New F.A.C.E.S. At Your School
By: Cynthia P. May, Ph.D.

Keys to Successful Inclusion  

Feeling of belonging
Appropriate behavior
Coordination with parents
Educational goals
Support for teachers

Feeling of belonging

• All children need to feel as if they belong in school. This attitude must be shared by teachers, staff, administrators, students, and all parents. 
• The environment should be nurturing and accepting, and should enable the child to shine. Must provide opportunities for each child, regardless of abilities, to succeed and shine in class. 
• Important to see the child first , and the disability second. A child is not a Downs child or an autistic child but a child with Down syndrome, etc. 
• Understanding why the child should be included is more important than a full understanding of exactly how to best proceed with inclusion. 
• Just as all typical children are different, all children with special needs are different and will have varied strengths and weaknesses. There is not one right way to teach a child with special needs but each child must know that s/he belongs in school. 
• Parents and teachers need to foster opportunities for friendship. Simply having a child with a disability in the same room with typical children is not enough. We need to provide structure, guidance, and opportunities for friendship teach typical children how to interact with children with disabilities, not simply to tolerate or be nice to them. Part of this process will include helping typical children understand the disability, and emphasizing a child first attitude.

Appropriate behavior

• Teachers and assistants must have the highest expectations for behavior, especially for children with Down syndrome. Children with Down syndrome in most cases can and should demonstrate age-appropriate social behavior. If other children sit for circle time, clean up their toys, are quiet during nap, throw away their trash, etc., then the same expectations should be set for children with Down syndrome. 
• Children with disabilities should not be babied, either by teachers or by other students. Children quickly understand what they can get away with, and will manipulate the situation if they see opportunity. Providing special treatment (e.g., allowing behavior that would not be tolerated with other children) is a disservice to the child and will only perpetuate problems. 
• Remember, most interventions should be viewed as temporary . The goal is to get the child over the hump and behaving well independently. 
• A consistent system must be established by teachers and parents, and the system must be used both in the classroom and at home. 
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the learner. Children with Down syndrome have difficulty with auditory processing, and so verbal prompts (e.g., time for lunch, let's clean up) may not be successful but this is not because the child is non-compliant. The child may need visual cues (e.g., sign language or pictures) to understand and comply successfully. 
• Understand the strengths and weakness of the learner. Children with Down syndrome process information more slowly. In addition to needing visual cues, they need more time to respond. While other children may react immediately to a prompt (e.g., clean up your toys), children with Down syndrome need extra time (and often extra prompts, as information may be forgotten as they try to formulate an appropriate response). Give the child extra time, but EXPECT the child to comply. She will live up to your expectations if they are consistent. 
• Prevention is key! If a child begins to develop a problem behavior (e.g., hits other children when it is time to clean up at a center), step in to prevent the behavior (e.g., before giving the prompt to clean up, go to the child and facilitate her participation). Children with disabilities need to be shown what TO DO, not simply be told what NOT to do. 
• If a problem arises, don't react, or react minimally (if possible), to the inappropriate behavior any attention can be reinforcing. Calmly redirect the child to an appropriate behavior, and reward that behavior. Emphasize what the child should be doing give the child a tangible goal.

Coordination with parents

• For inclusion to be successful, communication and consistency are key. Teachers and parents must be on the same page with respect to goals, support, expectations, and interventions. A system will not work if it is followed only at school, or only at home. Develop a team plan that all (teachers, assistants, and parents) can follow and are willing to follow. 
• Regular meetings (e.g., once a month) with parents will allow all parties to discuss progress, identify issues, and formulate positive plans. 
• Children with Down syndrome learn more slowly, and so need more time and more practice with skills, materials, and concepts. Parents can facilitate success in school by preparing their child in advance for lessons to be completed in class. If teachers provide parents with plans for the next week, parents can introduce the materials/concepts in advance at home, allowing the child to succeed with classmates when the information is presented at school. 
• Young children with Down syndrome have difficulty with expressive language, and so will be less likely/able to tell teachers about their weekend, or tell parents about their day at school. These conversations are so important for development, and may be fostered by a conversation notebook that goes from home to school every day. Parents can write a brief statement about a significant event from home (e.g., Grace got a hair cut yesterday), and teachers can ask about that event. Similarly, teachers can write a brief statement about a significant event at school, and parents can use that for conversation at home. The notebook can also be used to highlight important achievements (e.g., Grace wrote her whole name for the first time) or challenges (e.g., Grace threw a tantrum when she couldn't have extra snack). In this way, problems can be addressed immediatelybut the notebook is part of every day, and so we don't call extra attention to problem behavior.

