What are Exceptional Children?
Exceptional children are different in respect to their physical features or in their ability to learn to such a level that there arouses a need of special educational services or some physical arrangement to benefit from schooling. The word “exceptional” is a preferred term that is used for people who are handicapped, disable or are having any impairments as it includes very talented and gifted children. Here disabled does not mean just physical disability only it includes communication disorders, mental retardation, learning disabilities, behavioural disorders and many more. Since time immemorial, exceptional children were discriminated and were segregated. With acts initiated by the government, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), governments from all over the world have taken the responsibility of making sure that every children, irrespective of any disability, enjoy the rights they are entitled to without any discrimination of any sort (Stein, 2017).
Inclusive education is important these days for the disabled children, as the world has become fast paced. It is important to go along with the world in order to cope up with the surrounding. Inclusive education means inclusion of disabled children in schools for general candidate and support them to learn, participate and contribute to all aspects in order to the overall growth of the disabled children (Odom, Buysse & Soukakou, 2011). The decision of including disabled children in schools with general candidates are not just due to the legal requirements but it has also been seen that disabled children when in contact with normal children have had changes in their attitude towards their outlook (Watkins et al.,2015). Inclusion in early setting is important as it has a positive impact on their social and cognitive development (Messiou, 2018). It is said that the initial experiences of a child in their early education system determines the stage to which the disabled child feels connected to their school community. This is best captured when a sense of belonging is created among the disabled children (Wohlwend, 2015). Students of different abilities who go to inclusive early childhood programs are equipped better to live, work and learn in inclusive settings. Inclusive education ensures equality among everyone irrespective of their disabilities (Obiakor et al., 2012). In order to ensure the inclusive education benefits the disabled children and make them feel accepted in the community the parents and the teachers have a huge part to play. Parents have an important role to play to ensure their child’s happiness and growth. Different parents have different responsibilities depending on the condition of the disability. The parents should share the accurate details about their children to the school authority in order to develop and enhance their skills, should have a proper clear of the techniques of education taught in the school to make sure their child understands it properly, monitor their child’s day to day progress, discuss problems with their school authorities if their child’s assessment is not up to the mark. Parents having any concern about the education of their child should talk to teachers (De Boer, Pijl & Minnaert, 2010). Parents are the best advocates of their own children Similarly teachers also pay an important role in shaping a disabled child’s life as after house the time spent most by them is in school. There is a document developed by schools for special children which is known as the IEP (Individualized Education Program). The first role of the teacher is to evaluate IEP’s. The teacher is responsible for the development of these children with their teaching skills. Make schedules and also supervise plans in order to ensure the child’s development. Give individual attention to kids to see whether the student is learning everything properly or not (Siegel, 2017). It is the duty of the teacher to make sure that the general candidates are getting along with disabled children to make sure there is equality in the class and no child is feeling left out, as this becomes one of the major reasons for deterioration in performance (Smart et al., 2018). The teachers should ensure in collaborating with general educators so that disabled children can adapt the curriculum, provide appropriate modifications, assessing overall growth of the child (Schuelka, 2018). Maintaining a relationship with the parents help in discussing problems and trying to solve them. These things if done during the early setting then the children will likely to learn faster and be a part of the school community, which ensures positive mental health as well (Forlin & Chambers, 2011).
Importance of Inclusive Education for Exceptional Children
Schools and many people are trying different techniques to support inclusion. One of them, is the strength-based approach. The aim of this strength-based approach is to promote people’s well-being and independence. The assessment of this approach is to put people at the centre to understand their needs and how they can achieve their goals. The strength-based approach is a fundamental shift from what people cannot do to focus on skills and abilities people have or what they wish to acquire. To ensure the wellbeing of the nation it is important to invest in people to help prevent, reduce, and delay at the development of needs. In the strength-based approach, assessments are usually made to assess people’s needs and their disabilities and then allocate public sector resources to meet their needs. A talk therapy is conducted for retelling the traumas, pain, stresses and making them feel like a survivor. It has been seen that the strength based theory works very well with disabled children (Nickerson & Fishman, 2013). It has been seen many times children feel lonely, they get demotivated, as they cannot cope up with general students This approach helps them to find their inner talent, the things they want to do and things that can make them confident (Niemiec, Shogren, & Wehmeyer, 2017). E.g many disabled children who have learning disabilities have other talents like painting, cooking and many more. They are made to feel special and these talents are enhanced so that they can learn the art with perfection. Apart from this, the implementation of a strength-based approach is very important in a school. Here teachers observe the students and keep a track of their performance. Teachers practice individualisation in order to act on the strengths of the students. This approach helps disabled children to become confident, enhance their talent and use them further to help them lead in life (Papadakis, Kalogiannakis & Zaranis, 2017). When given extra attention by the teachers they improve in their academics as well. It has been seen that this helps them get along with general candidates and creates a sense of belonging among kids. Highlighting the strengths of the kids help them in becoming confident and in their overall development (Rashid, 2015).
