Inclusion Rules!

Twenty-three years I have been teaching young children! About ten years ago, I had an opportunity to mainstream a special child into my class for an hour or so a day. Well, I was "hooked". Matty was in the worst part of his early days and so my heart was made tender. Now I have 4 special children in my regular kindergarten/first grade split class. The range of exceptionalities has been varied. I have had experience with deaf children, cerebral palsy in varying degrees, autism also in varying degrees, and some that were unlabelled. The thing I learned early on is that I am the one who has been blessed!

This child, Sameka, has been such a blessing to me! A year ago my goal for her was to have her learn to write her name. Now she writes it in cursive and it is legible!! She never fails to put her name on her paper either! She has autism syndrome. I grieve when I think about next year without her. I have been given the special gift of witnessing her language skills and speech EXPLODE! She went from responding to "What do you want, Sameka?" and "What do you need, Sameka?" to being the biggest tattle-tale I have ever met! She went from not touching a pencil or crayon to a paper to actually following directions alone and legibly 50% of the time without any guidance! Every day I witness two or three miracles in her. My husband always knows there's a Sameka story. One day she wrote her own name on the board under the "bad list" and I asked her why she did it. She told me, "Sameka said a nasty word." I left it up there but couldn't punish her. This year she is reading on grade level in first grade. For four chocolate cows. I love you Meeka-moo!

This precious angel,Gabriel, was promoted out of my class this year after spending 2 years with me. His main exceptionality is deafness although late last year we discovered he has Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. The Duchenne's has advanced rapidly but he is still walking without assistance. He may be fortunate enough to participate in a research study that could possibly arrest the Duchenne's in it's tracks. Please pray for Gabriel. He is an only son and his mother and sisters are precious people as well as he. Additional info: He will be the elder son in a few months! Gabriel has already named his little brother!!

Part of the "Hot Wheels Parade" at our school, this little fella browses the EXCEPTIONAL PARENT magazine for devices he is interested in. I have managed to hang on to him for 2 years. We are good buddies! Andre' has Cerebral Palsy from birth. He is very verbal and converses well. He loves video games, books, and video tapes. He is a first grader this year and he is the only child of his parents. This is Andre's mailbox, not mine!!! His parents are a wealth of information! Andre' got his electric wheelchair last year and I enjoyed watching his joy as he spun his own self in circles to music. He is able to propel his own body in space!!!! But don't think for a moment he's not "all boy"! He has some strong abilities. He is an excellent SEGA player. Recently, Andre' has begun to attempt written tasks alone. We tape his paper to the table so he won't move it around or drop it and he uses really big crayons, but hey, he's doing pretty good. This year, he is reading on grade level!

EMAIL ME!

Also part of the "Hot Wheels Parade" is Frankie. He is nonverbal and uses a Delta Talker. He is the original "two-timer". All the women at school fight for his attention. He's promised to marry about 30 people so far. His eyes are irresistable! He is developing some language/speech and we're working on that. He thinks he's Jeff Gordon. And he deserves recognition for his impeccable driving ability at high speeds. He came to me from the Developmentally Delayed Class at our school and the teacher is another Ann Sullivan. Frank is getting some new medicines to help relax his muscles and his speech has really improved! For a non ambulatory nonverbal person, he is Mr. Personality. He knows just exactly what's going on and you needn't think he doesn't catch your drift when trying to imply something to another adult. We're hoping he may walk one day. It's a possibility. Please pray for Frankie. He's a wonderful person.

At storytime I always put on this bonnett and the children know it's time for stories. I think this is so sweet because I caught him doing this! He has it on upside down, wrong side out, and backward. He was "reading" a book to his friends and they were listening! Isn't he cute? This little guy has no firm diagnosis but has ADD/ADHD. He is very enthusiastic about school and learning. My foster grandmother works one on one with him and if she's a minute later arriving than he thinks she should be, he starts asking! He thinks it's going to be a mini vacation for him. HA! Thank you, Mrs. Shack!!! Jon will be full time regular education next year. He worked his way out of special services. His academics are as good as any regular students and his behavior is within normal range. Congrats Jon!! The "normal" children in my class compete for the special privilege of "helping" their special classmates. I believe all children benefit from INCLUSION. They learn early that there is no reason to fear people who are not exactly like themselves and that helping others is FUN! I am honored to see some really sweet moments experienced between two classmates working toward the same goals. It renews my faith in the future. The true focus of INCLUSION is to modify activities at the minimum extent and have the special needs children be as much like their peers as possible. I think I have at least 4 kindergarten girls that will grow up to be doctors or physical therapists because they LOVE to help Frank and Andre'. They know as much about what they need, want, and how the special devices work as I do. And they are trustworthy. Why does it work? Because we want them to feel loved most of all and we preserve all students dignity at all costs. There's so much more I need to add but this overview will have to suffice for now! I can honestly say that of all my inclusion students, 100% of them are still in the inclusion setting in subsequent grades!!!!! It works!