Inclusion! What's In It For Everyone?

Deborah Conn

I must admit, a smile literally spread across my face as I watched six small groups of early care and education workshop participants from Santa Barbara County, California talking animatedly and quickly filling flip charts with lists of ideas. Their task was to brainstorm the benefits of inclusion for children with special needs and their families, children without special needs and their families, program staff, and the community. I was smiling because this was such a stark and wonderful contrast to the first time I’d led the same activity twenty years earlier in the same building. Even then, people could think of a few reasons why inclusion benefited children with disabilities, but it was hard for them to come up with ideas on how inclusion benefited others. And, sadly, there were a few then who actually verbalized that children with disabilities had no place in a preschool classroom with children who were typically developing.

A common theme that ran through these small groups today was “respecting and celebrating differences” – not just accepting or tolerating differences. The groups concluded, independently, that adults who grew up prior to special education legislation and the Americans with Disabilities Act were learning to value inclusion from their own preschool children. Just a few of the many other benefits noted from the various groups were: learning to work together to accomplish a goal, mastering skills by helping peers, gaining leadership skills, feeling less isolated, learning new information and skills, increasing awareness, becoming valued members of the community, being able to stay in and contribute to a community (rather than having to move elsewhere to find inclusive settings), learning adaptations that help all children, and improving honest communication.

I recently took the opportunity to talk with some Head Start teachers about how inclusion has benefited them personally. Michelle Valencia shared, “Having children with special needs in my classroom really helped my confidence and has made me a better teacher for all children.” Michelle explained that she has now taught a number of children with significant disabilities and that her successes working with them helped her become more outgoing. In fact, she has even done presentations with her program’s disabilities coordinator. I visited Michelle’s classroom recently and saw first-hand the confidence that she talked about as she worked with a very diverse and lively group of children, including a little girl with spina bifida, who was fully included in all the activities that were going on.

In another classroom I visited, Mary Flores, a center director, talked about the positive changes that she has seen in adult family members of the children without disabilities. Three preschoolers who have significant visual impairments and two children with Down syndrome are enrolled in her center. A few parents expressed concerns at the beginning of the school year about whether their own children would get enough attention and whether the curriculum would be “watered down.” Mary proudly reported that the families soon saw that curriculum is easily adapted and individualized so that all the children can participate. These same parents have told Mary that their own children have become more helpful to others in general and more empathetic since being in the program. A couple of the concerned family members are now volunteering at the center and work with all the children. In fact, one mother wants to go to school to become a special education teacher.

Although work still needs to be done to educate teachers, administrators, legislators, and the community on the benefits of inclusion, and there are surely battles that still need to be fought until all children with disabilities and their families are fully included in our schools and communities, it is heart warming to see how many people today are demonstrating that inclusion works but that everyone benefits from inclusion.