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The Non-specific Form of Inclusion Models

Some chil Non-specific models of inclusion are based on support for the development of social interactions between children in a social group.

Children with special educational needs (SEN) should be allowed to help their peers as often as possible. Some children with SEN have well developed skills in certain areas, for instance sharp observational skills, and so are very good at putting together puzzles or assembly toys. They can therefore help other children when tidying up their toys, by checking to see if the puzzles are complete and correctly stored away. The teacher should encourage children to help each other at every opportunity, so that they rely on each other rather than looking only to adults for help.

Using group strategies to support inclusion in a classroom setting:

Teachers plan activities which allow children to work in small groups or pairs, while creating these groups or pairs to allow for the maximum mutual enrichment (the child helping another is also intensively learning, the enrichment is therefore mutual).

When pairing up children or setting up work groups, the teacher should take into account their personal characteristics.

Children with special educational needs in regular kindergartens will come into daily contact with their peers. Placement of a child into a regular kindergarten is however not, on its own, enough. Teachers must work to activate the relations between children (develop social interactions). This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, for instance:

• Setting up pairs, groups or seating arrangements during daily activities and when dining, so as to bring together children with varying degrees of support needs, or at various developmental levels of their specific skills.

• Utilizing certain characteristics of children to support other children (some children enjoy spontaneously helping or leading the activities of others, have certain skills they enjoy teaching others, etc.).

• Through activities where the children’s task is to actively pay attention to each other.

Group strategies:

A) Cooperative groups – children work together on specific activities or tasks in groups of two, three or more. In cooperative groups the primary goal is to promote the adoption of the key competence of collaboration. The difference from regular group activities is that a successful result is dependent on the activity of all children in the group. In cooperative groups the roles are often divided and individual tasks are planned, experimented with and those plans changed by the children together, who determine their own rules of play and work.

B) Children as partners – two children get involved in an activity which captures their attention and keeps them focused. Examples of pair work may include painting, modelling objects out of clay, putting a puzzle together, playing with a building kit, or staging a theater play. It usually constitutes a spontaneous experience acquired through play, but can also be planned by the teacher.

Adam needed to learn individual play first, and his teacher Jana then started planning activities for him and another child. She told Adam that she would like to play with him for several minutes. They sit at a table, building towers and loading building blocks onto trucks. Jana then invites another child to join them. She remains seated next to Adam, but begins to transition into a more passive involvement. However, she stays close by and takes interest in the children’s play. After several successful attempts, Adam gradually begins to play with other children spontaneously without the direct intervention of the teacher.

Individual support of a child

May involve an experience acquired during contact of the child with an adult, or with other children, or an experience directed by another person. The task of the teacher is to demonstrate and present, while watching the child’s reaction. In this process, it is decided whether or not it is useful for the child to learn the individual steps in order to help them gradually manage the entire task, or if they need to repeatedly exercise a certain skill, or a part of a skill, to master the task.

Adam had good motor skills. He could drive the cart around the playground really fast, he could run fast and was good a climbing the pole. However, he couldn’t jump the rope, which was something his peers could do with ease. Without other children around, the teacher explained to him how to jump the rope. After he has tried it a few times, Adam could join the other children and jump the rope with them.