School Inclusion for Children with Down Syndrome

At the regular school age, most children with Down syndrome may be not fully prepared to start school in a typical classroom. This is especially true if they haven’t been provided with the opportunity to interact with their typical peers in a pre-school or child care setting. Adapting to school is a challenge for any young child, but it’s even more complicated for those who have limited communication or self-care skills.

In the United States, school for children with special needs starts at 3 years of age, with the intention to prepare the children for a less restrictive environment, based on their individual abilities. We talk in detail about his topic in this article.

As we discussed in our previous article, inclusion is a natural experience that starts at home. When kids receive natural opportunities for inclusion through their families and their communities, the adaptation to a mainstream classroom may be smoother.

Whether or not your child has experience with inclusion, these are some tips to help inclusion happen for children with Down syndrome:

• Explore and find the right placement for your child. The law may state that inclusion is a right, but the reality is not always so easy. Sometimes it’s better to find a place that really wants to take your child and give him a good experience, than to force an institution to accept your child based on the law. Finding the right school and a teacher willing to help and learn to treat your child as an individual is even more important.

• Work with teachers and the school to create an Individualized Plan of Education for your child. This plan is called IEP in United States, and is the basis of his education. Usually plans like this are used in any country, to determine the child’s strengths and weakness, and to create the right strategies to achieve the goals set for him. The plan may or may not include therapies during school hours. All those points should be addressed as a team, where the parents are an important piece.

• Be realistic about your child’s special needs. It’s important to help the teacher understand his behavior and clarify his communication. Part of the plan of education may be to offer to the teacher an album of pictures to help the child express his feelings or needs if he’s not able yet to talk. If your child is still in the process of getting potty trained, a calendar with specific times when your child needs to potty may be very helpful for the teacher to be aware of the approximate times he needs to be directed to the bathroom.
• Be objective when requesting or setting goals for your child. Inclusion has a lot of benefits, but your child being included doesn’t necessarily mean that he will be able to follow a regular curriculum. Adaptations are very important for him to feel comfortable. No one knows your child better than you do. Talk openly about his strengths and weaknesses, as a way to set realistic goals for him. In this way, you won’t be putting pressure on him, nor will you be making him feel bored or underestimated.

• Academic goals are important and as parents and professionals, we should not underestimate the abilities of children with Down syndrome. The most wonderful gift of inclusion is the social interaction that teaches kids with or without special needs about diversity, acceptance and compassion.

Many people mistakenly feel that children with special needs represent a distraction in a typical classroom, or a way to force typical children to deal with a different type of person. Inclusion is instead a learning experience for everyone in the classroom. Kids with Down syndrome become members of the group by offering their talents and unique personalities. Not only do they learn from their classmates, but their classmates learn from them to be patient, to respect others and to be prepared for the unpredictable surprises of life.