How inclusion can affect non disabled children?

      That needs no saying, inclusive education is a reform that requires a lot to be successfully implemented and produce effective results. However for many people it is still remains uncertain to what results this reform can lead our schools and how the effectiveness is measured. This issue of the outcomes of inclusive education and its impact was examined by many educators over the time. Most of these studies focused on the impact of inclusion for children with special needs, and only some of them mentiones the impact of inclusion for non disabled children. In this post I hope to give you brief information on how inclusion affects ordinary children.

      The literature of this topic assumes that in most cases placement of children with disabilities does not affect academic achievements of ordinary children. For instance, Cheryl Follansbee (1996) compared the academic achievements of 195 students in nine non-inclusive classes and 195 students from 13 inclusive classes, 84 of whom were classified as having mild handicapping conditions, using the pretest and posttest. He revealed that academic achievements of children in inclusive classes were not negatively affected by inclusion and at the same time these thirteen classes even performed better in the State Competency Test comparing to others. Positive results were found while basic literacy skills of non-disabled children in inclusive settings have been comparing to these in general class (Manset and Semmel, 1997). This question was also scrutinized from the perspective of parents and results showed that most of parents did not see any negative effect on their child’s academic progress, 15% reported positive effect, while the rest 7% indicated decrease in academic progress (Peck, Staub, Gallucci, & Schwartz, 2004). Besides, this study also showed the impact on child’s social and emotional development. 67% of respondents reported that their child’s appreciation of the needs of other children had increased. 87% said that overall impact of inclusion on child’s participation in relationships was positive, 12% viewed it as a neutral and only 1% characterized negative impact (Peck et.al., 2004). Another concern about inclusion is attention that teacher spends on children in inclusive classroom. When Hollowood (1994) documented the amount of time that was allocated by teacher during the observation, results indicated that placement of children with special needs had no significant impact on the level of the time spent on students without special needs.

        It is necessary to piont out that impact directly depends on the conditions and interventions provided at school with the aim to enhance social and academic achievements. Recognizing the necessity of studies in this area of inclusion, Hunt et al. (1994) examined the effectiveness of the package of the interventions designed to facilitate socialization process between three elementary year students with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities with other children n the class. The package implemented in school included interactive activities, different approaches of information provision, and interpretation of the behavior of children with special needs. This study revealed that intervention package contributed to the development of friendships between students of both groups.

           Generally speaking, there is no negative effect of the inclusion for children without disabilities. What is more, these children even could benefit from studying in inclusive class provided that there is adapted learning environment and intervention. By writing this post I encourage you to be informed about possible outcomes of inclusion, because some of us already has own children, others will become parents in the future and I hope this knowledge will help you to decide weather support inclusion or not.

References 

Hunt, P., Staub, D., Alwell, M., & Goetz, L. (1994). Achievement by all students within the context of cooperative learning groups. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps,19 , 290-301.

Manset, G., & Semmel, M. I. (1997). Are inclusive programs for students with mild disabilities effective? A comparative review of model programs. The Journal of Special Education, 31, 155-180.

Follansbee, C. (1996). Effects of inclusive classrooms on secondary general education student achievement: a multiple classroom experiment. USA: UMI Company.

Peck, C., Staub, D., Gallucci, C., & Schwartz, I. (2004) Parent Perception of the Impacts of Inclusion on their Nondisabled Child. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities Vol. 29, no. 2, 135-143.