Another effective technique for the overall development of disabled children is the use of effective team approach. Often teachers are advised to initiate teamwork to improve efforts made by the school. A collaborative teamwork is very necessary for successful inclusion of disabled children in a general setting and essential for schools who promote equality and healthy collaborations of people. The role of the team members are to analyse past efforts of the disabled children, setting goals for them and for troubleshooting problems. In this process, team members have a vision and a direction, which lacked previously. The teams did not look for problems, they started to make strategies, which might avoid any kind of mishap or solve potential problems in advance. The primary role of the team members were to structure an outline as to what work is to be allotted to each individual present in the group. The benefit of this process was that one of the members were keeping a track of the record notes, time and look after the team process. The work of the team members are to make is to include disabled children and general students in the same group. This creates a sense of belonging among children and it helps in bringing out the commonality among everyone to make everyone feel equal. In this process the team members assess past problems and the solutions as to why it did not work and try to come up with better plans as to ensure the problems have been fixed (Stayton, 2015). A beneficial outcome of this process was encouraging the development of a shared vision among participants, open communication The team members promote inclusive approaches through policies, philosophies and procedures. They help in developing meaningful relationships between teachers and students to understand the needs of the children, their interests and support their needs. They also promote trusting and valuing each and everyone’s contribution, make decisions for the learning and development of the child and sharing positive insights. This helps disabled children have a mental stability as this ensures them that they are no different and a part of the world. This gives them confidence to cope up with the society and environment in general (Lyons, Thompson & Timmons, 2016)
Techniques for Supporting Inclusive Education
In an inclusive setting, certain measures should be taken to ensure a sense of belonging is created among disabled children so that they feel accepted, acceptance in a community makes everyone feel they are wanted which helps them to be happy and keeps everyone motivated. Disabled children were always discriminated and it is the role of the school to ensure they do not feel left out. Schools should initiate certain measures to ensure disabled children are treated equally. There should be school policies that state that inclusion of disabled children should be necessary (Ainscow & Sandill, 2010). New models should be created and implemented to look after the needs of disabled children, as they need extra attention to learn due to their disabilities. Teachers should get special training to teach disabled children, as they are very sensitive and incapable of learning quickly compared to the general students. They should initiate collaborations between the family and the school so that they can understand the needs of the children better as nobody will know the weaknesses and strengths of the child better than their family members (Coleman, 2018). Teachers should encourage interactions between the general candidates and the disabled children to initiate peer balance (Lee et al., 2015). With this the class becomes equal and the disabled children are also treated equally (McMahon et al., 2016). It helps them in making friends, improving their communication skills, earning new things, they become more confident when accepted and become a part of the classroom. General students should think them to be just as normal as them to avoid any sort of discrimination. If this is done in an early setting the general students also can broaden their horizon and mind set as to believe that the disabled children are a part of the society and are just like them. An evaluation report should be maintained by the teachers to assess the growth of the student. If any student is lagging behind special attention should be given to that student to ensure they student copes up with the on going lessons in the classroom. Teachers should maintain sensitivity, as disabled children are very sensitive, they are emotionally weak as well due to their condition. They should be made to feel that they are an important part of the class room. Inclusive in early childhood setting has a lot of advantages. Students get along with each other and thus get used to the atmosphere. It becomes less difficult for children to adjust (Mulholland & O’Connor, 2016). Here it helps the disabled children in their social and emotional development. At an early stage disabled children learn to become independent and manage themselves (Odom, 2016). With interaction between the children in their classrooms, it has been seen that they have not only developed their communication skills but they have learnt to respect individual differences as well. It has been that in schools who provide an inclusive setting they have support groups, counsellors who help disabled children to assess their problems, understand them and often reduce the workload of the teachers. At last it has been evaluated that inclusion in early setting has had a positive feedback (Black-Hawkins, Florian & Rouse, 2016). Students studying in an inclusive setting has had an overall growth in terms of academics as well as in their attitude and in their outlook.
Challenges of Implementing Inclusive Education
Inclusive setting in early childhood has been very effective. Disabled children have become a part of the society, a sense of acceptance has occurred within themselves that has shaped their life positively which has been seen through their results, and as well as in their co-curricular activities that are highly supported in these schools. However, there are dearth of qualified and trained teachers who can teach these kids in the right way to help them grow. Nonetheless inclusive in early childhood setting has been beneficial and helped disabled children for their educational and emotional needs.b
References
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