15 March 2016 - IE Manual - CBSE

Inclusion & Inclusive Strategies
Training Manual
For
Master Trainers
1
Schedule: Two days training on “Inclusion and Inclusive Strategies”
Session No Time Day 1

1 09.00-09.30  Registration
 Introductions and Sharing of Agenda
2 09.30-10.00  Self-reflection about Inclusion
 Awareness on Disability
3 10.00-10.30  Understanding Classroom Barriers
4 10.30-11.00  Inclusion/ Exclusion
Tea 11.00-11.10 Tea
5 11.10-11.40  Understanding Inclusion
6 11.40-12.30  Orientation and Mobility
7 12.30-01.00  Impairment, Disability, Handicap and related terms
Lunch 01.00-01.30 Lunch
8 01.30-02.30  Knowing Various Disabilities-I
9 02.30-03.30  Knowing Various Disabilities-II
Tea 03.30-03.40 Tea
10 03.40-04.30  Multidisciplinary team and Diagnosis or Labelling?
 Assignment on Role of National Institutes and other
organization working for the children with special needs
Session No Time Day 2

1 09.30-10.20  Review of the day 1
 Review of Home Assignment
2 10.20-11.10  Case Study Analysis
Tea 11.10-11.20 Tea
3 11.20-12.10  Behaviour Modification
4 12.10-01.00  Planning Multilevel Instruction
Lunch 01.00-01.30 Lunch
5 01.30-02.20  Development of Adapted Material
6 02.20-03.10  Information Technology for Inclusion
 Teacher’s Role in Inclusion and their Professional Development
Tea 03.10-03.20 Tea
7 03.20-04.00  Understanding Provisions, Exemptions, and Certification for
Children with Special Needs
8 04.00-04.30  Open House
2
Contents
Schedule: Two days training on “Inclusion and Inclusive Strategies” ...................................................... 2
Day 1 ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Session 1: Self-Reflection about Inclusion .................................................................................................... 5
Introductions and Sharing of Agenda ....................................................................................................... 6
Activity No 1: Self-reflection about Inclusion ........................................................................................... 7
Handout for Activity 1 ........................................................................................................................... 7
Activity No 2: Awareness on disability ...................................................................................................... 9
Handout for Activity 2: Awareness on disability ................................................................................... 9
Session 2- Developing Empathy: Feeling of Inclusion & Exclusion ............................................................. 11
Activity No 3: Understanding Classroom Barriers................................................................................... 12
Session 3: Understanding Inclusion ............................................................................................................ 14
Activity No 4: Inclusion/ Exclusion .......................................................................................................... 15
Activity No 5: Understanding Inclusion................................................................................................... 16
Session 4: Understanding disabilities and related Issues ........................................................................... 17
Activity No 6: Orientation and Mobility .................................................................................................. 18
Activity No 7: Impairment, Disability, Handicap and related terms…………………………………………………. 19
Activity No 8: Knowing Various Disabilities-I .......................................................................................... 20
Activity No 9: Knowing Various Disabilities-II ......................................................................................... 21
Session 5: Multidisciplinary Team and Diagnosis ....................................................................................... 22
Activity No 10: Multidisciplinary Team- Diagnosis or Labelling? ............................................................ 23
Day 2 ........................................................................................................................................................... 24
Session 1: Review of Day-1 and Self-Task ................................................................................................... 24
Activity No 11: Review of Day 1 & Discussions on the Self-task ............................................................. 25
Session 2: Inclusive Strategies .................................................................................................................... 26
Activity No 12: Case Study Analysis ........................................................................................................ 27
Handout for activity 11: Case -1.......................................................................................................... 28
Handout for activity 11: Case -2.......................................................................................................... 29
Activity No. 13: Behaviour Modification…………………………………………………………………………………………… 30
Activity No 14: Planning Multilevel Instruction. ................................................................................... 301
Multilevel Lesson Plan Sample ............................................................................................................ 32
Activity No 15: Development of Adapted Writing Material ................................................................... 34
Activity No 16: Information Technology for Inclusion ............................................................................ 36
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Activity No 17: Teacher’s Role in Inclusion and their Professional Development .................................. 37
Session 3: Provisions, exemptions, and certification for CWSN ................................................................. 38
Activity No 18: Understanding Provisions, Exemptions, and Certification for Children with Special
Needs ...................................................................................................................................................... 39
Session 4: Open-House ............................................................................................................................... 40
Activity No 19: Open House .................................................................................................................... 41
Annexures ................................................................................................................................................... 42
Reading 1: Inclusive Education ........................................................................................................... 42
Reading 2: Understanding Disability ................................................................................................... 47
Reading 3: Managing Inclusive Classroom .......................................................................................... 54
Reading 4: Universal Design of Learning............................................................................................. 63
Reading 5: General Education Teacher as An Inclusive Teacher ........................................................ 67
Reading 6: List of RCI Approved Courses ............................................................................................ 71
4
Day 1
Session 1: Self-
Reflection about
Inclusion
5
Introductions and Sharing of Agenda
Time required: 20 minutes
Objective: To introduce participants and share Agenda of the Training Workshop
General Guidelines for Resource Person:
 After registration, welcome the participants, Introduce yourself as their Facilitator to the two-
day training workshop and share the training workshop Agenda
 Resource person to set tone of the workshop by encouraging the participants to value their
colleagues as partners towards achieving the aim of inclusive education.
 Each participant will be asked to introduce himself/ herself along with their interest areas.
6
Activity No 1: Self-reflection about Inclusion
Objectives:
 To help the participants become aware of their own understanding about the areas of Inclusive
education
 To generate a need among the participants to seek in-depth understanding of the concept of
inclusion.
Mode: Individual Activity
Material required: Handout 1 A- Self Reflection
Process:
 Participants will be provided with the questionnaire as soon as they register for the training and
they will be asked to fill it within 15 minutes.
 It should be clear to the participants that the purpose of the questionnaire is self-assessment
and need identification.
 The questionnaires will not be collected and the participants will be free to change their
answers during the next two days of the workshop. The changes would indicate their enhanced
understanding about the issues related to inclusion during the workshop.
Handout for Activity 1
Self Reflective Individual Activity
Written below are statements about inclusive education. Please put a tick mark appropriately as to
the extent to which you agree or disagree with statement.
Please tick out the responses with ‘×’
1 All students should be educated in a common regular classroom. SD D NS A SA
2 All students, with or without disabilities, can improve academically SD D NS A SA

because of inclusive education.
3 Inclusive education is likely to have a positive effect on the social and SD D NS A SA

emotional development of students with disabilities.
4 The needs of students with disabilities can be best served in special SD D NS A SA
7
and separate settings.
5 Inclusive education programs provide different students with SD D NS A SA

opportunities for mutual communication, thus promote students to
understand and accept individual diversity.
6 Children with severe disabilities should be educated in special or SD D NS A SA

separate settings.
7 Special education teachers are trained to use different teaching SD D NS A SA

methods to teach students with disabilities more effectively.
8 Children who communicate in special ways (e.g., sign language) SD D NS A SA

should be educated in special or separate settings.
9 Inclusion sounds good in theory but it does not work well in practice. SD D NS A SA
10 There are sufficient supportive resources and trained professionals to SD D NS A SA

support inclusive education in a regular school.
11 I have sufficient knowledge and skills to educate students with special SD D NS A SA

needs.
12 A teacher’s instructional effectiveness will be enhanced by having SD D NS A SA

students with disabilities in a regular class.
13 I feel comfortable while working with students with disabilities and SD D NS A SA

their parents.
SD- Strongly Disagree D- Disagree NS- Not Specifically A- Agree SA- Strongly agree
8
Activity No 2: Awareness on disability
Objectives:
 To help the Participants become aware of their own understanding about child with disability
 To enable the participants to connect the idea of inclusion.
Material required: Handout- The awareness questionnaire
Process:
 The handout will be provided to the participants to read and they will be asked to write their
reflection regarding the questions.
 The participants will be asked to discuss their responses with each other.
 The resource person will summarize the various answers on the board and will keep the
discussion focused on the various issues of inclusion.
Handout for Activity 2: Awareness on disability

How well do you know the children with disability? The following questionnaire is designed to know
your awareness level in the area of disability.
Part-I
Sl. No. Question YES NO
1. Disability is occurred due to fate or karma or sins of the parents

2. Disability is disease which can be cured by medical intervention.
3. As the child with disability grows up they would gradually become
normal.
4. Traditional heeler, pujaris can cure disability.
5. Disability is infectious.
6. Malnutrition in pregnant woman can cause disability in children.
7. The disability occurs in child due to factors during pregnancy or
during delivery or after delivery.
8. All the children with disability are disobedient.
9. The only solution to the problem of children with disability is to
put them in residential school/ hostel.
10. Individual difference exists among children with disability.
11. A child with disability can learn better if paired with same age
normal child.
12. The parents are key support when dealing with the child with
9
disability in regular class room.
13. Mental retardation and mental illness are same
14. Learning disability is one of the disability covered under Persons
with Disability Act 1995
15. Autism is covered under Persons with Disability Act 1995
Part-II
1. Persons with Disability Act 1995 covers ……………disabilities.
2. Role of Rehabilitation Council of India is ……………………………………………………………………………
3. Cerebral Palsy is………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
4. Braille is used for the students with ………………………………..impairment
5. Functional analysis for Behaviour Modification covers………………………………………………………
The same questionnaire can be given to participants at the end of the workshop to evaluate their
increased awareness level.
10
Session 2-
Developing Empathy:
Feeling of Inclusion &
Exclusion
11
Activity No 3: Understanding Classroom Barriers
Objectives:
 To develop an understanding of the various barriers that teachers might face in their attempts
for inclusion of students with disabilities.
Process:
 Participants will be asked to form groups of five each.

