Disability Study Project Down Syndrome (1) by Julie

Framingham State University International Program

SPED - 924 Special Education in the Regular Classroom

Dr. Roseanne Majoy

Disability Study Project : Down Syndrome

Cynthia Perez Julietta Mateo Nicole Handal Ninette Jacome Sandra Lainez

June 4, 2017 1

Table of content

Introduction

Inclusive Education

Having an intellectual disability: Down Syndrome

Delayed development

Being an individual

Living an ordinary life

Implications of the research on inclusive education

Speech and language gains

Friendships

Supporting inclusion

Achieving Inclusion

IEP Goals for Inclusive Setting

Planning the Matrix

Other Aids

Working in a team

Conclusions

References

Introduction Under the inclusion model of education children with different abilities share the same classroom in a respectful setting with specific programs, accommodations, resources and activities that target their special needs and help them learn and grow as individuals. Inclusive education values the unique contributions of each student in a classroom where they feel safe, have a sense of belonging and are part of the community. There are different kinds of disabilities that we as educators may encounter in our classrooms, these include emotional and behavioral disabilities, learning and intellectual disabilities, which need to be identified in order to provide support for our students with the appropriate methodology. The best practices must be sought in order to promote each studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s specific learning needs so they can be successful. In order for Inclusion to be accepted by students, parents and teachers, schools must socialize the model in the community by talking about it and letting them know how mainstream students and the society as a whole can benefit from it. This booklet will address the genetic disorder known as Down Syndrome which is linked to intellectual disability, certain facial features and weak muscle tone during infancy. Individuals with Down Syndrome experience cognitive delays from mild to moderate. To target the needs of students with Down Syndrome in a regular classroom setting educators must be trained and updated with strategies and tips to ensure a suitable and appropriate learning environment for all to foster their development with equity.

Inclusive Education Inclusive education means that all students have the opportunity to attend and are welcome by any school in a regular classroom where they are encouraged to learn, contribute and participate in all the different activities inside the class and in school programs. The way we develop and design our schools, classroom, curricula, programs and activities so that all students can learn and participate together is what Inclusive Education is all about. Learning is a social process where individuals acquire knowledge and experiences as part of a community where others respect their pace and individual characteristics. Inclusion in education involves: ● Putting inclusive values of tolerance and acceptance values into action ● Viewing every students as equal and worth of receiving education ● Support every student to make them feel that they belong to the community ● Restructure policies, protocols and practices to respond to diversity. ● Viewing differences among our students as opportunities for learning. ● Fostering positive relationships between the school and families. ● Recognizing that inclusion in education is the foundation to promote inclusion in society. In a regular classroom all students will benefit from inclusive education, since it allows and provides them with opportunities to develop individual strengths and gifts with a high and appropriate expectations for each child; foster a school culture of respect, tolerance and belonging; inclusive education provides opportunities to learn about and accept individual differences to minimize the cases of bullying; students have the opportunities to develop social interactions with a wide variety of children with different abilities; all students benefit from differentiated instruction since it increases students engagement by developing activities that target all different needs and learning individualities when designing instructional lesson plans, this enhances the way in which educators provide support and accommodations to students with disabilities but also diversifies in a way that this will create educational experiences for all students.

Other benefits that inclusive education provides is that parents are involved in their kids education and in the activities of their schools and has a positive impact in their schools and community since they learn to appreciate diversity and accept other individuals.

Having an intellectual disability: Down Syndrome Down syndrome is the most common cause of intellectual disability that we know of. Everyone who has Down syndrome will have some level of intellectual disability. There will be some delay in development and some level of learning difficulty. Because everyone is unique, the level of delay will be different for each person. When a baby is born, there is no way to tell what level of intellectual disability the child may have. Nor can we predict the way in which this may affect a person's life. However, we do know that having Down syndrome will not be the most important influence on how that person develops and lives their life. Instead, what happens after birth will be much more important and family, environmental, cultural and social factors will shape their life, just like everyone else. There are three types of Down syndrome: ● Trisomy 21 means there is an extra copy of chromosome 21 in every cell. This is the most common form of Down syndrome. ● Mosaicism occurs when a child is born with an extra chromosome in some but not all of their cells. People with mosaic Down syndrome tend to have fewer symptoms than those with trisomy 21. ● Translocation, in this type of Down syndrome, children have only an extra part of chromosome 21. There are 46 total chromosomes. However, one of them has an extra piece of chromosome 21 attached. People with Down syndrome often have specific physical characteristics. Not everyone will have all of them, but they may include: ● Hypotonia, reduced muscle tone that results in floppiness ● a small nose and flat nasal bridge ● a small mouth with a protruding tongue ● eyes that slant upwards and outwards ● a flat back of the head ● a big space between the first and second toe (sandal gap) ● broad hands with short fingers ● their palm may have only one crease across it (single transverse palmar crease) ● below-average weight and length at birth

