Successful inclusion of children with Asperger Syndrome in primary school: Parental voices
The quality of the overall primary school experience for students diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and other learning disabilities may be typically challenging and stressful on a number of fronts, particularly the successful negotiation of the social curriculum. The term 'inclusion' is defined as a process taking into consideration features such as welcoming diversity, promotion of teacher consistency and collaboration, and the provision of learning opportunities and experiences to match the needs of the child. This paper provides parents of children diagnosed with AS a voice to speak about their own experiences and perspectives of how inclusive the primary school system was in meeting their child's needs. Based on parental experiences working with their child and primary School staff, a number of strategies and recommendations are put forward to empower new parents of children diagnosed with AS and teachers on how to improve the quality of the child's primary school experiences. Through the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, 12 parents participated in the 'Looking back to work forward' research and their data analysed initially using the Leximancer Version 2.25 (2001) qualitative software. A thematic analysis was undertaken using Bruner's (1990) concept of generative themes that revealed key topics shared by the participants, including bullying, the importance of community and social supports, and parental involvement with schools. The paper puts forward strategies and recommendations to teachers, education staff and parents on how to improve the process of inclusion for students with AS, and for those students who exhibit similar difficulties at school.
Powerful partnerships: Special education teachers as seconded faculty
In response to the current teacher shortage and its accompanying demand on universities to graduate more teachers, some education faculties have explored the viability of filling staff vacancies with experienced personnel from school systems. 2005 represents the fifth year of operation of an innovative program of secondments at the University of New England (UNE), New South Wales, Australia that has been used successfully to team teach core special education units to undergraduate teacher education students. Few studies have investigated issues related to such secondments from the profession. Members of the Special Education team at UNE addressed this lack of research in the current study that explores personal and professional issues surrounding this secondment experience. Three secondees, two who had returned to teaching positions and one who was continuing in a subsequent seconded position, completed an in-depth questionnaire about their experiences before, during and after their secondment. Overall, the opportunity to contribute to teacher education courses was evaluated positively by the secondees and by the special education faculty. Specifically, analysis of the questionnaire data indicated that a set of themes related to the concept of self-renewal permeated the responses of these mid-career educators. This research has emphasized the importance of providing varied professional development opportunities for special and inclusive educators, and underscores the contribution that professional educators can make to teacher education programs in general.
The Use of School Discourses to Understand Boys' Early School Leaving in Queensland, Australia
How well Australian boys perform during the compulsory years of schooling has generated consistent interest from academics, school personnel and State education departments alike. Considerable research in Australia (Ball & Lamb, 2001; Collins, Kenway & McLeod, 2000; Lamb, Walstab, Teese, Vickers & Rumberger, 2005; McMillan & Marks, 2003) and elsewhere (Arnot, David & Weiner, 1998, 1999; Cullingford, 1990; 1999; 2002; Erskine, 1999; Fine, 1991) has highlighted that boys experience problems at school in terms of learning, behaviour, achievement and participation. In particular, the retention of boys to Year 12 has been problematic. This paper analyses 22 school leaving boys' discourses about school and their links to their early school leaving decisions. Through the use of qualitative research, this study set out to explore the school leavers' own accounts of their decisions to leave school early.This paper reports part of a larger three-year longitudinal study entitled Factors affecting boys' engagement with schooling at the Secondary level project funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC)/Strategic Partnerships with Industry – Research and Training Scheme (SPIRT). It will report on the generative themes, discourses and storylines the school leaving boys used to describe their school experiences and to account for their school experiences and early school leaving decisions in their geographic context.