 Each group will be asked to discuss various challenges faced regarding implementation of
Inclusive education in schools.
 Come to consensus on two main challenges and share with the larger group.
 After 5 minutes, ask groups to present problem or challenges.
 Resource Persons to list out all challenges either on flipchart or white board and share with the
larger group.
 Resource Person to come back to these challenges at the end of the Training Programme and to
ensure that all these queries have been resolved.
 The intent is to boost the morale of the teachers and to develop their confidence to face these
challenges.
Handout for Activity 3
Please enlist the ways in which you try to address the varying needs of your students:
1)……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
2) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
3) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
4) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
5) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
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Please enlist five major barriers that you face while addressing the varying needs of your students and
the ways in which you attempt to overcome them:
1)……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
2) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
3) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
4) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
5) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………
13
Session 3:
Understanding
Inclusion
14
Activity No 4: Inclusion/ Exclusion
Time for activity - 30 Minutes
Objective – To experience the frustrations of being left out of a group or being ignored by its members
and to explore the factors associated with the behaviours of insiders and outsiders.
Type of activity –Group
Procedure –
 Participants will be divided into small groups.

 Each group will have 5-6 members.
 Begin by telling the group that we need some volunteers.
 One volunteer from each group will be selected.
 Members will be asked to wait just a minute while the resource person takes the volunteers out
of the hall.
 The volunteers will be instructed that their goal is to become a part of the group. Whereas
group members will be instructed to discuss on any subject but ignore the volunteer. The group
members may simply ignore the volunteers and not talk to them.
 Groups including volunteers will be allowed the interaction to proceed for about three minutes.
 Then members will be asked to return to their seats.
Resource person will ask the volunteers:
1. How did you feel about being excluded by the group?
2. How hard did you try to become part of the group?
3. What did you do to try to get in?
4. What did the group say or do to you to keep you out?
Resource person will ask the group members:
1. How did you feel about excluding the volunteer?
2. How far were you willing to go to keep the volunteer out?
On the basis of responses from participants; resource person will discuss the importance of inclusion.
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Activity No 5: Understanding Inclusion
Time for activity - 30 Minutes
Objective –To understand the basic concepts, definitions, ideas and rationale about inclusion.
Procedure –

 They will be asked to brainstorm and explicate their understanding of the following concepts:
1. Inclusion
2. Exclusion
3. Inclusive Education
4. Special Education
5. Barrier free environment
 The resource person will note the important aspects of the participant’s understanding about
these concepts and put it in the perspective of inclusive education.
Participants may use Reading-1 from the annexures, Internet, and Books to complete the task.
16
Session 4:
Understanding
disabilities and related
Issues
17
Activity No 6: Orientation and Mobility
Time for activity - 50 Min
Objectives:
1. To develop an understanding of challenges faced by children with visual impairment in going

from one place to other.
2. To make the participants understand and appreciate the importance of creating a barrier free
environment
Type of activity – Pair.
Material – Blind Folds/ Cloth
Procedure –
 Participants will be divided into two groups A and B.

 Each ‘A’ group member will select a partner from group ‘B’ and they will form a pair.
 One teacher from each pair will be blind folded and will be asked to walk from the gate to hall.
 The other teacher in the pair will be asked to give direction only when an obstacle such as
furniture or wall comes in the way.
At the end of above activity Resource person will ask the teachers to describe their experiences.
Resource person will discuss the importance of barrier free environment and challenges faced by
children with Visual impairments.
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Activity No 7: Impairment, Disability, Handicap and related Terms
Objective- To develop understanding on various terms related to disabilities.
Type of activity – Group
Procedure –

 They will be asked to brainstorm and explicate their understanding of the following concepts:
o Impairment
o Disability
o Handicap
o Special Child
o Differently abled
o Children with Special Needs
o Challenged
 The resource person will note the important aspects of the participant’s understanding about
these concepts and put it in the perspective of inclusive education.
 RP will explain that these terms are being used to address the persons with disabilities in day to
day life, books, research studies and policy papers
19
Activity No 8: Knowing Various Disabilities-I
Objective- To sensitize teachers towards various disabilities and its characteristic features as included in
Persons with disability Act 1995 and National Trust Act 1999.
Procedure –
 The teachers will be divided into small groups.

 They will be asked to refer to Reading 2: Understanding Disability for the activity.
 Each group will be given one disability to discuss. The group will enlist the signs and symptoms
of the disability.
 Participants will be asked to select their representative (s), who will give presentation on
disability area given to them.
 Disabilities may be assigned from the following list:
1. Mental Retardation/ Intellectual Disability

2. Hearing Impairment
3. Visual Impairment
4. Physical Impairment
5. Mental Illness
 Brainstorming session will be conducted to develop a clear concept of disability with its sign &
symptoms and possible strategies for inclusion of students with disability (Disability which is
assigned to group).
 Representatives from each group will be invited by the resource person to give presentation.
Resource person will facilitate in brainstorming session and presentation. Resource person may clarify if
any confusion arises.
20
Activity No 9: Knowing Various Disabilities-II
Time for activity - 60 Min.
Objective- To sensitize teachers towards various disabilities and its characteristic features as included in
Persons with disability Act 1995 and National Trust Act 1999.
Procedure –

 They will be asked to refer to Reading 2: Understanding Disability for the activity.
 Each group will be given one disability to discuss. The group will enlist the signs and symptoms
of the disability.
 Participants will be asked to select their representative (s), who will give presentation on
disability area given to them.
 Disabilities may be assigned from the following list:
6. Low Vision
7. Autism
8. Cerebral Palsy
9. Multiple Disabilities
10. Learning Disabilities*
 Brainstorming session will be conducted to develop a clear concept of disability with its sign &
symptoms and possible strategies for inclusion of students with disability (Disability which is
assigned to group).
 Representatives from each group will be invited by the resource person to give presentation.
Resource person will facilitate in brainstorming session and presentation. Resource person may clarify if
any confusion arises.
*Learning Disability is not covered under Persons with disability Act 1995 and National Trust Act 1999.
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Session 5:
Multidisciplinary Team
and Diagnosis
22
Activity No 10: Multidisciplinary Team- Diagnosis or Labelling?
Objective-
 To sensitize teachers towards various issues related to diagnosis & labelling of Children with
special needs.
 To make the participants aware of the role of the multi-disciplinary team for inclusion.
Procedure –
 The teachers will be divided in four groups.

 First group will be asked to make list of the various professionals involved in the field of
rehabilitation, like special educators, psychologists, and so on. This group will identify the role of
these professional.
 Second group will be asked to make list of various clinical conditions/ diagnosis of various
disabilities and other associated conditions like Down syndrome.
 Third group will be asked to reflect on the differences between diagnosis and labelling. They will
also be asked to elaborate on the various disadvantages of labelling.
 Fourth group will be asked to discuss advantages of labelling.
The resource person will clarify that labelling is helpful in communication among the experts,
between the experts of Multidisciplinary team and between experts and parents; whereas it is
harmful for a child’s self-esteem.
Preparation for Day 2
Participants will be asked to find information about the organizations/ agencies in our country,
which are working in the field of catering to the needs of children with special needs and explore
their mandate.
23
Day 2
Session 1:
Review of Day-1 and
Self-Task
24
Activity No 11: Review of Day 1 & Discussions on the Self-task
Objective –
 To review the sessions held on Day 1 of the Training Programme.

 To develop awareness about the various national institutes that are functioning for
Rehabilitation and Inclusion of children with special needs.
Type of activity – Individual
Procedure –
 Participants will be asked to share their reflections on the sessions held on Day 1 of the Training
Programme.
 Further, they will be asked to share the information that they have collected about the various
national institutes that are functioning for Rehabilitation and Inclusion of children with special
needs in the form of a presentation.
 The Resource Person will summarize the collected information on the Board
The intent of this activity is to make the participants aware of the various organizations that can act as a
resource for inclusion. Thus, it is important to discuss their functions and specializations.
25
Session 2:
Inclusive Strategies
26
Activity No 12: Case Study Analysis
Objective – To develop an understanding of types of learning problems faced by children in Inclusive

class rooms.
Type of activity – Individual
Procedure –
 Every teacher will be asked by the resource persons to pen down a case study of a student
whom they felt a case of learning problem.
If the teacher has not taught any such student then the handout provided at the end of the
activity may be used.
 Participants will be asked to describe following
o Brief Description of the case.
o Challenges faced in teaching and learning.
o Measures undertaken to deal with the problem.
 The presentation of each case study will be followed by a brief discussion among members.
 Reading-3 from the annexures may be used by the participants for this task.
Resource person
 will discuss the measures taken by the teachers. Resource person may give appropriate
suggestions for particular cases.
 will discuss disability specific strategies and interventions like Braille/audio books for the visual
impairment, sign language for Hearing Impairment, task analysis for mental retardation.
 Will encourage participants to acquire skills in these interventions (braille/sign language)
through further training.
 can give following case studies and ask the teachers analyse the situation and to suggest the
measures to deal with the problems faced by the children with special needs:
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Handout for activity 11: Case -1
Raju is a 12 year old boy; studying in a regular school. His performance in academics is poor in
comparison to the level of his class. He often fails to understand the instructions given by his teachers.
Specifically following multiple instructions is difficult for him. He can copy from blackboard/book but
writing independently is not easy for him. He can read small words, but prompting is required to read
sentences. He takes interest in music. He participates in sports also but following rules is a difficult task
for him. Other students do not want to play with him.
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Handout for activity 11: Case -2
Sunita is 15 year old student with visual impairment. She never studied in any special school. No effort
was made to teach her Braille. She attends a regular school. Teachers of the school are not trained to
deal children with special needs. Teachers express sympathy but don’t know what they can do. She is
dependent on auditory inputs to learn her lessons. It is difficult to her to remember all the content
delivered by her teacher. Her friend Meeta reads books for her. She is the only assistance available for
her.
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Activity no. 13 Behaviour Modification
Objective- To develop understanding of Behaviour Modification
Procedure –

 Participants will be asked to make list of common behavioural problems of the students with
special needs.
 Resource person will discuss Baseline recording (Event and Duration recording) of problem
behaviours
 Resource person will explain ‘Functional Analysis’ of problem behaviour.
 Resource person will give some problem behaviour to each group for the functional Analysis of
problems.
 Following techniques of reducing problem behaviour will be discussed in groups:
o Time Out
o Extinction
o Systematic desensitization
o Deferential reinforcement
o Restructuring environment
o Response cost
30
Activity No 14: Planning Multilevel Instruction.
Objective- To understand the concept of universal design of learning to cater to the needs of children
with diverse abilities in same class room
Procedure –
 The entire group of participants will be divided into small groups.

