The classroom of fourth graders that I am observing has one student who is assisted by an aid due to his special needs. The young boy has a form of Autism that is called Asperger's. Asperger's Syndrome is neurologically based and affects the ability to have appropriate social relationships.Students with Asperger's are usually quite smart and show great potential and ability to learn but do not know how to connect to others socially. Asperger's is one of the harder disorders to diagnose, which in most cases, makes it difficult to get additional help and support for the child.
The young boy with Asperger's was part of a regular fourth grade class with other students that didn't not have learning disabilities. Throughout the day he had an aid who stayed with him and assisted him with the work. While the teacher was explaining the next lesson to the students, the boy started to act up a little by fussing in his car and talking loudly. The aid helped by boy calm down and try to refocus on the task at hand and occasionally this would happen throughout the day. Since I was just observing I didn't have to hear everything the teacher was instructing, although I wanted to, it became difficult for me to put the distraction behind me and focus on the teacher. This made me wonder how the other students handled it. From what I observed they all kept their eyes locked on their teacher and focused on what she was instructing.
I was somewhat disappointed when researching this topic that little research has been done to see the effects of special education inclusion. How do you know if inclusion is hindering the focus and learning of the students without special needs? And how are you sure that being in a regular sized classroom is beneficial to the students with special needs? I believe that before the decision was made, or shortly after the decision was made, to include special ed students with regular classrooms, that some sort of research should have been done of the effects of each type of student. For all we know, it could hinder both students education.
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