Reverse Inclusion

[SLP]

Anyone out there doing "reverse inclusion"?
Reverse inclusion is when a few regular ed students are included in the special ed class.:)

[dolmansaxlil]

This is interesting. We have a Developmentally Disabled/Medically Fragile class at our school. The DD kids come out into their "grade" classrooms for certain classes (art and phys ed mostly) but I'm not sure how we'd integrate the other way. What kinds of things do you do?

[star]

Hi,
I never heard of reverse inclusion. How is that working out for you? Do you think that the school should continue that option? What state are they doing this in?

[SLP]

We love reverse inclusion! It benefits the typical children and our children with special needs. The problem is that we no longer can do reverse inclusion because they took the reg. ed preschool out of our building.

Here is a good research study about reverse inclusion:
http://escholarship.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1227&context=education/tecplus

[leafy seadragon]

It can work really well, I use it for many reasons, for Peer Play programs, to include a senior student in a group research program with other students his age, to help a group of mainstream students with language problems as our program has a large language/communication segment. It's great for the mainstream kids with trouble with social skills as you teach them to "teach" your kids social skills theirs increase as well and they have great empathy generally.

[Bananas]

I have never heard of it. So would this dumb down the education for the brighter student? A very interesting concept!

[MDTeach]

I've never heard it called that way. My school has an E/I block everyday. During the block, I have a mix of sped and gen ed children. It has worked out really well. Especially for the gen ed students who didn't qualify for sped but still need extra help.

[Boxcar]

I visited the most wonderful special ed. preschool. They practice reverse inclusion. The typically developing children are called "Peer Models". Because it is possible and necessary to diversify all preschool lessons, even in a "regular" classroom, inclusion in either direction works well at this level.

[Martha]

The class I taught this past year was called Study Strategies. Although I am hired by the Special Education Co-op to work in the school, my supervisor gave permission for me to work with low-functioning general ed students in addition to my own list of students with special needs. I am continuing this program next year. We look at grades, effort, failing the state standardized test, and similar qualifications.

This reverse inclusion class has helped me to build contacts with the general ed kids that I usually don't see. They are beginning to come to my classroom during study hall for help with studying and doing homework. They like the fact that my aide and I will spend time working with them one-on-one until they understand the material. It has also helped the general ed teachers to see that they have another resource at hand: assistance from my aide and myself. It is great!

[Tenured]

unless it's a older kid in a younger SPED class, I don't like the idea of it. Same grade = peers and peers will pull good peers down more than thegood ones pull the others up.

[Boxcar]

There is some risk of that. A particular class I'm thinking of has many children with special behavioural needs. The other students have begun to pick up some bad habits...

[Boxcar]

Posted too soon...

I think it depends on the ratios and the paritcular children.

[smithmt]

I think Age would also have a huge impact... with younger kids I see it working, but I believe that this would be folly in a secondary setting... Not to mention this could easily be a Harrison Bergeron (http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html) scenerio. I don't believe that's what was meant when discussing age, however I believe it should be noted.

[randl4]

I teach an inclusion prekindergarten class. I, too, have never heard of reverse inclusion, but I feel that this is what I do in my class. I have students (PPCD - preschool program for children with disabilities) with a range of disabilities and ages. They range from age 3 through 7 and disabilites range from verbal delays, autism, behavior, and CP. These students are with me all day. I have a regular prek class that is there half the day. Last year was the first year we had such a class and I could not believe how well it worked for ALL the children. The non verbal children had wonderful verbal peer models, the children with autism had wonderful peer models, as did the behavior children. The child with CP benefitted from having someone other than his parent or teachers interacting with him. The regular kids benefitted by learning tolerance and compassion for disabilities. The first day of school one of the regular boys came up to me and pointing to the child in the wheelchair, said: "what's that kid doing here?" We talked about why we come to school and that he was there for the same reason, but just learned in different ways. After that they became good friends and this little "regular" guy would ask where he was if he were absent. I don't feel that it "dumbed down" anyone. Everyone benefitted in the way that was needed most, including myself and my paras!!!

[SLP]

randl4,

I am so glad to see that it is working for you and your students. You are implementing the ideas of reverse inclusion very well. So many teachers are reluctant to try it.

My experience at the preschool level is that it is truly beneficial for all of the children involved. It also benefits the teachers to have a better understanding of the children. It benefits the community as well since the children with special needs are learning to interact with typical children and the typical children learn to accept all children as friends, whether or not they have special needs.

[bella mundi]

We used to do some reverse inclusion, but it kind of died out. But this year (and last) we have "best buddies." We are partnered with a nearby college, and it's a club the college students can enter. They then get paired with students in our school. The college has events every month, and the college students also call our students, take them out, or visit them at my school. Only the more social kids get paired with a best buddy, but the two I have for my room are great!! I think it's a great program, and I've been really happy with the buddies.

[DMLinderman]

The first school that I worked at in AK used reverse inclusion in the preschool setting. Half of the students had disabilities while the other half didn't. The students without disabilities were the "peer models." It seemed to work well in that setting, but I'm not sure about it working at a secondary level.

[lynn bambusch]

I teach in a self-contained classroom for students with Emotional Impairment in grades 5-6. I know it is illegal for me to have students who are not Spec. Ed in my classroom, they don't have to be EI but they must be on Spec Ed caseload. Resource teachers, who are in the classrooms can work with all students, but I don't think they are allowed to "pull" general ed. students out for special help. It does seem that this is a state by state situation. The main thing is getting every child the help they need to succeed.

[Karenrbw]

We don't call it reverse inclusion, but we allow hs students that are willing to go into the sped classroom and tutor or help the sped kids. They get a credit for doing so and it is a good way to utilize students that have all the required credits to graduate and don't want to just take a class to waste time. It has been working really well.

[kparsons]

No, but that's interesting... we do inclusion which I love but I would be interested in the reverse...

[Sheila J. Hazelet]

I am working on a clinical project that requires 180 hours and I am looking for as much information as I can!
Thank you!
Sheila

[priyaanka]

Anyone out there doing "reverse inclusion"?
Reverse inclusion is when a few regular ed students are included in the special ed class.:)

Hi!
i never heard about it, but it's interesting...:)