However, it is important to note that people with Down's syndrome do not all look the same. They will also share physical features with their parents and family.

Delayed development All children with Down syndrome have some degree of learning disability and delayed development, but this varies widely between individual children. Children with the condition may be slower to learn skills such as: ● reaching ● sitting ● standing ● walking ● talking A child with Down syndrome will gain these skills eventually – it simply takes more time.

Being an individual One of the greatest challenges that people with Down syndrome face is the attitudes of other people who do not understand what it means to have Down syndrome. Despite much change, many people still don't see the individual person. Instead they just see 'Down syndrome' and expect everyone with Down syndrome to be more or less the same.

People with Down syndrome are very different from each other, just as we are all different. Every person with Down syndrome is unique, with their own talents, abilities, thoughts and interests. And, like everyone else, people with Down syndrome have strengths and weaknesses. While one person may read very well but find basic mathematics difficult, another might be a first-class cook and live independently in the community, but will have to work hard to speak clearly. Family passions, culture, interests and skills are also likely to be shared by people with Down syndrome, as they may be by other members of the family. People with Down syndrome do not all look alike. In fact, people with Down syndrome look more like other people in their own family than they look like others with Down syndrome. Although there are some physical features associated with Down syndrome, 6

there is large variation in how many of these features an individual may have. For some people, one feature may be very prominent while in another it may not exist at all. Importantly, the physical characteristics of Down syndrome that a person may have do not tell us anything about that person's intellectual ability. Another common misconception is that all people with Down syndrome are happy and affectionate. People with Down syndrome experience all the same emotions as everyone else. They get happy, sad, embarrassed, frustrated, thoughtful and fall in and out of love, just as we all do. They may, however, find it difficult to express their feelings in words. This can lead to frustration and the expression of feelings through behaviors.

Living an ordinary life People with Down syndrome are not fundamentally different from anyone else. They have the same needs and aspirations in life that we all do, including: ● a good place to live ● Meaningful employment ● the opportunity to enjoy the company of friends and family ● intimacy ● having a role in our community. However, achieving these goals is harder for people with Down syndrome than it is for everyone else. Many people with Down syndrome are likely to need some level of support to help them achieve the kind of life that most people take for granted.

Implications of the Research on Inclusive Education Speech and language gains

Children with Down syndrome who are educated in their mainstream school settings with appropriate support show significant language gains over time, in both structure and clarity. The importance of speech and language development for cognitive and social development can not be overemphasized. Words and sentences are the building blocks for mental development we think, reason and remember using spoken language. Words provide the main source of knowledge about the world. Speech and language skills influence all aspects of social and emotional development and the ability to negotiate the social world and to make friends, share worries and experiences and be part of the family and community. Access to the curriculum alongside peers Full inclusion in the curriculum leads to much better literacy and numeracy skills, and general knowledge. The level of supported literacy experience across the curriculum also provides important support for spoken language development. Optimal learning environment Children with Down syndrome need to learn with their non-disabled peers with the necessary individual support to make this successful. Research indicates that it is difficult to provide a maximally effective learning environment in a special education classroom. Children learn from their peers so watching and participating in the curriculum alongside their typically developing peer group will provide learning opportunities throughout the day. Expectations in the classroom are higher in mainstream schools. The classroom curriculum is set for the mainstream children and their learning provides role models for literacy and language for the child with Down syndrome.

