I notice that I often get people coming to this blog after doing a search related to the benefits of putting a child with Down syndrome in a self-contained educational setting. I believe decisions about a child's education should be made on a case-by-case basis and would never want to hoist what works for us on others. At the same time, given the number of people who come here through those search terms, I thought that I might take a few minutes to explain why Mikey is in a self-contained setting and how this setting works for him.
Mikey attended "regular" preschool, kindergarten and grade 1 classes. He attended grade 1 twice at two different schools after he had quite a disasterous year in a school that had previously worked okay for him. I then moved him to a new school that seemed to have more resources and therapy availability as well as a much more open and experienced grade 1 teacher. He did great in this setting and we were able to turn much of the damage done to him in the previous year around.
As that year came to an end, we had to make a decision as to where he would go from there. I knew he would remain in the school he was in as it was great for him. The only decision to be made was if he would be in the "Learning Assistance Program" or with the grade 2s all day.
The "Learning Assistance Program" at this school is for students who range in age from grade 1 through 5 and have what would be classified as "mild/moderate disabilities". The program is set up such that students do mathematics, language arts and life skills in this classroom and then join their peer group for the rest of the time. Everyone in the room staggers in and out as different students are in different grades so seldomly are all students in the self-contained setting. There are between 10 and 15 students in the classroom each year and each student works on academics that are taylored to where they are at. For all "extras" the LAP students are part of their regular classes - so for field trips and lunch and assemblies and guest speakers and concerts and intramurals...etc. these students are part of their grade and not part of the LAP class. The LAP teacher oversees the student's IPP. Student report cards have marks from both the LAP and general education rooms.
Much of what is being done in the LAP room could also be done in the classroom so I had a decision to make. I know this school would have worked hard to make either path work for Mikey so I was fortunate in that I didn't have that to factor in to my final decision. It is unfortunate that there are still so many school divisions that push so hard for this setting that parents are left feeling like the school will not work at making their child's education successful if they ask for something other than what they are pushing.
Ultimately, the decision for me came down to numbers and teacher training/background. In the LAP setting, Mikey would have a teacher who studied special education setting up his program. This teacher would have experience with a variety of alternate programs that may work for Mikey and I felt we would be able to find them quicker. I knew Mikey would need modifications throughout and I also knew that Mikey doesn't bounce back quickly from "mistakes" or "trying something to see how it goes". The other bonus for Mikey was that he would be in a smaller group when working on core academics. Because he is so easily distracted this was great! As well, I knew the curriculum would be streamlined to ensure that ample time was spent on important concepts and the ones that were not as important wouldn't take up valuable learning time.
With all that in mind, it was still extremely important to me that Mikey was socially integrated and that he was being set up to live a life of integration in our community. So I took a look at how the students in this setting were treated by the others in the school and it became evident to me that they were very much a part of their peer groups. From our experience so far, I'm finding that Mikey is more "included" in the true sense of the word in this setting than he was when he was sitting in the classroom doing work that others knew was different from theirs. When he is with his peers, he is doing what his peers are doing (or close enough that he and others don't see the difference).
The other issue that has been ongoing with Mikey is behaviour related. This setting has ensured that his behaviours have decreased as well as for very few behaviours to happen when he is "integrated". He will at times still get frustrated with his core academics but then he is not putting on a show for all his peers to talk about later. It is a win-win for him.
The reality is though that not every school will set up a self-contained classroom the way this one has been set up and I may not have made the same choice had the program been run differnetly. I may not have made the same choice if Mikey was different from what he is. I do know that right now I feel that I've made the right choice given the school we are in and who Mikey and the teachers and students are.
Inspiring Joy
mom2mikey
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