Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
Many parents ponder that what they can do to help their kids with autism disorder nowadays in the school environment or in the classrooms in regular public schools. We do understand that autism is a broad range of conditions described by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviours, speech and non-verbal communication.
Of course, such disorder and its effects on the kid’s age may be painful for both parents, as they discover that the inclusion of their kid in any school does not necessarily include him/her in every activity in school!
However, some children can truly succeed in an inclusive environment in regular schools; nevertheless inclusion is not always the best option. The opposite may also be true as many kid with autism spectrum, calling and reminding the society, that they are there looking forward to the opportunity to join and integrate with their healthy peers.
And strikingly, glowing at young age, such kid after completing specialized semesters in an autism center, he/she has matured to the point where he feels that inclusion in mainstream school is his great choice for his future.
On other hand, often parents may feel neglected because their children are excluded from enrolling in the regular public school and school events, which many kids and those around them enjoy, leading the parents and such autistic kid feel the bitterness of the situation.
It is evident how parents are trying to obtain the right of their autistic child to education and equality with other children, yet many people ask, where do we draw the line when it comes to inclusion in mainstream or regular school and children with autism?
What I would like to point out, is that in separate special education classes or autism centers, the main focus can be on things outside of academic education, as the standards are much lower in educational terms and often children are not challenged properly to unlock their potential. Moreover, many autistic kids behave socially well with their peers who have similar abilities, but unfortunately they struggle socially with other children.
Perhaps at this point, I should say that I am with inclusion of children with autism, looking that such mainstream or regular school allows them to socialize with their peers and practice various social features in a relatively safe environment.
Interestingly, it is really important to realize that healthy kids will benefit from having autistic children and other handicapped kids in their classes. When these children spend more time around children with such disorder, they grow up with a great understanding and high sense of empathy. Wouldn’t it be much simpler if you grew up alongside autistic people as a natural part of your life?
If you were taught from the first years of your enrollment in school, that there are some people have brains and bodies that work differently and need different things to support them! On other hand, the child who spends his day in autism center or separate classes finds it difficult to form the necessary relationships to become full and active members of the society.
Unfortunately, with their growth, the community does not recognize them well, or even the people around them do not realize how to assimilate them into society. More painful is the difficulty of finding work for them.
Without a doubt, what we see on the ground is completely different reality. As many schools do not accept children with autism disorder easily and the problem really is not with the kids but with society!
We must be aware that what is meant by inclusion here is that child is in the regular mainstream class, whether he takes one or two lessons per day or even if he can take the entire school lessons according to his abilities. Actually, it is not permissible to place children in a center on the basis autism disorder or with a mental, auditory or visual impairment and we claim that this is inclusion?
Moreover, a child with autism may not be included in a regular school, if he cannot express himself, as he will definitely face mockery in his class. Also, if we look at the size of autistic child’s body, for instance can we imagine a 14 years old child and mix him with students of kindergarten or first primary grade! How will other children react to him?
He will definitely be ridiculed which will affect him adversely. What I would like to point out here is that, the developmental age is more important than temporal age, therefore children with such disorder should be enrolled with healthy children younger than them, in order to reduce variance and educational differences, but all of this should be planned carefully.
Not to mention that he should not have behaviors like moving the hands or legs that will lead other children to avoid him? Certainly, the autistic child must be in the autism center between 2-3 years and take special training and care, before the parents think to put him in the regular school, so that he learns skills to play with his peers, in addition to other skills that qualify him to enter the mainstream regular school, otherwise how will we could enroll him?
However, one of the main factors for successful child inclusion is the presence of a teacher with special education skills and ready to exert more effort with positive attitude towards autistic children and inspire them toward creativity.
It is noteworthy that building a relationship with autistic child is not something that happens overnight as it needs time, dedication and patience. Thus, you will see that many autistic kids and their classroom behavior are much better than their normal peers.
Here it must be seen that coordination between the autism center and the regular mainstream school is necessary for teacher and administrative team so that they are better prepared to receiving such children.
At last, it is important to realize that inclusion here means different things to different people. For the parents of a child with cognitive impairment, it may mean learning to say (Hello) or (can I play with you?) for their healthy peers. As for other parents with their child has a learning disability, this may mean that their child will have access to general curriculum and perhaps one day he will have the opportunity to enter college or university.
While certainly for some of these children, inclusion simply means that he will learn to adapt many daily changes in a busy classroom and even develop the ability to play with his colleagues.
Dr.Yousuf Ali Al Mulla, physician, medical innovator & writer.