Friendships Parents and teachers need to do more to ensure that friendships with non-disabled peers carry on outside of school. An improvement in understanding and support for teenagers and adults with Down syndrome in their homes, workplaces, shops and leisure activities could be one of many positive results from inclusion. Children with Down syndrome in mainstream schools also need more opportunities to socialise with a peer group of children with similar levels of intellectual disability. This can be achieved by ensuring that children with Down syndrome have friends with similar disabilities in or outside of school.

Supporting inclusion Although children with Down syndrome have additional educational needs, they also have many of the same needs as the other non-disabled pupils of their age. They will make the most rapid progress if they are fully socially included and accepted, benefiting from age appropriate role models and from the benefits of feeling that they are part of the ordinary community. This social acceptance will have a profound effect on self-confidence, self-identity and self-esteemâ&#x20AC;&#x153; if the whole school community is one that is caring and supportive to all its members. For achieving successful inclusion in school, the most important predictor of success is staff attitude. The staff must feel positive about inclusion and believe that the child should be in their school.

Achieving Inclusion Long term goals Parents should tell the IEP team that they want to prepare their child to live and work as independently as possible. This means being able to function and behave appropriately in a world of typical peers. The goals on the IEP should reflect the skills necessary to achieve this — both academic and nonacademic. Parents acknowledge their high but reasonable expectations and inform the team that they will support them in any way possible. It is critical that the IEP team sees the student’s future through both the parents’ and the student’s eyes.

IEP Goals for Inclusive Setting The goals drive placement decisions at IEP meetings. As long as the student can make progress toward the goals in an inclusive environment, the team should not consider a more restrictive placement. It is important that these goals be appropriate for the general education classroom. For example, if the student’s IEP includes a goal that specifically requires trips into the community, it cannot be met in an inclusive environment. If the student’s goal is to learn to handle money in real life situations, the goal can be written in a way that uses the cafeteria or the school store. It also helps to have social goals that involve interactions with typical peers, which cannot be worked on in segregated settings. The goal should not be restricted to ―small group settings. Even though small groups can be arranged in the general education classroom, the term ―small group setting is often considered to be synonymous with a special education class.

Planning the Matrix A chart should be used to show how the goals can be worked on in the different parts of a typical school day. IEPs should be created by a multidisciplinary team, school counselor, psychologist, teachers and other professionals like speech therapists, OTs, etc; then it should be shared with administrators and parents so that they can work together as a team and focus on the same goals, to foster our student’s development. It just takes a little creativity and flexibility and the concept of inclusion becomes less threatening.

Other Aids All the supports and services the student and teacher will need should be reflected in the IEP. Examples include curriculum modifications; assistive technology; augmentative communication; paraprofessional support; a behavior plan; staff training; staff collaboration time; psychological support and occupational, speech and physical therapy. The student’s need for these supports is not grounds for a more restrictive placement unless they cannot be provided at the school. It is not enough for the school to say it does not have these services; efforts must be made to bring the services to the school, through traveling staff or some other means. Whole school responsibilities include: ● Valuing diversity, the importance of positive attitudes and setting the framework for inclusion understanding why the pupil is in your school, your class, and how the pupil will progress through school. ● Organizing management responsibilities for planning and support systems, including making resources proactive involvement of parents, carers, and services. ● Planning for the individual child: learn about the specific profile and effective interventions for pupils with Down syndrome, learn about the pupil's understanding, skills and strengths, learn about the times and situations in the school day that are more difficult to manage successfully for the pupil, peers and staff, use the pupil's strengths to support successful learning and development e.g. social strengths, learning with peers, adapt and plan, as necessary, for the individual using the curriculum for age peers as your starting point, be flexible, but also cautious about interventions that do not have a clear rationale/evidence and share adaptations with partnership services and parents. 11

