Attitude of Special Education Teachers and Assistant Towards Students With Autism and Inclusive Teaching, Research Paper Example

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism spectrum disorders refer to a range of neurological disorders that usually affect the normal functioning of the brain. They are characterized by highly repetitive behavior, extensive impairment in communication and social interactions as well as severely restricted interests. The spectrum encompasses Autism, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Rett’s Disorder, Pervasive Development Disorder, and Asperger’s Disorder.

Prevalence Statistics

The prevalence of ASD ranges between 3.3 and 10.6 for every 1000 children with a general mean prevalence of 6.6 per 1000 children. There is significant higher prevalence among white non-Hispanic kids compared with black non-Hispanic kids (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007). The male-to-female ratio varies from 3.4 to 6.5 boys per 1 girl. The population of children who are diagnosed with autism continues to rise significantly with statistics from the United States Department of Health indicating the number of children diagnosed with autism growing at a rate of 20% annually in America. Additionally, one in every a hundred and seventy five 175 elementary learners is diagnosed with autism (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007).

Causes and General Symptoms

There are no distinct causes pf ASD since most of the individual symptoms are a result of different causes. There has been a strong link of genetics as a major cause though it is not clear whether it is genetic mutations or rare multigene interactions that lead to the development of ASD. This uncertainty arises due to the many complex gene interactions involved as well as the epigenetic factors that play a role during gene expression. ASD is therefore inheritable with studies of twins indicating a 0.9% chances for inheriting ASD while siblings of parents with ASD being 25 times more prone to developing ASD.

Each of the disorders that make up the spectrum has its own set of unique symptoms but there are common symptoms in all of the five disorders.  The general symptoms of ASD include; social and communication impairments, repetitive as well as restricted behavior, atypical eating, difficulty in sensory processing, anxiety especially in unfamiliar situations, and inconsistent attention patterns. The repetitive behavior seems ritualistic with the child preferring a certain way of doing something. In addition, there are incidences of self injury, compulsive behavior and unusual abilities that differ with each child.

Inclusion

Inclusion refers to a system of education that merges special education and general education such that children who have disabilities and therefore require special education learn in the same environment and classroom setting similar to that which normal children learn in. In the past, special and general educations have been viewed as two distinct sections of the education system. Special education is dedicated to providing learning opportunities to children who are diagnosed with disabilities as well as disorders that impede their normal learning experience.

The philosophy behind inclusion is the need to have children with disabilities and disorders that affect their learning experience to have equal learning opportunities similar to those that don’t have disorders. Every child is entitled to equal opportunities in life and thus the need to have children with disabilities and disorders treated similar to their normal peers. Trough inclusion, children with disabilities gain from learning in a normal classroom setting while their normal peers get to understand their problems and learn how to cope with them.

Inclusion and inclusive teaching has been on the rise as a result of a number of court rulings that have time after time determined that individuals with disabilities and disorders have a right to free public education and therefore should be integrated with their peers. In addition, a number of federal legislations such as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) and the No Child Left Behind 2002 (NCLB) have been enacted that have made inclusion mandatory within the public school system.

As such, public schools are required to offer a range of services in the least restrictive classroom situation for all children. There is a number of staff that is involved in the inclusion process. This includes special education teachers, normal teachers, paraeducators, counselors, parents

General Attitude Towards Inclusion and Inclusive Teaching

Despite the increase of inclusion within schools, there has been a negative perception towards inclusion since most of the educators involved feel not adequately equipped to handle children with ASD. This is because children who have ASD normally have significant challenges especially learning, communication and social interaction which makes them difficult to deal with. This makes teachers in regular schools to have difficulty in dealing effectively with these children. In addition, there are a small number of models and procedures that have been developed to facilitate successful inclusion of students with ASD into the regular classroom and thus teachers are faced with the duty of designing curriculums for inclusion in the absence of comprehensible procedures and protocols.

A study carried out in public schools in Pennsylvania found out that most principals were in favor of inclusion but most of the teachers who were to spend most of the time with these students were not. Most of these teachers were trained in segregated schools thus lack the necessary skills and knowledge on how to interact with children with disabilities. In addition, socialization is a significant consideration in the process of inclusion since it is an essential element in successful inclusion at any level. Normal students are not taught how to identify with, accept, and care for the students with disabilities which makes it difficult for successful inclusion of disabled students.

This gives teachers a hard time trying to facilitate a favorable environment for these two types of students who will be in conflicts most of the time. This is because students with disabilities normally have little knowledge and skill in developing good relationships with their peers which is a major impairment area in autism.

