Blog Post #2 Debbie Berni

One of the ways that we can promote the social integration of students with exceptional learning needs is to work with the families of these students.  This thought is based on principle six of IDEA, parent participation.   “Parent participation is meant to encompass areas where parents and districts can become collaborators in making decision about a student’s education.” (Graff and Jaminez, 2008, p.24).  I feel that good communication with the families of these students is very beneficial.  The parents of students with ELN have great insight to their children.  They want their children to be successful and can share ideas of what makes them tick.  I also think that we need to be careful of pushing students into our own idea of social integration.  We need to take into consideration the statement made by Virginia M. Victorin when she was sharing the story of her special needs son Gabriel, “…my husband and I have learned that parents and professionals have a shared responsibility to not get stuck on what does not work.  We must build on what works together.” (Graff and Jaminez, 2008, p.66). In coming up with ideas of social integration, we must still keep in mind the comfort of the student in certain social situations.  Parents and teachers need to interact to come up with the best socialization plan based on each student’s natural abilities and talents.  I am remembering one a former student who had autism.  He was an average student in my math classroom, but loved to sing and dance.  He was given an opportunity to sing a solo at the spring choir concert, where he did a wonderful job.  He came to school the next excited to share the video of his special moment.  That student was able to share his talents with his peers and members of the community.

A second way that we can promote the social integration of students with ELN is to provide general education teachers with professional development that educates them in ways to support students with ELN.  As a general education teacher myself, I often feel ill prepared to service students with ELN.  An example of this would be in my math classroom where students often work in teams to solve complex math problems.  I am expecting all students to know how to communicate with the members of their team about the problem, but some students struggle to share their ideas because their disability inhibits them from talking to others.  I had another student with autism in my honors algebra class who did not like to work with others because his work needed to be perfect and he was not able to trust that other students would complete the work to his standards.  Knowing a way to guide him in his communication would have benefitted me.

Social integration of students with exceptional learning needs has come a long way in the last forty years, but improvements can still be made.  I think that having parents and school districts communicating together along with offering professional development to general education teachers will go a long way in continuing the improvements to social integration of these students.