 Different concepts will be given to them to formulate objectives for the class they teach and to
plan activities accordingly which are multisensory in nature
 Participants will be asked to design instruction at multilevel for addressing the needs of students
with diverse abilities.
 For example one group may be given theme of Christmas and will be asked to spell out
curricular objectives, plan out instructions and develop procedure for checking performance of
students.
Resource person will ask the group about appropriateness of the activity and give suggestions if
required.
31
Handout for Activity 14: Multilevel Lesson Plan Sample
Topic: Nutrition and Food
Levels: Beginning
Level C (Highest) Level B Level A (Lowest)

Warm-up Worksheet C Warm-up Worksheet B Warm-up Worksheet A
/ Review:
Warm-up
Discuss food groups Identify food groups Identify food groups
List different foods on the board. Ask students which are healthier. Teach students to show one
finger for healthier and two fingers for less healthy.
Introduction
/ Objective:
By the end of class, students By the end of class, By the end of class, students
will be able to plan healthy students will be able to will be able to identify foods
meals and discuss changes in plan healthy meals. for breakfast, lunch, and
diet to improve health. dinner.
Use the visuals in the form of flash cards and charts. Ask the group about the foods each eat
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Help the low-level students recognize the name and the three
meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Ask questions such as; What does Sita eat and drink for
breakfast?
Prepare students for the Tell the student nutritious Prepare students for the
practice. Ask students in their value of various kinds of practice.
Have them make a chart with
opinions who have a better breakfast. This will help
three columns. The column
breakfast, from one child to them to select food items heads are Breakfast, Lunch,
another. Make a few more as per their health benefit. and Dinner. Quiz students on
examples and briefly review the items from chart shown
what ranking is. earlier.
Ask them to close their books
and guess whether a food item
Presentation
you give them is for which

meal. Have them write their
answers like dictation in the
chart.
Give worksheets to the Give worksheets to the Ask students in groups to put
students and ask them to students and ask them to all the remaining food items
work in individual and small work in individual and from charts to worksheet.
groups situations. small groups situations. Check their worksheet and
evaluate their understanding.
In this exercise, they rank the In this exercise, they rank In this exercise, the student
best nutrition. After they the best nutrition. Ask has to identify five types of
rank the meals, ask a student students in pairs to make food items which can be
to have groups report and one days meal from the selected as breakfast with
compare. Monitor their five given food items that good health point of view.
Practice
discussion as an evaluation would be the most

nutritious. Ask for reports
as an evaluation.
32
Ask the students to complete Ask the students to Ask the students to complete it
it complete it while listening while listening to the dictation.
while listening to the to the dictation. Sita is a good cook and she is
dictation. Sita is a good ___ Sita is a good ________and healthy. She likes many
and she is healthy. She she is healthy. She likes different ________ like
________ many different many different __________ _______, yogurt, and soup. She
foods like ________, _______, like ________, yogurt, and eats _______ for breakfast. She
and _______. She eats milk __________. She _______ also likes _____. She knows that
and egg for _____________. milk and egg for breakfast. coffee may not be healthy.
She knows that tea and coffee She also _______ coffee. Ask students to compare
may not be healthy. She knows that coffee may answers with other levels to
Evaluation
Ask students to compare not be healthy. check their answers.

answers. Ask students to compare
answers with other levels
to check their answers.
Ask students in groups to Ask students to plan meals Ask students to complete a
imagine they are creating a for their own families or for chart describing what they have
website for nutritious meals themselves for a week. eaten for breakfast, lunch, and
Then ask them to compare
Application
that are delivered to the meals with a partner. dinner.

customers. Have them
describe meals and discuss
what should be included.
33
Activity No 15: Development of Adapted Writing Material
Objective – To find ways for remediation of handwriting issues of children with special need.
Material – Adhesive tape, rough papers, foam sheet/ rubber sheet and small size rubber ball.
Procedure –
 Resource person will explain various grasping problem of children with cerebral palsy and
associated disabilities.
 Cylindrical or spherical grasp will be demonstrated by the resource person.
 Teachers will be asked to modify pencil or pen in order to make a child with cerebral palsy to
write who has problem in grasping.
 Resource person may facilitate the process.
Resource person will explain that adaptation in other material like tooth brush, shirts, shoes may be
done as per individual needs.
34
Adaptation in pencil for better grasping
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Activity No 16: Information Technology for Inclusion
Objective – To be aware of the various information technologies for inclusive education
Procedure –

 They will be asked to brainstorm and identify the various electronic resources, like software,
hardware, and assistive devices, which they use in their classrooms for children with special
needs
 The participants will also be asked to discuss the shortcomings of these resources.
 The resource person will enlist these resources on the Board.
 The resource person must ensure that the following resources are included in the list:
- E-books
- Audiobooks
- Screen readers (Like JAWS and in-built android, windows, and ios readers)
- Change of font size and colour scheme on website
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Activity No 17: Teacher’s Role in Inclusion and their Professional
Development
Objective –
 To understand a teacher’s role and its limits for facilitating inclusive education.
 To be aware of the various ways in which teachers can develop their proficiency in the various
issues and areas related to inclusive education.
Procedure –

 They will be asked to read Reading 5
 The participants will try to answer the following questions:
1. Why should a general teacher know and work towards inclusive education?
2. What are the various processes/ steps that a teacher must focus upon in order to teach
inclusively?
3. Choose any topic of your choice, and plan the instructional strategies that you would use for
inclusive teaching.
The resource person must ensure that the participants do not feel that inclusive education is a burden
on general teachers or that it is the job of a special education teacher alone. The sensibilities and
sensitivities of the participants need to be invoked for openness and acceptance of their responsibilities
by the participants.
Further, the Resource person is also expected to inform the participants regarding the various courses
that can help them in their professional development in the various issues and areas related to inclusive
education.
A list of some popular courses recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) is attached at
Reading 6.
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Session 3:
Provisions,
exemptions, and
certification for CWSN
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Activity No 18: Understanding Provisions, Exemptions, and Certification for
Children with Special Needs
Objective- To be aware of the various provisions, exemptions, and certification of Children with Special
Needs.
Procedure –

 Every group will be provided with separate documents like
- PWD Act
- CBSE examination byelaws pertaining to children with special needs
- MSJE guidelines for examination of children with special needs.
- NCF-2005 position paper for inclusive education
- RTE Act, etc.
 Participants would then be asked to read, reflect, analyse, and discuss the documents.
 Every group will present a summary of the various perspectives, provisions, exemptions, and
provision regarding inclusive education.
 Participants may also like to know more about other provisions and relaxations given to
promote inclusion and to support the families of children with special needs, like the following:
- Relaxation in income tax
- Concession in rail tickets
- ADIP Scheme
- NHFDC
- Transfer of parent where more facilities are available
- Reservations in government jobs
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Session 4:
Open-House
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Activity No 19: Open House
Objective- To discuss and resolve queries of the participants
Procedure –
The participants will be free to ask questions, give feedback, suggest ways of improving the training
module, and to further inclusive education.
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Annexures
Reading 1: Inclusive Education
Background:
Inclusion is the most perplexing question in the field of education for both educators and policy
makers all over the world. Attempts towards inclusion gained momentum with the normalization
movement in Scandinavian countries in early seventies. Nirje (1969) defines the normalization
principle as “making available to mentally retarded, patterns and condition of everyday life that are as
close as possible to the norms and patterns of the mainstream of society.”
Nirje (1992) later revised his understanding as: “The normalization principle means that you act right
when making available to all persons with intellectual or other impairments or disabilities patterns of
life and conditions of everyday living that are as close as possible to or indeed the same as the regular
circumstances and the ways of life of their communities.”
However, the movement towards inclusion did not rest only with normalization, but it has moved
quite a lot towards accepting the differences and appreciating plurality in all the spaces of human
social life.
In such an attempt, in June 1994, representatives of 92 governments and 25 international

organizations formed the World Conference on Special Needs Education, held in Salamanca, Spain.
They agreed a dynamic new Statement on the education of all disabled children, which called for
inclusion to be the norm. In addition, the Conference adopted a new Framework for Action, the
guiding principle of which is that ‘ordinary schools should accommodate all children, regardless of
their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. All educational policies,
says the Framework, should stipulate that disabled children attend the neighborhood school 'that
would be attended if the child did not have a disability.'
The Statement begins with a commitment to Education for All, recognizing the necessity and urgency
of providing education for all children, young people and adults 'within the regular education system.'
It says those children with special educational needs 'must have access to regular schools' and adds:
Regular schools with this inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating
discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving
education for all; moreover, they provide an effective education to the majority of children and
improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost- effectiveness of the entire education system.
The Framework for Action says 'inclusion and participation are essential to human dignity and to the
enjoyment and exercise of human rights.' In the field of education this is reflected in bringing about a
'genuine equalization of opportunity.' Special needs education incorporates proven methods of
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teaching from which all children can benefit; it assumes human differences are normal and that
learning must be adapted to the needs of the child, rather than the child fitted to the process. The
fundamental principle of the inclusive school, it adds, is that all children should learn together, where
possible, and that ordinary schools must recognize and respond to the diverse needs of their
students, while also having a continuum of support and services to match these needs. Inclusive
schools are the 'most effective' at building solidarity between children with special needs and their
peers. Countries with few or no special schools should establish inclusive – not special – schools.
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION
Inclusive education intents to include the children with special needs, regardless of their strengths or
weaknesses in any area, in a regular class with other children. It is based on the child’s right to be with
other children. The term inclusive classroom means that all students have the right to feel safe,
supported and included at school and in the regular classroom as much as possible. In the inclusive
classroom, it is important that the teacher fully understands the learning, social and physical needs of
the students.
It is understood to be different from integration and mainstreaming as in these the aim is to equip
children with the skills required in the mainstream class and then move them into the ‘regular’
classrooms. In inclusion, the aim is to do away with special schools completely and have children with
special needs in ‘regular’ classrooms. These previously held notions of ‘integration’ and
‘mainstreaming’, were mainly concerned with ‘special educational needs’. Inclusive education is
about the child’s right to participate in education and the school’s duty to accept. Inclusive education
philosophy means that:
 No child will be rejected or separated for the reasons such as ability, gender, language,
care status, family income, disability, sexuality or religion.
 All children will participate to their maximum ability in the school.
 Learning would be more meaningful and relevant to the student.
 Bringing about change in policies curriculum and teaching practices within the school so
that different needs of different children can be met.
What does inclusion entail?
The Index for Inclusion (Booth & Ainscow 2011) summarizes some of the ideas which make up the
view of inclusion within the Index as follows:
Inclusion in education involves:

