can definitely get more hours of mainstreaming but we're considering full inclusion. I'm wondering if any of you have your children in a full inclusion program. Could you share your experiences....pros/cons, and any other information that would help. Reece will need an aid for sure due to safety issues so that won't be a problem. thank you,Judy Beth PringleSW Florida PODS Angels (Parents of Down syndrome) Family Support Group, inc.501©(3) organization3422 SE 11th Place Cape Coral, Florida 33904 Pringleclan@... http://downsyndromeangels.blogspot.com/www.pringleadoptionjourney.blogspot.com