Educational goals

• Children with Down syndrome tend to learn more slowly than typical children, but with the appropriate support they can learn as well as other children. Thus it is important to have very high expectations for children with Down syndrome they should be encouraged to participate in and learn the same things other children are learning, particularly in preschool.
• Children with Down syndrome may be less likely to spontaneously engage in activities (e.g., climbing playgroup equipment, painting, coloring, building blocks) and may even protest when initially exposed to new things. Always introduce the children to new activities, even if they protest , especially if the activity is one that is a basis for future skills (e.g., coloring leads to handwriting). Often children will come to love an activity (e.g., sliding down the slide) that they initially feared or disliked. You have to help them over the hump and ultimately they will succeed on their own. 
• Children with Down syndrome have great difficulty with expressive language. They understand far more than they can say. Be patient and give them extra time to respond they can and will develop strong spoken skills with the right expectations and patience. 
• Children with Down syndrome are visual learners, and will always benefit if information can be presented in visual as well as auditory format. Sign language, pictures, and written words will facilitate their success in every activity. When such support is not possible or appropriate, showing the child what to do will enhance performance. 
• Children with Down syndrome are visual learners, and so reading is a strength. By age 3, Grace could sight read over 200 words, and has used her reading to facilitate her spoken language. 
• Visual learning is particularly important for abstract concepts (e.g., number, quantity, categorization, patterning, etc). 
• Remember that children with Down syndrome need extra time. If you ask the child a question, WAIT until she responds . Let her know that you expect a response, and that you will wait until she gives it. Prompt her visually to facilitate if necessary, but get a response. If you ask the child to do something, understand that she will take longer to initiate, but EXPECT her to do it. Again, a visual prompt may be necessary, but get a response. 
• If an educational goal is not currently attainable for a child, provide the child with an alternative way to shine. For example, if you are doing show-and-tell, and the child cannot spontaneously describe her item, coordinate with parents so that the child can answer three questions (selected in advance) about her item. 
• All children have a fear of failure, but failure seems to be particularly distressing and disruptive to children with Down syndrome. Frustration can easily overwhelm a child and result in a reluctance or refusal to engage in an activity. Thus, projects that may be especially challenging for a child with Down syndrome (e.g., those that require extensive fine motor skills, or that involve many components) may need to be broken down into smaller parts so that the child can experience success. Always reward small successes.

Support for Teachers

• Children with disabilities can place extra demands on resources in a classroom. Children with Down syndrome often require extra time, or may need additional assistance when learning a new skill (e.g., hand-over-hand assistance when learning how to cut with scissors). Thus, it is important that teachers who have children with special needs in their classrooms receive extra support. 
• Support can be provided in a variety of ways:
  • additional aide for the classroom
  • additional training opportunities for teachers and assistants
  • release time for additional training
  • time to meet with parents/therapists/etc
• Support should be provided for the teacher, not directly for the child. If an additional assistant is needed in the classroom, the assistant should understand that s/he is not to shadow the child with special needs. S/he is there to intervene when needed so that the child can participate to the fullest extent possible, as independently as possible. As an example, a child with Down syndrome may be able to use the potty, but might require assistance undressing and dressing. The aide can facilitate so that the child can be successful at using the bathroom, but should be leading the child to ultimate independence with dressing. 
• All support personnel should be involved in interactions and planning with parents/teachers, and all interventions should be implemented consistently across individuals and environments.