 Putting inclusive values into action.
 Viewing every life as of equal worth.
 Supporting everyone to feel that they belong.
 Increasing participation for children and adults in learning and teaching activities,
relationships and communities of local schools.
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 Reducing exclusion, discrimination, barriers to learning and participation.
 Restructuring cultures, policies and practices to respond to diversity in ways that value
everyone equally.
 Linking education to local and global realities.
 Learning from the reduction of barriers for some children to benefit children more widely.
 Viewing differences between children and adults as resources for learning.
 Acknowledging the right of children to education quality in their locality.
 Improving schools for staff and parents/care givers as well as children.
 Emphasizing the development of school communities and values, as well as achievements.
 Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and surrounding communities.
 Recognizing that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.
The School’s Potential For Promoting Inclusive Education
The school plays a crucial role in the development of cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional and moral
functions and competencies in a child, however, in the contemporary system of education, schools
have seriously marginalized and compromised their role of guiding, regulating the psychological
development of children and promoting psychosocial competence as they have to cope with heavy
syllabi and curricula, lack of teaching facilities, and highly competitive examinations. In addition, it
seems, less priority is given to issues like inclusion than to a standardised national planning
commercialization of education.
Understanding the Importance and Need of Inclusion
“The school, like the family, is charged with preparing the young to become successful adult workers,
members of families, and citizens”. This is a huge mission, and accordingly children spend a
considerable amount of time in schools each year.
Not surprisingly, to accommodate the delineated goals, schools have developed into complex social
institutions. They bring together people of different disciplines, levels of preparation, age, and
experience together to address their developmental needs. Schools have traditionally been
hierarchical and fairly authoritarian in structure and it is common to encounter a fairly fixed structure
with clear lines of authority and relatively low tolerance for variation. A degree of structure is
necessary for the child to learn especially because his internal capacities for self structure and
regulation are still developing.
It may be noted that:
 Almost all children attend school at some time during their lives
 Schools are often the strongest social and educational institutions available for
intervention
 Schools have profound influence on children, their families, and the community
 Young peoples’ ability and motivation to stay in school, to learn, and to utilize what they
learn is affected by their mental well-being
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 Schools can act as safety net, protecting children from hazards which affect their learning,
development, and psychosocial well-being
 In addition to the family, schools are crucial in building or undermining self-esteem and
sense of competence
 Teachers have often received some training in developmental principles. This makes
them potentially well qualified to execute the philosophy of inclusive education in schools
In India, most children are in school by at least 6 years of age. Despite play schools/ nursery being a
fairly universal experience, entry into first grade has generally been considered the beginning of
formal schooling. With a more structured academic curriculum and a scheduled full day program, the
child must tolerate and comply with what is probably a greater level of structure than has been
previously imposed on him/her day. The challenge of longer separation from parents may overwhelm
children with anxiety and some also feel the stress of coping with peers.
Another point where inclusive education helps is during the transition of students to middle school,
which occurs for most children at about the age of 10 or 11 years. With the transition to middle
school there is an expectation that the student will be more independent. Different teachers for every
subjects and increased workload add to the expectation that students should take serious and
independent interest in learning and schoolwork.
At this stage, those students who have special needs or who are suffering from the cumulative effects
of learning failure because they have not been identified or identified too late or because they did not
receive successful interventions in elementary school years, feel even more stress. For some other
children, the secondary school is difficult because their family and home-environment have not
provided the structure and support needed to develop the internal motivation to study.
Specific classroom practices recommended to ensure participation of all learners with diverse
range of abilities are:
 Make teaching & learning more effective by reducing the content

 whole-class, curriculum centred instruction
 classroom time devoted to use of enforcement techniques: fill-in-the-blank worksheets,
workbooks, and other “seatwork”
 student time spent reading textbooks and basal readers
 use of pull-out special programs
 use of and reliance on standardized tests
 enacting and modeling the principles of democracy in school
 choice for students
 time devoted to reading full, original, books
 deep study of a smaller number of topics
 emphasis on higher order thinking skills when learning key concepts and principles of a
subject
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 cooperative and collaborative activity
 delivery of special help to students in general education classrooms
 varied and cooperative roles for teachers, parents, administrators, and community
members when teaching and evaluating student performance
 Inclusion builds upon the grounds of equality, dignity and sensitivity for those who are
marginalized. It is possible only if children are taught to accept it naturally.
 “Children, who learn together, learn to live together.”
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Reading 2: Understanding Disability
What is disability?
Disability is a consequence of an impairment that limits the level of functioning. There are various
forms of disabilities. Social disabilities (like Autism and Aspergers), physical disabilities, cognitive
disabilities, genetic abnormalities and learning disability affect more than one aspect of the child’s
life. The needs that each one of these has are specific to them and very different from each other.
Children with special needs will have varied needs depending on the type of impairment.
Hearing impairment
Children with hearing impairment may be either
i. Totally deaf
ii. Hard of hearing
Hearing impairment may be since birth or it may be acquired at any age in life. Accordingly, we may
classify hearing- impaired in the following two classes:
i. Congenital hearing-impaired.
ii. Adventitious hearing impaired.
The important characteristics of children who have hearing impairments are:
 high pitched voice with slow and labored speech

 distorted or prolonged vowels
 abnormal rhythm and temporal patterns
 excessive nasality
 mis-articulations and improper consonant production
 monotonous voice
 very limited vocabulary
 lack of comprehension of complex words, words with multiple meaning of concepts
 lack of exposure and experience to understand different situations and meaning according to
context
 lack of ability to verbalize abstract feelings like hope, happiness etc.
 difficulty in understanding complex structure of language
 difficulty in sentence construction, identifying gender, tense, number, use of verb with the
subject using adjectives, idioms and understanding abstract concepts
Visual impairment
Visual impairment includes
i. Total Blindness
ii. Partial Blindness
A blind person is said to be one who has visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye even with
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correction e.g. glasses; or whose field of vision is narrowed so that the widest diameter of his visual
field subtends an angular distance less than 20 degree. The fraction 20/200 means that the person
sees at 20 feet what a person with normal vision sees at 200 feet.
Normal visual acuity is 20/20.
Partially sighted are those whose visual acuity falls between 20/70 and 20/200 in better eye with
correction. For educational purposes, the blind are those who are so severely impaired visually that
they must be taught to read by Braille or by use of other methods like audiotapes & records. The
partially sighted can need print even though they need to use magnifying devices or books with large
print.
Physical Impairment
Some of the physical impairments are
1. Cerebral Palsy (CP): Major three types of Cerebral Palsy are:
a. Spasticity: It involves rigidity of muscles and the movement is very jerky.

b. Athetoid: It involves loss of function of muscle as a result of which the child is constantly
moving his head and body.
c. Ataxia: There is tremor of small muscles and the gait is also scissor.
2. Muscular Dystrophy: Children with this disability are characterized by progressive weakness of all
muscles where heart and lung muscles are affected.
3. Spine Bifida: When bones of spinal column do not join completely around the spinal cord to form a
column. Spinal cord at the site of the defect is exposed and nerves at that level damaged.
Intellectual Disabilities
Children with Intellectual Disabilities can be classified as:
- Mild (IQ : 50-69)

- Moderate (IQ : 40-49)
- Severe (IQ : 20-39)
- Profound (IQ : <20 )
Intellectual Disabilities may range from mild, moderate, severe to profound levels.
The major characteristics of Intellectual Disabilities include:
 intellectual deficiency or limitation leading to impairment in the learning process, memory,

attention and reduced ability to generalize and conceptualize.
 deficient ability in adaptive skills for daily functioning - like sensory and motor coordination,
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poor gross and the motor coordination, perceptual motor skills etc., self care, social-skills,
communication, self-direction, health and safety, functional, academics, leisure work etc.
 low academic achievement with significant deficiency in the area of reading and
mathematics.
 delayed speech and language development and limited vocabulary
 low tolerance for frustration
 short attention span
 inability to cope with strict and rigid environment
 self-destructive traits
 low motivation
The above mentioned characteristics appear in children in different ages and in different degrees
depending on the extent of damage and retardation.
Autism
Autism is defined as certain set of behaviors that can range from very mild to the severe category.
The following possible indicators of Autism may be identified:
Indicators of Autism – Delays in milestones may be exhibited by children with autism as indicated
here:
 Poor/delayed language development