● Applying the typical profile: strengths as visual learners, earning from listening is difficult, reducing speech and language demands, reducing literacy demands support for reading and recording, reducing motor demands mounting work into scrapbooks, increasing text size, reducing sustained attention demands and building on memory skills, good awareness of social and emotional cues; use of reward and praise, good social learners; learning from peers through observation and imitation. ● Promoting effective learning skills: meaningful activities based on pupil's experience, visual resources and approaches to aid comprehension of abstract concepts and task demands, new activities based on existing skills, small steps with opportunities for practice, applying skills in different contexts, situations. ● Differentiation and individualized learning: IEP targets specific outcomes for the child across different curriculum areas over a short period of time. Inclusion will work differently for each school and for each individual child. What works for one m ay not work for another. A flexible approach needs to be adopted so that successes can be celebrated and changes can be made for those areas where the outcomes were less favorable. As with most things, we can all learn from each others' experiences. If we wish to make a difference to the life experiences of children and adults with disabilities, all children need to grow and learn together. Neighbors, friends and workmates of adults with disabilities will then have the opportunity to value the person first, to realize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses and that everyone has a contribution to make to a caring society. Developing caring, inclusive communities improves the quality of life of all members of the community. Tips for Teaching Students with Down Syndrome ● Have high expectations for the student. Be enthusiastic and encouraging. ● When planning a student's instructional program, be guided by the student's individual ability and needs, and not the label of Down syndrome. ● If the student is highly distractible, seat the student away from windows and doors to minimize distractions in the environment.

● Small group instruction may be more beneficial to the student than whole class instruction. Try to also set aside some time for one-on-one instruction. ● Model the task and give the student many opportunities to perform it. Break down tasks into smaller sequenced steps. ● Ask the student to repeat or rephrase instructions. Ask the student specific step-by-step question to make sure the student has understood the instructions given. ● Set aside time for frequent review and practice of tasks. ● Allow the student adequate response time ● Provide consistent positive reinforcement immediately after the student produces a correct response. ● If the student makes a mistake, do not say “that's wrong." Ask the student to try again, or provide the correct response and require the student to repeat the correct response immediately. Immediate corrective feedback is more effective than delayed. ● Give clear signals about the end of one activity and the beginning of the next. Use picture cues or audio cues with young children. For example, use picture symbols representing activities or sing a certain song before a specific activity. ● Present only a few stimuli or objects at a time. For example, if you are using worksheets, create worksheets that to not have too many pictures or sentences with complicated wording. Highlight or print key words in bold. ● Use concrete objects/manipulative along with verbal explanations. For example, while teaching counting use manipulatives that are alike in shape, size and color, so that the student concentrates on counting, rather than being distracted by shapes, etc. ● Be flexible with attaining educational goals. For example, if the student has difficulty writing with a pencil, teach the student to write using a computer.

Working in a team In organizing support for the student with Down syndrome, the class teacher should aim to: 1. Keep withdrawal to a minimum and give the child access to as much of the normal curriculum as possible. 2. Encourage the child to become an independent learner. 3. Foster cooperative working with other children in the class 4. Work directly with the children themselves, at least once a week, and ideally daily. These objectives are best met where class teacher and support staff see themselves as a team, working flexibly to meet the needs of the whole class. A learning support team member, who is always at hand and who prompts the child continually, or intervenes immediately the child is faced with a problem, will inhibit the development of independence.

Conclusions Including students with disabilities is a great challenge that as educators we are facing nowadays, the future in education is moving forward and is all about diversity and the ways in which can collaborate with each other in a global setting where we can take advantage of each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strength to build a better society. Research has proved that individuals with Down Syndrome can excel in society, as long as they are considered and given the opportunity of receiving education in a setting where they can feel accountable. We are actually facing a great challenge that will come with many changes and this can be frightening, however we also have the will, interest and passion for education that will lead us to be successful and will make educators keep on learning. A regular classroom must be a place where every individual is valued, appreciated and considered as a member of the community, who is able to have a voice inside the classroom and succeed; however for this to happen, educators need to make the necessary changes and modifications in their mindset, class environment, content, strategies and teaching resources.

References ● http://www.inclusionbc.org/our-priority-areas/inclusive-education/what-inclusive-e ducation ● http://www.csie.org.uk/inclusion/what.shtml ● http://inclusiveschools.org/together-we-learn-better-inclusive-schools-benefit-all-c hildren/ ● https://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/370/ ● http://www.dsahrc.org/professional-resources/educators/item/41-tips-for-teaching -students-with-down-syndrome ● http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/teacher-resources/teaching-individuals -with-down-syndrome/modifying-your-curriculum/