What Can We Do to Promote the Social Integration of Students with Exceptional Learning Needs?

         I believe that social integration begins to form with the child's home and family environment with strong and healthy relationships among all members of the family. As a Therapeutic Staff Support worker, I have witnessed that open communication between each member of the family is essential  toward fostering and promoting positive interactions for the student with exceptional learning needs.  Adaptability  can begin also outside the educational system. The student can increase positive peer interactions, both in the home and within their environment, that will lead into establishing positive relationships.Parents want their child to be integrated into a least restricted environment by mainstreaming  into a general education classroom and not be segregated from their peers.  Children want to feel viable and foster positive interactions with peers and students with disabilities often feel as if they are different and will in turn lead to lower self esteem issues. I have experienced what the negative stigmas can cause a child to feel and they often feel as if they are different and want to be just like everyone else in the general education classroom.

      In the textbook; Education For All: Critical Issues in the Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities, Jimenez and Graf states that..."although the 1997 reauthorization of IDEA did not mandate inclusion, it did require students with disabilities to participate in the general education curriculum and accountability testing, thus making placement in the general education classroom a logical option for students with disabilities." (pg.49).  As a Therapeutic Staff Support worker, I have witnessed a student to be mainstreamed into a general education classroom but as stated on their IEP ( Individual Education Plan) to have inclusions with both accommodations and restructuring in order for the student to remain in a full time general education classroom. Social integration is primary and should be viewed as a important goal of children with exceptional learning needs toward achieving their educational goals. Children learn the best from their peers and often can grow and foster from general education students guiding and teaching alongside students with special needs mainstreamed in same environment and structure. Children are accommodating and friendships can be encouraged with collaboration among all professionals within the classroom to include teachers, aides, and possibly other parents so that removal or segregation does not occur.

     A child is always learning and growing and quality education needs to be fostered and strengthened. "Since the passage of P.L. 94-142, parents have assumed a variety of roles ranging from recipients of professional decision to teachers, political advocates, and educational decision makers. It is long overdue for parents to be seen and treated as equal and welcomed partners in the educational system." (pg.57).( Jimenez and Graf, 2008). I have witnessed and even engaged in open communication between parents and educators and have seen the frustration felt when students with exceptional learning needs are not fully met. Children with exceptional learning needs are striving to adapt to living in a stressful environment and removing them from typical peers their own age can cause more hostility and failure to succeed academically. Promoting an environment that is relaxing and yet enjoyable will lead to the ELN student to feel successful and create a positive learning structure to grow and prosper.