 Does not respond to name
 Loses language or social skills
 Has Poor eye contact
 Doesn’t seem to know how to play with toys
 Excessively line up toys or other objects
 Is attached to one particular toy or object Doesn’t smile
 At times seems to be hearing impaired
 Has difficulty in learning to engage in the give-and-take of everyday human interaction.
 Seems indifferent to other people, and often seems to prefer being alone
 May resist attention or passively accept hugs and cuddling
 Seldom seek comfort or respond to parents’ displays of anger or affection in a typical way.
Although attached to parents, their expression of attachment is unusual and difficult to
“read”.
 Slow in learning to interpret what others are thinking and feeling
 Appears physically normal and has good muscle control,
 Shows great interest in numbers, symbols, or science topics
 Is tremendously upset by any change in sequential order of work given to him.
 Needs and demands absolute consistency in their environment. A slight change in any routine
– in mealtimes, sequence, dressing, taking a bath, and going to school at a certain time and
by the same route – can be extremely disturbing. Order and sameness lend some stability in a
world of confusion.
 May have mental impairment, inconsistent performance on some areas of language ability.
 May have fits
 Is withdrawn from the surroundings
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 Has limited vocabulary
 Shows echolalia/repetition of words.
 Has meaningless smile, a wink, or grimace
 Has in ability to interpret gestures and facial expressions makes the social world seem
bewildering.
 Has difficulty in seeking things from another person’s perspective.
Specific Learning Disabilities
Types of SLD
Learning disability manifests itself in the school in various forms such as
 Dyslexia – a language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding words,

sentences, or paragraphs.
 Dyscalculia – a mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult time solving
arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.
 Dysgraphia – a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters or write within
a defined space.
 Dysorthographia- difficulty in the area of spelling
 Dyssmbolia- area related to comprehension gets affected
 Dysphasia- speech is difficulty area for children in this.
 Sensory integration disorder- both dysgraphia and Problems with motor coordination
The initial three types are mostly observed in the school setting and needs to be understood in great
detail.
Dyslexia or specific language difficulties are a term used to describe those individuals who have a
difficulty in reading and blending of words.
Characteristics:
1. Severe difficulty in remembering printed words or symbols.

2. Illegible handwriting.
3. Poor spelling skills and frequent spelling errors.
4. Reversal of letters or improper letter sequences (for example b for d)
5. Poorly written composition.
6. Difficulty reading aloud.
7. Often skips lines while reading.
8. Difficulty copying from the board in a classroom.
9. Unable to count backwards from 100 down to 0.
10. Confusion with directions (for example playing on a team).
11. A poor, slow, fatiguing reading ability prone to compensatory head tilting, near-far focusing,
and finger pointing.
12. Letter and word blurring, doubling, movement, scrambling, omission, insertion, size change,
etc.
13. Poor concentration, distractibility, light sensitivity (photophobia), tunnel vision, delayed visual
and phonetic processing, etc.
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Some characterize dyslexia as a reading problem, whereas in fact dyslexics have problems with
other skills as well such as:
 Spelling, Math, Memory, and Grammar- Memory instability for spelling, grammar, math,
names, dates, and lists, or sequences such as the alphabet, the days of the week and months
of the year, and directions.
 Speech- Speech disorders such as slurring, stuttering, minor articulation errors, poor word
recall, auditory-input and motor-output speech lags.
 Direction- Right/left and related directional uncertainty.
 Time- Delay in learning to tell time.
Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing abilities. Most common difficulties are those of
spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts together on paper. It is a processing
disorder.
Characteristics:
1. Tight awkward pencil grip and body position.

2. Illegible handwriting.
3. Tiring quickly while writing.
4. High levels of resistance and frustrations while writing.
5. Saying words out loud while writing.
6. Unfinished or omitted words in sentences.
7. Difficulty with sentence structure and grammar.
8. Large gap between written ideas and understanding demonstrated through speech.
Dyscalculia is a learning disability with mathematics.
Characteristics:
1. Shows difficulty understanding concepts or place value, quantity, number lines, positive and
negative value, and carrying and borrowing.
2. Difficulty understanding and completing word problems.
3. Difficulty with adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
4. Exhibits difficulty using steps involved in math operations.
5. Challenged making change or handling money.
Emotional & Behavioral Concerns of Children with Special Needs
Some of the emotional and behavioral indicators of children with special needs
 Hyperactivity / Restlessness
 Inattention
 Impulsiveness
 Aggression / self-injurious behavior (acting out, fighting)
 Withdrawal (failure to initiate interaction with others; retreat from exchanges of social
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interaction, excessive fear or anxiety)
 Immaturity (inappropriate crying, temper tantrums, poor coping skills)
 Learning difficulties (academically performing below grade level).
 Difficulty getting along with the peer group
 Defiant behavior
 Temper tantrums
 School refusal
These may behaviorally manifest in the classroom as
 Disruptive to classroom activity.

 Impulsive.
 Fidgets, squirms.
 Leaves seat in class/mealtimes etc.
 Inattentive, distractible.
 Incomplete work.
 Appears pre-occupied.
 Disregards all classroom rules.
 Poor concentration.
 Extreme resistance to change and transitions.
 Speaks out repeatedly, interrupts others, talks excessively.
 Is aggressive.
 Bullies and intimidates others.
 Dishonest, consistently blames others.
 Unable to work in groups.
 Engages in self-injurious behaviour.
 Has no regard for personal space and belongings.
 Persistently tries to manipulate situations.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
It is neurobiological disorder characterized by developmentally inappropriate impulsivity, attention,

