Do you believe students with developemental disorders should be integrated in general classes with the students without devlopemental disabilities?

Answer 1

I am a special education teacher--I have been teaching now for 12 years. I have worked with a very wide range of children with disabilities. I believe there are many factors that should go into deciding if a child should be in a regular classroom. Factors such as; what is the students disability and how severe that disability is, does the student have the social skills that it takes to be in the general classroom and the type of regular classroom teacher will be with that child. Many regular classroom teacher deal very well with special needs students. But I have seen some who don't deal well with special needs children well. These teachers need to know how to modify to the needs of that students. If these students get with the wrong teachers then that hurts everyone in the classroom. It is not fair for the student with the disability, the teacher and the other children that are in the classroom. Each students needs to be evaluated and all these factors need to be taken into account. We do many different things where I teach. Some students are in a special education room all day--some are pulled out for special services for 50min-2 hrs and 3 hrs. Sometimes the special education teacher even goes into the general education room and works with the special needs child. We all need to remember that every child is different and learns at a different way and at different paces.