Children With Disabilities

It is not surprising that the number of children with disabilities is increasing. While it does not necessarily mean that there are more disabilities, rather there is more effort to screen, identify, support and include children affected. We currently live in a time where a disabled child is not labeled and set aside, they are given a full range of support both inside and outside of the classroom. The spectrum of resources if vast, covering everything from technology to medical support. In the classroom, disabled students are completely immersed in the day to day happenings right along with their typically developing peers. We are currently living with the ‘include and support’ perspective. Beginning in the mid 80s, it brought the idea that …show more content…
While I would love to say that all of my experiences with it have been positive, I can’t. Not for lack of support of the concept, or the desire to see my peers succeed. I believe the negative experiences I have stem from teachers who were not prepared how to handle disabled children. I believe that the pressure to give support in a way they were not exposed to could have created the turbulent interactions I have witnessed. A perfect example, one I cringe at when it comes to mind, is of my elementary math class. The teacher was much older, and incredibly strict…and for good reason. My class was rambunctious, chatty and distracted. In the class, we had one girl who was disabled. I still have no idea what her disability was, other than she was legally blind. She required a type of magnification table that traveled with her to all of her classes. The teacher placed her in the very back of the classroom, with her table facing a wall. She was literally turned away from the entire room. She was slow to grasp concepts and always asked questions. It never really bother the rest of us, as we were only half paying attention to begin with. The most vivid memory I have in this class was the way my teacher treated her. One particular day, the girl was more vocal than normal. The teacher seemed frustrated from trying to explain, and finally snapped half way through the lesson. She rolled her eyes and “dismissed” the girl from class. Which in turn, made the girl completely breakdown into tears. The para that was with her, wheeled her out of the room which made her more hysterical. The teacher had not stopped the lesson for a moment. I remember feeling ashamed, almost embarrassed. I told my parents what I had experienced and it ended up being quite the fiasco. While this is the most vivid memories I have of experiences with inclusion, it is not the only negative