and in some cases, hyperactivity beginning in childhood. Children with ADHD often have a 2-4 year
developmental delay and frequently have other coexisting conditions.
Types of ADHD
There are three different subtypes of ADHD, including:
 Combined ADHD (the most common subtype), which involves symptoms of both
inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity
 Inattentive ADHD (previously known as ADD), which is marked by impaired attention and
concentration
 Hyperactive-impulsive ADHD, which is marked by hyperactivity without inattentiveness
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A person with ADHD may have some or all of the following symptoms:
 Difficulty paying attention to details and tendency to make careless mistakes in school or
other activities; producing work that is often messy and careless
 Easily distracted by irrelevant stimuli and frequently interrupting ongoing tasks to attend to
trivial noises or events that are usually ignored by others
 Inability to sustain attention on tasks or activities
 Difficulty finishing schoolwork or paperwork or performing tasks that require concentration
 Frequent shifts from one uncompleted activity to another
 Procrastination
 Disorganized work habits
 Forgetfulness in daily activities (for example, missing appointments, forgetting to bring lunch)
 Failure to complete tasks such as homework or chores
 Frequent shifts in conversation, not listening to others, not keeping one's mind on
conversations, and not following details or rules of activities in social situations
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Reading 3: Managing Inclusive Classroom
Introduction:
While teaching in an inclusive classroom with the differing abilities of different learners, there are many
challenges that teachers face. Below are some major areas of difficulty and some teaching strategies to
enable teachers to deal with the various challenges.
I. Reading: A Problem for Many Persons with Learning Disabilities
It is also important to note that children with learning disabilities do not always acquire skills in the
normal developmental sequence. If an individual does not develop adequate phonemic awareness
during the pre-reading period, effective decoding may not be possible, which influences the
development of fluent reading and comprehension skills. Also, children with learning disabilities often
come to the reading task with oral language comprehension problems. For the person with learning
disabilities, the process of learning to read can be broken down with reading mechanics or focusing on
specific skill levels.
No single reading method will be effective for all students with learning disabilities. Most individuals
with learning disabilities will benefit from the application of a variety of methods. Instructors need a
repertoire of instructional methods.
Teachers should be able to appropriately and systematically modify or combine methods, and utilize
different methods in order to meet learner’s changing needs. Selecting the appropriate program to
apply to the student is not a simple matter, and requires a careful assessment of where the student is in
the developmental process. It is not uncommon, for example, to observe an individual with all the pre-
reading skills, numerous comprehension skills, and simple decoding skills acquired during the student's
progression through mechanical reading instruction. Because there may be a lack of understanding of
the sophisticated decoding skills needed, reading with fluency suffers.
Students with learning disabilities should be provided with sound strategic approaches that empower
them as readers, rather than be allowed to learn and internalize incorrect practices.
Decoding
Decoding is the process translating a written word into a spoken word ("cracking the code"). An
individual who has developed adequate decoding skills can begin to acquire fluency when reading no
longer requires a conscious, deliberate effort. When fluent, reading becomes automatic and consists of
word recognition rather than sounding out and combining syllables necessary to decode words.
Teaching decoding provides students with the keys to unlock new words. Teaching the regular phonetic
patterns of English can do this. These rules can be applied to words with which the student is already
familiar. New words are then introduced beginning with simple words and working through more
complex words. Finally, irregular phonemic patterns can be introduced and eventually mastered.
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Strategies to Create Appreciation of the Written Word
 Share stories with children and invite them to explore a story's magic.
 Share informational texts and invite children to wonder about the new ideas presented.
 Take every opportunity to point out the ways in which reading is essential to the
communications of everyday life (e.g., on labels, instructions, and signs).
Strategies to Develop Awareness of Printed Language and the Writing System
 Make sure students know how books are organized. They should be taught the basics about
books--that they are read from left to right and top to bottom, that print may be accompanied
by pictures or graphics, that the pages are numbered, and that the purpose of reading is to gain
meaning from the text and understand ideas that words convey.
 Read to children from books with easy-to-read large print. Use stories that have predictable
words in the text.
 Use "big books" to help children notice and learn to recognize words that occur frequently, such
as a, the, is, was, and you.
 Label objects in your classroom.
Strategies to Teach the Alphabet
 A strong predictor of the ease with which a child learns to read is his or her familiarity with
letters of the alphabet. This familiarity is a critical building block for learning to read.
 It is important to go beyond knowing the names of letters. Students must also develop a sense
of the purpose of letters.
 Help them notice the letters in the print that surrounds them and that you share with them
every day.
 Engage the students in activities that will help them learn to recognize letters visually.
 Help students learn to form letters and encourage them to embellish their work with their
names and with other first attempts at writing.
Strategies to Develop the Students' Phonological Awareness
 In listening and speaking, we pay attention to the meaning of language rather than to its sound.
To learn to read, however, students must be taught to attend to the sounds, or phonology, of
language. This is necessary for them to understand how speech is represented by print. Children
with learning disabilities need special help in learning to develop such phonological awareness.
 Model and demonstrate how to break short sentences into individual words. For example, use
the sentence "Frogs eat bugs," and demonstrate with chips, cards, or other manipulative how
the sentence is made up of three words and how the order of the words matters. Using
manipulatives to make sentences, play with each word and put it in order.
 Develop students' awareness of the sounds of individual words by asking them to clap out
syllables and to listen for and generate rhymes.
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 Once children are comfortable in playing games with words, syllables, and rhymes, move onto
phonemic awareness.
Strategies to Develop Phonemic Awareness
 Phonemic awareness refers to an understanding that words and syllables are comprised of a
sequence of elementary speech sounds. This understanding is essential to learning to read an
alphabetic language. The majority of children with reading disabilities fail to grasp this idea.
 In teaching phonemic awareness, the focus of all activities should be on the sounds of words,
not on letters or spellings.
 Use strategies that make phonemes prominent in children's attention and perception. For
example, model specific sounds, such as /s/ in the word sat, and ask children to produce each
sound in isolation and in many different words until they are comfortable with the sound and
understand its nature.
 Begin with simple words and simple challenges, e.g., listen for initial /s/ in sat, sit, sip, and sad . .
. or for long /e/ in me, see, bee . . . .
 Teach students to blend phonemes into words. Begin by identifying just one phoneme, e.g.,
/m/-ilk, /s/-at, working gradually toward blending all the phonemes in words, e.g., /s/-/a/-/t/.
 Teach students to identify the separate phonemes within words, e.g., what is the first sound of
soup? What is the last sound of kiss? Beginning phonemes are easier to identify than final
phonemes.
 Once students are comfortable listening for individual phonemes, teach them to break up
words, into component sounds, e.g., /m/-/oo/-/s/= "moose".
 Create a sequence of segmenting and blending activities to help students develop an
understanding of the relationship between sounds in words.
 Provide children with more support when first teaching a task. For example, model a sound or
strategy for making the sound, and have the children use the strategy to produce the sound.
Model and practice several examples. Prompt the children to use the strategy during guided
practice, and gradually add more examples. As the students master these skills, provide less
teacher-directed instruction and more practice and challenge.
 Make teaching phonological awareness a top priority. Opportunities to engage in phonological
awareness activities should be plentiful, frequent, brief, and fun.
Strategies to Teach Children to Spell Words
 Teach children to spell words by sounding their letters one by one. Model the sounding and
spelling process for children as they spell.
 Begin with short words children can sound out, because these words follow regular spelling
conventions, e.g., cap, bat, and sit instead of cape, bait or sight.
 Begin with simple words that do not contain consonant blends, e.g., ham and pan instead of
slam and plan.
 Encourage students to use spelling knowledge and strategies regularly in their own writing.
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 Introduce spelling conventions systematically. Begin with words that exemplify the most
frequent and basic conventions, and provide support and practice to help students generalize
from these words to others. The goal is to help them see the spelling conventions in the words.
 Use words in which letter-sound correspondences represent their most common sounds (e.g.,
get instead of gem).
 Develop a sequence and schedule of opportunities that allow children to apply and develop
facility with sounds and words at their own pace. Specify what skills to assess and when to
assess them so that you will know when to move on.
II. Comprehension Skills
Individuals typically shift their attention to reading comprehension once they have established
appropriate mechanical skills (decoding). Comprehension skills, like mechanical skills, usually build
progressively from fundamental to more sophisticated levels.
Therefore, it has traditionally been helpful for individuals to learn to read for factual information before
they begin to compare and evaluate the information they read. It will normally be easier for an
individual to learn to read and comprehend material at these two levels before learning analysis and
synthesis.
Reading for factual information requires that the sequence of events and the details of a story be
followed so that, for example, it is possible to read a murder mystery and solve the story's dilemma or
to understand how it was resolved.
Learning to compare and evaluate information from different sources requires the reader to be able to
derive the main ideas from a text and isolate its organizing idea or thesis. This fundamental level of
critical reading allows the reader to apply evaluative techniques like comparing and contrasting what
was read in order to solve and verify statements.
The more advanced critical reading skills of analysis and synthesis allow the reader to draw salient
conclusions and to make reasonable inferences from the information contained in the text. In addition,
these skills allow the reader to engage the text with greater sophistication and to evaluate materials for
relevance, consistency, and bias.
Strategies to Help Children Develop Fluent, Reflective Reading
 Help children learn to read fluently by requiring them to read new stories and reread old stories
every day.
 Help children extend their experience with the words, language, and ideas in books by
interactively reading harder texts with them and to them every day.
 Relate information in books to other events of interest to children, such as holidays, pets,
siblings, and games. Engage children in discussion of the topics.
 In both stories and informational texts, encourage wondering. For example, "I wonder what
Pooh will do now?" "How do you think the father feels?" or "I wonder what frogs do in the
winter? Do you think that's a problem? Why?"
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 Model comprehension strategies and provide students with guided assistance.
 Point out how titles and headings tell what a book is about.
 Help students identify the main ideas presented in the text, as well as the supporting detail.
Graphics help to reveal main ideas, and the relationship between text and graphics helps
students understand what they are reading.
 Show children how to analyse contextual clues to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
Research shows that most vocabulary growth comes from learning new words in reading.
Selecting the appropriate method
A significant part of selecting appropriate instructional approach is understanding the learning profile of
an individual. A diagnostic program is necessary to identify students with learning disabilities. A
cognitive profile is also necessary to determine precisely what students' needs are, their strengths and
weaknesses, whether they have difficulty with working memory, if they have inadequate language skills,
etc. Students with learning disabilities need to be taught strategic approaches explicitly. They need to
have ideas made conspicuously clear to them. Persons with learning disabilities who need to work on
reading mechanics frequently respond to explicitly taught code-emphasis developmental reading
methods such as phonic, linguistic, or multisensory approaches. Some of the more popular approaches
are briefly described below.
Phonics approach: The phonics approach teaches word recognition through learning grapheme-
phoneme (letter-sound) associations. The student learns vowels, consonants, and blends, and learns to
sound out words by combining sounds and blending them into words. By associating speech sounds with
letters the student learns to recognize new and unfamiliar words.
Linguistic method: This method uses a "whole word" approach. Words are taught in word families, or
similar spelling patterns, and only as whole words. The student is not directly taught the relationship
between letters and sounds, but learns them through minimal word differences. As the child progresses,
words that have irregular spellings are introduced as sight words.
Multisensory approach; This method assumes that some children learn best when content is presented
in several modalities. Multisensory approaches that employ tracing, hearing, writing, and seeing are
often referred to as VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile) methods. Multisensory techniques
can be used with both phonics and linguistic approaches.
Neurological Impress Technique: This is a rapid-reading technique. The instructor reads a passage at a
fairly rapid rate, with the instructor's voice directed into the student's ear. The teacher begins as the
dominant reading voice, but gradually the student spends more time leading these sessions. Students
who have learned mechanics without adequately learning reading fluency frequently benefit from this,
as do students who read slowly or who hesitate over a number of words but are able to identify most of
the words in a sentence. A student is directed to read a passage without errors. This method functions
most effectively when it is practiced for short periods every day.
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Language experience approach: The language experience approach uses children's spoken language to
develop material for reading. This approach utilizes each student's oral language level and personal
experiences. Material is written by the child and teacher for reading using each child's experience.
This can be done in small groups and individually. Familiarity with the content and the vocabulary
facilitate reading these stories. Each child can develop a book to be read and re-read. This approach
helps children know what reading is and that ideas and experiences can be conveyed in print.
Reading comprehension support: Persons with learning disabilities who need work on reading
comprehension often respond to explicitly taught strategies which aid comprehension such as
skimming, scanning and studying techniques. These techniques aid in acquiring the gist, and then focus
is turned to the details of the text through use of the cloze procedures. The cloze procedure builds upon
a student's impulse to fill in missing elements and is based upon the Gestalt principle of closure. With
this method, every fifth to eighth word in a passage is randomly eliminated.
Other Strategies
 Tracing shapes, letters, words, pictures etc.

 Making letters with plasticine, modelling clay, or pipe cleaners. Using chalk, paint, thick felt pens
to write very large shapes and letters. Making letter shapes with the forefinger in a tray of dry or
wet sand.
 Feeling and naming wooden or plastic letters and shapes with the eyes closed.
 Putting various objects or wooden letters in bags and asking the child to name the object or
letter.
 Threading a sequence of colored beads on to a string and asking the child to repeat the
sequence several times.
 Physical skills - Do not neglect the skills such as throwing, catching, kicking balls, skipping,
hopping and balancing. Many children find these activities difficult and will need a great deal of
practice.
With all the possible efforts Inclusion is the only way to achieve social equity possible for all children in
spite of their varied backgrounds and needs in education.
III. Behaviour Modification
One of the important aspects of inclusion is social integration of children with special needs. For this,
behaviour modification is often necessary for special needs children to help them behave in more
appropriate and socially acceptable ways. Special needs children, depending on their disability, often
lack the physical or emotional control necessary to participate in the regular classroom. Lack of control
can also make parenting and teaching challenging, as the special needs child may not respond to
discipline that is effective for other children in the environment. Having a behaviour plan in place helps
parents and teachers navigate discipline for the special needs child in a way that improves the quality of
life for everyone involved. It is further more important in case of an inclusive classroom as this causes a
major concern for regular classroom teachers and the parents of children without any disabilities in
particular classrooms.
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When students with special needs exhibit inappropriate and belligerent behaviour, classroom activities
can become stressful and uncivilized, leading to frustration and anxiety for everyone involved. In order
for every child to have the opportunity to grow and learn in a healthy academic environment, teachers
and administrators must use disciplinary actions and behaviour modification strategies to ensure the
safety and productivity of their classrooms.
Commonly observed behaviour problems and its management
BEHAVIOUR SUGGESTED STRATEGIES
Difficulty following a plan  Use a questioning strategy with the student; ask, what do you
(has high aspirations but need to be able to do this?
lacks follow-through); sets
out to "get straight ‘As’,  Keep asking that question until the student has reached an
ends up with “Fs" (sets obtainable goal.
unrealistic goals). Assist
student in setting long-
 Have student set clear timelines of what he needs to do to
range goals: break the goal
accomplish each step (monitor student progress frequently).
into realistic parts.
Difficulty sequencing and  Break up task into workable and obtainable steps.
completing steps to
accomplish specific tasks.  Provide examples and specific steps to accomplish task.
Shifting from one  Define the requirements of a completed activity (e.g. your math
uncompleted activity to is finished when all six problems are complete and corrected; do
another without closure. not begin on the next task until it is finished).
 Gain students, attention before giving directions. Use alerting

cues. Accompany oral directions with written directions.
Difficulty following through

on instructions from others.  Give one direction at a time. Quietly repeat directions to the
student after they have been given to the rest of the class. Check
for understanding by having the student repeat the directions.
 Prioritize assignment and activities.