Schools and Parents Working together Supporting Students Diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum: Learning from Each Other
The concept of 'inclusion' within the mainstream education system is defined as a process taking into consideration features such as welcoming diversity, promotion of teacher consistency and collaboration, and the provision of learning opportunities and experiences to match the needs of the child. Students diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and other learning disabilities often find successful negotiating all aspects of the primary school classroom typically challenging and stressful on a number of fronts, particularly the social curriculum. This paper provides parents of children diagnosed with AS a voice to speak about their own experiences and perspectives of how inclusive the New South Wales' (NSW) Australian primary school system was in meeting their child's needs. Based on parental experiences working with their child and primary school staff, the paper puts forward strategies and recommendations to teachers, education staff and parents on how to improve the process of inclusion for students with AS, and for those students who exhibit similar difficulties at school. Through the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, 12 parents participated in the "Looking Back to Work Forward" research and their data analysed initially using the Leximancer Version 2.25 (2001) qualitative software. A thematic analysis was undertaken using Bruner's (1990) concept of generative themes that revealed key topics shared by the participants, including bullying, the importance of community and social supports, and parental involvement with schools.
Powerful Partnerships: Special Education Teachers as Seconded Faculty
In response to the current teacher shortage and its accompanying demand on universities to graduate more teachers, some education faculties have explored the viability of filling staff vacancies with experienced personnel from school systems. 2005 represents the fifth year of operation of an innovative program of secondments at the University of New England (UNE), New South Wales, Australia that has been used successfully to team teach core special education units to undergraduate teacher education students. Few studies have investigated issues related to such secondments from the profession. Members of the Special Education team at UNE addressed this lack of research in the current study that explores personal and professional issues surrounding this secondment experience. Three secondees, two who had returned to teaching positions and one who was continuing in a subsequent seconded position, completed an in-depth questionnaire about their experiences before, during and after their secondment. Overall, the opportunity to contribute to teacher education courses was evaluated positively by the secondees and by the special education faculty. Specifically, analysis of the questionnaire data indicated that a set of themes related to the concept of self-renewal permeated the responses of these mid-career educators. This research has emphasized the importance of providing varied professional development opportunities for special and inclusive educators, and underscores the contribution that professional educators can make to teacher education programs in general.
Sensory Regulation for Inclusive Classrooms
Sensory integration (SI) theory and therapy, and sensory integration based therapies (SIB), are relatively new concepts in the field of education and occupational therapy, to better improve the inclusion of students with sensory processing dysfunction in education classrooms, specifically those diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum with Asperger Syndrome (Devlin et al., 2010). Practitioners and parents report benefits of sensory integration interventions in various areas: maintaining attention, higher levels of cognition activity, and improved social skills and self-stimulating behaviours (Devlin et al., 2010; Yack, Aquila and Sutton, 2002). This chapter reviews current literature in these fields from a perspective on how these theories and therapies can improve the inclusion of students with ASD in educational settings.
Strategies for the Successful Inclusion of Students with Asperger Syndrome in Primary School
Today's classrooms contain exciting cultural, academic and behavioural dimensions that teachers need to fully understand and embrace in order to manage the successful learning of every student. In mainstream classrooms, students presenting with learning disabilities and learning difficulties require the teacher to carefully think through effective learning strategies to promote inclusive classroom practices. This article summarises a seminar delivered at the University of Hong Kong on the 8th February where a number of strategies to successfully include students with Asperger Syndrome (AS) in Primary School were discussed.
'Through My Eyes': Lessons to be learned from the Primary School Experiences of a boy with Asperger Syndrome
The successful inclusion of children with special educational needs into mainstream classrooms is now a widespread practice in Australia (Ashman & Elkins, 2008). Teacher understanding and awareness of the range of disabilities has been increased through professional development sessions and membership to student case conferences with para-professionals (Bullard, 2004). Whilst efforts are made to up-skill teachers to best cater for and include the learning and social needs of children with special needs in their classrooms, the question remains whether the school process of inclusion actually works and is an enjoyable experience for the student in question. This paper explores how successful the theories underpinning incluision of students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms were for a boy diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in his K-6 primary school years. The experiences and information conveyed in this paper are due to the close, personal relationship the author has with 'Harry' and his family. The paper tells the story of Harry's journey through a State primary school system via three lenses: academic, behavioural and social, and views the time in his school day as either 'structured' or 'unstructured'. The paper puts forward recommendations to teachers, education staff and parents on how to improve the process of inclusion for students with Asperger syndrome, and for those students who exhibit similar difficulties at school.