Inclusion has increasingly become a focus in improving special education. We've finally come to realize the importance of it and now the main concerns are the methods to use and to what degree. Crucial for this is to constantly look at it with an individualized approach. Just as a single disability affects people in different ways with different severities, a single method will have various results for each person.
Before searching for effective methods it is imperative to identify who is involved. I became aware of this after seeing a few videos of special needs students involved with inclusion. At first I only considered the efforts of the student and the special ed teacher but after watched the videos I saw it has an impact and requires the involvement of many more. A boy with autism fully included with his 4th grade class was one of the cases. It quickly became clear that the teacher couldn't always attend to this student and the other classmates would many times have to handle situations on their own. Upon realizing this, the teacher discussed matters with her students to get everyone on the same page. Efforts by the other students was the last thing I thought necessary, to the contrary. What would be the point of inclusion if there was no interaction with the other students. So for this to be successful all the students need to be informed and on the same page. Same goes for the general ed teacher even if there is a special ed teacher aiding in the class. Everyone in the classroom plays a role in inclusion.
Another case was a high school girl only in partial inclusion. This was her choice. She said herself that she didn't want full inclusion. So working towards full inclusion shouldn't be the goal for everyone. Given that inclusion does have many benefits, it should be incorporated as much as possible within the tolerance of the individual. Asked in class what we thought was the best full or partial inclusion I stopped to figure out the answer...there is no answer. The issue with how much inclusion I believe isn't a real issue at all. It's just something that needs to be experimented with until finding the most beneficial scenario for all parties for each case.
Developing inclusion programs is undoubtedly essential to improving special education. Attempting to find the best solution on the other hand is futile. It would be more sensible to work towards expanding the knowledge, technologies, and resources regarding inclusion. This would allow a quicker, smoother, and more precise process in matching a program to each student.