Difficulty prioritizing from
most to least important.  Provide a model to help students. Post the model and refer to it
often.
Difficulty sustaining effort  Reduce assignment length and strive for quality (rather that
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and accuracy over time. quantity).
 Increase the frequency of positive reinforcements. (catch the

student doing it right and let him know it.
 List and/or post (and say) all steps necessary to complete each
assignment.
 Reduce the assignment into manageable sections with specific

Difficulty completing due dates.
assignments.
 Make frequent checks for work/assignment completion.
 Arrange for the student to have a "study buddy" with phone

number in each subject area.
 Combine seeing, saying, writing and doing; student may need to

sub vocalize to remember.
Difficulty with any task that
requires memory.  Teach memory techniques as a study strategy (e.g. mnemonics,
visualization, oral rehearsal, numerous repetitions).
 Allow extra time for testing; teach test-taking skills and

strategies; and allow student to be tested orally.
Difficulty with test taking.  Use clear, readable and uncluttered test forms. Use test format
that the student is most comfortable with. Allow ample space for
student response. Consider having lined answer spaces for essay
or short answer tests.
Confusion from non-verbal

 Directly teach (tell the student) what non-verbal cues mean?
cues (misreads body
Model and have student practice reading cues in a safe setting.
language, etc.)
Confusion from written  Provide student with copy of reading material with main ideas
material (difficulty finding underlined or highlighted.
main idea from a
paragraph; attributes  Provide an outline of important points from reading material.
greater importance to
minor details).  Teach outlining, main-idea / details concepts.
 Reward attention. Break up activities into small units? Reward for

Difficulty sustaining
attention to tasks or other timely accomplishment.
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activities (easily distracted  Use physical proximity and touch. Use earphones and/or
by extraneous stimuli). separate study space, quiet place, or preferential seating.
 Teach organizational skills. Be sure student has daily, weekly

and/or monthly assignment sheets; list of materials needed daily;
and consistent format for papers. Have a consistent way for
students to turn in and receive back papers; reduce distractions.
 Give reward points for notebook checks and proper paper

format.
 Provide clear copies of worksheets and handouts and consistent

Frequent messiness or format for worksheets.
sloppiness.
 Establish a daily routine, provide models for what you want the
student to do.
 Arrange for a peer who will help him with organization.
 Assist student to keep materials in a specific place (e.g. pencils

and pens in pouch).
 Be willing to repeat expectations.
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Reading 4: Universal Design of Learning
Universal Design of Learning
Universal Design for Learning is a framework based on research in the learning sciences. This
framework gives way for the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate
individual learning differences.
The UDL framework proposes that educators strive for three kinds of flexibilities to cater the needs of
learners with diverse needs:
 Representation of information in multiple formats and media.
 Multiple pathways for student’s action and expression.
 Multiple ways to engage student’s interest and motivation.
The three principles can help the teacher to set goals, individualize instruction, and assess student’s
progress.
Three primary principles guide UDL—and provide structure for the guidelines:
I. Provide Multiple Means of Representation

• Perception,
• Language, expressions, and symbols
• Comprehension
II. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

• Physical action
• Expression and communication
• Executive function
III. Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

• Recruiting interest
• Sustaining effort and persistence
• Self-regulation
Principles of Universal Design
Equitable Use: The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
Flexibility in use: The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and disabilities.
Simple and intuitive use: use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s
experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.
Perceptible Information: The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user,
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regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.
Tolerance for error: The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or
unintended actions.
Low Physical Effort: The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of
fatigue.
Size and Space for approach and use : Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach,
manipulation, and use regardless of user’s body size, posture, or mobility.
Multiple Ways to Present Lesson Content
Auditory Ways
 Lecturing
 Presenting information orally through a character
 Singing
 Reading aloud
Visual Ways
 Reading articles, books
 Watching videos clips or a slide show
 Showing on a poster, chart, graph, or slide
 Watching a play
 Using sign language
 Providing an advanced organizer
Tactical/ Kinesthetic Ways

 Taking a field trip
 Demonstrating (eg. Drawing, sculpting, constructing, playing a game)
 Watching a dance
 Using sign language/ gestures
 Using Braille
Affective Ways
 Presenting to large or small groups
 One on one presentations or tutorials
 Cross age tutoring
 Role Playing
 Connecting to student interest areas
Technology Options Ways

 Overhead Projector
 Electronic whiteboard
 Books on tape
 Video/DVD
 TV/VCR (Closed caption)
 Podcasts
 Online YouTube
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Examples of Multiple Ways to Engage Students
Auditory Ways:
 Listening to text read aloud
 Listening to and answering directions
 Asking and answering the questions
 Debating
 Discussing
 Giving verbal prompts
 Talking through steps
Visual Ways:
 Using a dictionary
 Highlighting key points
 Outlining steps to solving a problem
 Completing a graphic organizer
 Designing a poster
 Illustrating/taking pictures
 Drawing
Tactical/ Kinesthetic Ways

 Using a Braille dictionary
 Touching words on a word wall
 Using manipulative
 Building a model
 Using a response cards
 Using a game format
Affective Ways
 Working in areas of students interest
 Working with a partner who can help with definitions
 Working alone or in cooperative groups
 Discussion groups/ books clubs
 Seminar participation
 Giving feedback
 Praising
 Changing work environment
Technology Options Ways

 Talking dictionary
 Recording on tape or IPods
 Word processing
 Talking calculators
 Creating spreadsheets
 Creating videos
 Video conferencing
 Blogging, text messaging
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Multiple Ways Students Can Express Themselves
Auditory
 Oral report
 Speech/debate
 Song/rap
 Storytelling
 Interview
Visual Ways
 Visual demonstration using a chart, graph
 Written report
 Drawing/poster
 Portfolio
 Journal/diary
 Mural
Tacticals/ Kinesthetic Ways

 Demonstration of an experiment
 Dance
 Written report
 Pointing or gazing at answers
 Filling in a bubble sheet/ worksheet
 Puppet show
Affective Ways
 Group presentation or response
 Drama/play production
 Role play demonstration
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Reading 5: General Education Teacher as An Inclusive Teacher
“Help us, O Lord to penetrate into the secret of the child, so that we may know him, love him and serve
him according to your laws of justice and following your divine will.” Maria Montessori.
These words of Madam Maria Montessori explain the importance of inclusive education. Here, the
teacher is the dynamic force to facilitate the developmental process of children inclusively. The
success of Inclusion relies majorly on the transformation of teacher’s attitude, classroom pedagogies,
curriculum and evaluation techniques. One does not need special education teachers alone for
inclusion but the collective effort of the teacher community developing an inclusive school.
A general education teacher can help make a difference in an inclusive environment by developing an
understanding that every child in their classroom is their responsibility. To address the diverse needs
of the students, they need to know a variety of instructional strategies and use them effectively. This
includes the ability to modify and utilize resources and objectives to suite the child’s need. Inclusive
education involves working as a team with parents and special education teachers to learn what skill a
child needs and to provide best teaching approach. To achieve this it is important to view the
challenges of every child in the class as an opportunity to become a better teacher rather than a
problem to be coped with. Inclusive education thus requires a teacher to have flexibility and a high
tolerance for ambiguity.
Competencies needed in teachers

 Ability to informally assess the skills a student needs, rather than relying solely on
standardized curriculum.
 Ability to make use of children's individual interests and to use their motivation for learning.
 Ability to develop alternative assessment scedules.
 Ability to make appropriate expectations for EACH student, regardless of the student's
capabilities. If teachers can do this, it allows all students to be included in a class and school.
 Ability to determine how to modify assignments for students; how to design classroom
activities with different levels so that all students have a part. It will mean more activity-based
teaching.
 Ability to value other skills besides the academic skills that the students have which would
give them sense of self-worth and esteem.
Some suggestions for making the classroom more inclusive:

