QUESTION: I’m a single mom and I have a son who is four years and seven months old. He was assessed to have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). At present, he is in a mainstream school in Manila but only up to pre-school. Can you suggest or give me a list of some mainstream grade schools near Binondo or accessible to my workplace in the Port Area? He’s also attending OT, Speech, and SPED tutorials every weekend. Thank you very much!

Teacher Genevieve says: The Autism Society Philippines has a comprehensive and updated directory of schools, therapy centers, and professionals who work with children with autism and their families. Their office is located at Rm. 307 ML Bldg., #47 Kamias Road, Quezon City with contact nos.: 9266941 and 9298447. You can also log on to their website http://www.autismsocietyph.org. Theirs is so far the most comprehensive listing of resources for Persons with Autism.

You are obviously a very devoted mother to your son. You are a single mom, and yet you have managed to avail of a comprehensive early intervention program consisting of interdisciplinary services on top of your son’s schooling.

These services do not come cheap, and coordinating with the different professionals involved in your son’s early intervention program is far from simple. I would imagine your weekends are used up bringing your son to and from his therapy center/s while weekdays are spent catching up with the demands of regular schooling.

Allow me to share some ideas on educational placement options now that you are preparing to transition your son from preschool to grade school.

MAINSTREAMING AND INCLUSION – ARE THEY THE SAME?

Mainstreaming and inclusion are two different educational placement options although these terms are mistakenly used interchangeably.

Mainstreaming is a placement option wherein children with special needs are given opportunities to participate in specific school activities attended by the majority of students or join in particular subject areas. This can be limited to non-academic areas such as P.E., Music and Art. The rest of the time, they are in self-contained special education classes or one-on-one tutorials.

On one end, it provides a venue wherein students with special needs can interact with non-disabled peers. However, it can also promote further segregation since low expectations are set for students with special needs and they remain to be regarded as “different” and “incapable” of succeeding in the regular classroom, particularly in core academic areas like Reading, Language and Math.

Then again, some children with special needs can actually excel in these areas when taught using appropriate strategies suited to their exceptionality. We have heard of children with Asperger’s Syndrome excelling in Reading or blind children graduating with honors in Math. If parents and teachers have not believed in the child’s capacity to succeed in school in spite of his or her disability, then the child would not have had the chance to succeed.

On the other hand, more than just being an option for educational placement, inclusion is a “process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of ALL learners … involving changes and modifications in content, approaches, structures and strategies, with a common vision … and conviction that it is the responsibility of the regular system to educate ALL children” (UNESCO, 2003).

Inclusion requires a paradigm shift and a transformation of the why and how of education. We educate children for them to learn, and the first step in doing so is in recognizing that every child is unique and learns differently.

EVERYONE IS SPECIAL

Inclusive education rests on recognizing the individuality of learners. When children do not learn, it is not because the child has to be “fixed” like a gadget that needs to be repaired. Rather, what have to be changed are teachers’ attitudes towards students who are not your typical “A” student and their lack of tolerance for individual differences; how creatively subjects are taught to sustain the attention of most, if not all learners and not just the few who have unusually long attention spans; and the way students’ abilities and inabilities are evaluated valuing the WHOLE child, as other gifts and talents are recognized.

Each child is a leader! Even a child with special needs can shine in the regular school classroom given an accepting and supportive learning environment. A deaf child can excel in the Creative Arts, so can a child with ADHD who thinks out-of-the-box. A child with ASD can excel in academics and help bring out the best in his peers. Research has clearly shown that inclusive schools build the character of children as they learn to live with diversity, respect and tolerate differences, and empathize with others – traits that propel adults to excel in the workplace, the world outside of school.

It is true that teaching a child with special needs can be a difficult and daunting task. This should serve as a challenge for schools to learn to deal with diversity and to consider the child not as a problem but as the purpose for why schools exist. Schools should remember that the only thing students actually have in common is that they are all different!

The author is the executive director of ALRES-PHILS. and the chairperson of the SPED Department of Miriam College. A pediatric physiotherapist and special educator, she is currently pursuing her doctorate studies majoring in Special Education at U.P. Diliman. She is a staunch advocate for children with special needs. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask our SPED specialists. Just send your queries to MByouthsection@gmail.com