Conflicts and Gaps Between Specialized Teachers and Paraprofessionals

Paraprofessionals are individuals that are hired with the aim of assisting professional with their work in times of shortages and an increasing workload. Educational paraprofessional work in the educational sector as classroom assistants and instructional assistants aiding teachers within the classroom. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of paraeducators due to a continuing shortage in the number of school professionals, a change of teachers roles over time and the expansion of the educational and related services to incorporate an educational model that provides inclusive education for children with disabilities. Paraeducators assist both in mainstream as well as special education classrooms.

Though paraeducators are employed with the aim of assisting teachers with their work, there have been conflicts between the two which is detrimental since it occurs at the students’ expense beating the original rationale of incorporate paraeducators. One of the causes of these conflicts is a lack of a proper job description that defines clear roles and responsibilities of the paraeducators. This leads to uncertainty on the roles that teachers should assign to their paraeducators leading to conflicts as the paraeducators may decline performing some of the tasks.

Secondly, conflicts arise as a result of the in the selection and matching procedure where individuals are selected as paraeducators and eventually matched to a teacher who he or she will assist. Conflict arises because it’s the school administrators who are normally in charge for the paraeducator selection process as well as matching successful paraeducators with teachers. This excluded teachers from the entire selection and matching process creating discord between the teachers and the paraeduacators.

In such a scenario, teachers may erroneously presume that the paraeducators have suitable training and experience within a classroom setting while they actually do not have. The paraeducators may end up performing duties assigned to them wrongly which will lead to conflicts between the teachers and the paraeducators. In addition, due to personality differences and incompatible philosophies of education, a collaborative working relationship may be strained and difficult to foster.

Another conflict area is the effective training and supervision of paraeducators. Most paraeducators feel that they are not supervised in the right manner with most of the teachers evaluating their performance inappropriately. Most teachers are not aware of the abilities that these paraeducators possess and could end up training them skills that they already have while overlooking those that they could be lacking. In addition, some of the teachers are not prepared to work with paraeducators and thus are finding it hard to train the paraeducators since they expect them to be already having the necessary skills required to assist in the classroom.

Implications and Future Strategies to Minimize the Gap

There is need for these conflicts to be addressed so as to ensure smooth running of the inclusion process. First of all, there is need for teachers to change their negative attitudes towards inclusion so as to effectively teach children with disabilities. They should be trained on how to handle students with special needs so as to teach them effectively. The other students also need to be informed of the special need of the children with disabilities so that they are able to understand and cope with them. In addition, principals need to exhibit suitable attitude and behaviors with regards to the inclusion process so that the rest of the faculty will follow from their example.

There is need for the development of personalized job descriptions for each of the paraeducators since each of them come from different backgrounds and thus posses different abilities. These job descriptions should include the skills and competencies that the paraeducators possess and the significant training that they will require so as to be able to perform designated tasks. These job descriptions will be helpful in creating a source of understanding the duties and responsibilities assigned to paraeducator as well as the conditions of their new work environments. This will be also foster positive relationships between teachers and paraeducators since the teachers will be able to properly delegate responsibilities to their paraeducators capitalizing on their strong areas and interests.

Teachers need to be included in the selection and matching process so that they will be in better position to assign themselves paraeducators that they are comfortable with. This is necessary as it will enable the teachers to know first hand the abilities that their paraeducators possess and the areas that they will need assistance in order to improve. It will also be helpful as the teachers can be able to chose individuals with whom they are of the same personality types thus leading to compatibility that is necessary for them to work together.

Lastly there is need for the development of clear training and supervision procedures that will guide teachers on the right steps to follow during training, supervision and evaluation of paraeducators. This will be important so that teachers are aware of the set of skills that the paraeducators will need to be trained in as well as a number of set parameters that the paraeducators will be evaluated on. Appropriate evaluation procedures that both the teachers and the paraeducators are aware of and agree to are essential in creating the right kind of relationship between the two as both parties are comfortable with these parameters and thus the evaluation process is carried out in a well understood manner.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders — Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 14 sites, United States, 2002. MMWR Surveill Summ 2007 Feb 9; 56:12-28.

Cook, B. G., Semmel, M. L., & Gerber, M. M. (1999). Attitudes of principals and special education teachers toward the inclusion of students with mild disabilities–critical differences of opinion. Remedial and Special Education, 20, 199-209.

Newschaffer CJ, Croen LA, Daniels J et al. (2007). The epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders. Annu Rev Public Health.; 28:235–58

Pickett, A., & Gerlach, K. (Eds). (1997). Supervising paraeducators in school settings: A team approach. Austin, TX: Pro Ed, Inc.

Rutter, M. (2005). Incidence of autism spectrum disorders: changes over time and their meaning. Acta Paediatr; 94(1):2–15.

Wallace, T., Shin, J., Bartholomay, T., & Stahl, B. (2001). Knowledge and skills for teachers supervising the work of paraprofessionals. Exceptional Children, 67, 520-533.