 Seating the student close to the blackboard and the teacher.
 Use of visual aids, large print and alternative medium.
 Allowing extra time for completion of assignment, having alternative assignments, or allowing
the use of calculator.
 Giving alternative to written test. Allowing the use of study guide during the class test or
dividing the test into parts and giving it over a period of days.
 Co-students can be used to monitor and change behavior. Peers could be used for helping the
child in taking down notes, preparing for exams and completing pending work.
 Child can be evaluated for the need of a paraprofessional to assist him/her.
 Giving additional study skills for e.g., memory strategies, test-taking skills, etc.
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Teacher's Role in an Inclusive Classroom
A teacher has a special role to play when trying to maximize learning potential of students with
special needs. Observation is the key- Knowing what to look for is critical. Does the child give up
easily? Does the child persevere? Is the child able to show how he got the task right? How closely
does the individual remain on task? Why or why not? How does the student feel about the activity?
What are their thinking processes? The teacher targets a few learning goals per day and a few
students per day to observe for goal attainment.
The teacher facilitates the learning by encouraging, prompting, interacting, and probing with good
questioning techniques, such as 'How do you know it is right - can you show me how? The teacher
provides various activities that address the multiple learning styles and enables students to make
choices. For instance, in a spelling activity a student may choose to cut and paste the letters from
newspapers or use magnetic letters to work over spellings. The teacher provides many learning
opportunities for small group learning. It becomes the educator's role to create a welcoming
environment and provide students with ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and engage in all
classroom activities. Determining what alternate assessment is needed, is another area where the
educator needs to make changes to specifically support the special needs student in the class.
While attitudes, teaching styles and inclusive activities are important components of inclusion; the
classroom’s physical environment can help or hinder the process. This in turn, can affect feelings of
belonging, success, and self-esteem. Carefully planning out the physical space of the classroom
strongly supports an inclusive learning environment. As teachers and schools gradually move to more
inclusive programming, it is also necessary for them to pay close attention to the physical space and
design of the inclusive classroom. In fact, the physical arrangement of a classroom environment will
largely determine if and how inclusion will happen. Step two therefore becomes making the physical
environment disability friendly. This in itself is a difficult task. It has many parts to it. To list a few
changes that might be made: ramps or lifts for children on the wheelchairs, disability friendly classes
and corridors, furniture that helps, low sound work areas for children with ADHD and children on the
autism spectrum, alternatives to sound cues like the bells to mark the ends of the period, for hearing
impaired children, special tactile cues for children with visual impairment.
Therefore, creating an inclusive learning environment isn’t just about changing attitudes, support
systems and activities it is also about rearranging the physical space to accommodate the various
needs that exceptional children have. Below are several suggestions to arrange the physical space of a
classroom in order to facilitate inclusion:
1. Place Student Desks in Groups – Put desks in small groups (2-4 desks per group) so that all
students have opportunities for cooperative learning, collaboration and discussion. The
teacher’s desk should be placed on the periphery of the classroom. Teachers in an inclusive
class rarely sit down during their day and don’t need their desk getting in the way!
2. Provide Learning Centres – Centres appeal to various learning styles but they must be also
be accessible and open. The materials and manipulatives at each centre must be
appropriate and stored where all students can reach them. Placing books on a high shelf is
limiting for a smaller student or one who is in a wheelchair.
3. Meeting Spot – Create one area of the classroom where the students can come together to
have discussions, develop social skills and participate in large group activities. This space
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must have enough room for ALL the students to gather.
4. Classroom Decor – An inclusive classroom needs to be decorated in a way that does not
create distraction and sensory overload. Too many bright colors, posters, clutter and
furniture can easily distract the most focused child!
5. Safety/Emergency Preparedness – Ensure adequate space for all students to move safely
around the room. Clear bulky items, stabilize furniture, tape down wires and cables, and
place signs/symbols around the room that point out exit/entry ways in case of emergency.
The classroom is a beehive of activity and students should be engaged in problem solving activities.
Students need to be active - not passive learners. Children should be encouraged to make choices as
often as possible. Most of the goals are always clearly stated prior to students engaging in learning
activities. Students with disabilities must be free to learn at their own pace and have accommodations
and alternative assessment strategies in place to meet their unique needs. They need to experience
success, Learning goals need to be specific, attainable and measurable and have some challenge to
them. Step three therefore is modifying the classroom teaching methods making curriculums flexible
and process oriented and altering our daily routine expectations from the children. A popular saying is
“if I can’t learn the way you teach, teach me the way I learn.” It may be an overused line but the truth
it portrays makes it necessary. In most instances the classroom teaching involves reading, listening,
copying and discussions. In such a scenario we are seen helping children who are primarily auditory
learners and to a limited extent visual learners. But where do we address the needs of a tactile or a
kinaesthetic learner? Once we look at teaching based on learning styles we next need to look at the
content. There are certain topics that maybe too abstract for children with special needs. How do we
manage teaching those topics?
Also there maybe topics that are very important in life to live independently but are rushed through
in classes. These are topics like ‘social math’, which includes time, money and calendar skills. The time
constraint in a classroom teaching may not work for a special child. We are not saying that ‘they can’t
learn’ but they may need slightly longer time or extra reinforcement to be able to independently do
something.
Step four is Using Peer Support in the Inclusive Classroom Peer support is one of the most essential
ingredients in the inclusive classroom setting. Peer support helps to build rapport and a sense of
belonging and community among students. Students with special needs often become the targets for
inappropriate behavioral conduct from other students. Having members of the class become peer
supporters, the problem of teasing/bullying is often minimized. Provide opportunities for cooperative
learning. Working together in groups often helps to clarify misconceptions for students with learning
difficulties. Extra assistance is provided when needed through a peer or the teacher.
Have methods to enable the student to have text written to him/her and they can dictate their
answers. Create supports that help kids do the work. Appreciate and reinforce students who are
willing to help such special needs children for e.g. when the partner who has a good speed in copying
or writing notes copies problems from the book or the board in the notebook for those who are slow.
The last step is involving the parents of the children with special needs. One can’t even begin to
enumerate the daily fights these parents face. Imagine if every second of our life was a battle to be
fought, and fought with courage because others and most importantly your own child is watching
you. And the fight is not an easy one to say the least. It’s a fight against family, friends, neighbours,
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schools, education system and attitudes of people who are so – called part of their life and even the
strangers on the road. The pressures they deal with are often passed on to the child to “do better” or
the school “to mainstream the child”. It is here that a lot of work is required with patience. The things
we expect of them are not small. We need them to accept the child as she/he is. We need them to
help him/her develop their skills and to help with reinforcement of the learning that happens. We
need them to face the pressures of the world, society and not pass them on to the children in the
form of unfair expectations. We have a long way to go in this direction, where we make them feel
special (not deprived or insensitive) and provide the support to face life with all its challenges. But
first of all we need to accept the parent with their anger, guilt, frustration and even envy.
‘Overall inclusion’ is a goal we need to aim for. On the path we have a lot of hurdles that we need to
overcome. Each society has its own way of moving on this path and we all learn as we go. There is
nothing absolutely right or wrong here. Nothing is certain. What works for one may or may not work
for the others. Thus it’s a unique model that we need to follow for each child, and each family and
each society.
The aim is to help all children irrespective of their disabilities, to be able to learn, enjoy, play and grow
while taking care of their physical and emotional needs. Agreed it’s a tall order, but, it needs to be
achieved nonetheless.
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Reading 6: List of RCI Approved Courses
M.Ed. Special Education (Visual Impairment)
B.A. B.Ed. (Visual Impairment)
B.Ed. Special Education (Visual Impairment)
Bachelor in Mobility Science
D.Ed. Special Education (Visual Impairment)
D.Ed. Special Education (Deaf-blind)
Diploma in Early Childhood Special Education (Visual Impairment)
M.Ed. Special Education (Hearing Impairment)
B.Ed. Special Education (Hearing Impairment)
D.Ed. Special Education (Hearing Impairment)
Diploma in Early Childhood Special Education (Hearing Impairment)
Diploma in Indian Sign Language Interpreting

(Level A, B, & C each of four months duration)
M.Ed. Special Education (Mental Retardation)
B.Sc. (Special Education and Rehabilitation)
B.Ed. Special Education (Mental Retardation)
P.G. Diploma in Early Intervention
P.G. Diploma in Special Education (Mental Retardation)
D.Ed. Special Education (Mental Retardation)
Diploma in Vocational Rehabilitation (Mental Retardation)
Diploma in Early Childhood Special Education (Mental Retardation)
71
M.Sc. Disability Studies (Early Intervention) (Pilot Basis)
M.Ed. Special Education (Learning Disability)
B.Ed. Special Education (Learning Disability)
B.Ed. Special Education (Multiple Disabilities)
P.G. Diploma in Special Education (Mult. Dis.:Physical and Neuro.)
P.G. Dipl. in Developmental Therapy (Mult. Dis.:Physical and

Neuro.)
D.Ed. Special Education (Cerebral Palsy)
Diploma in Basic Development Therapy
D.Ed. Special Education (Autism Spectrum Disorders)
B.Ed. Special Education (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
For further detail please visit the website of rehabilitation Council of India
72

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Inclusion & Inclusive Strategies

Session No Time Day 1

Session No Time Day 2

Objective: To introduce participants and share Agenda of the Training Workshop

General Guidelines for Resource Person:

Mode: Individual Activity

Material required: Handout 1 A- Self Reflection

Handout for Activity 1

Self Reflective Individual Activity

Please tick out the responses with ‘×’

1 All students should be educated in a common regular classroom. SD D NS A SA

2 All students, with or without disabilities, can improve academically SD D NS A SA

3 Inclusive education is likely to have a positive effect on the social and SD D NS A SA

4 The needs of students with disabilities can be best served in special SD D NS A SA

5 Inclusive education programs provide different students with SD D NS A SA

6 Children with severe disabilities should be educated in special or SD D NS A SA

7 Special education teachers are trained to use different teaching SD D NS A SA

8 Children who communicate in special ways (e.g., sign language) SD D NS A SA

10 There are sufficient supportive resources and trained professionals to SD D NS A SA

11 I have sufficient knowledge and skills to educate students with special SD D NS A SA

12 A teacher’s instructional effectiveness will be enhanced by having SD D NS A SA

13 I feel comfortable while working with students with disabilities and SD D NS A SA

Mode: Individual Activity

Material required: Handout- The awareness questionnaire

Handout for Activity 2: Awareness on disability

Sl. No. Question YES NO

1. Disability is occurred due to fate or karma or sins of the parents

1. Persons with Disability Act 1995 covers ……………disabilities.

2. Role of Rehabilitation Council of India is ……………………………………………………………………………

3. Cerebral Palsy is………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

4. Braille is used for the students with ………………………………..impairment

5. Functional analysis for Behaviour Modification covers………………………………………………………

Mode: Individual Activity

 Participants will be asked to form groups of five each.

Handout for Activity 3

Time for activity - 30 Minutes

Type of activity –Group

 Participants will be divided into small groups.

Resource person will ask the volunteers:

1. How did you feel about being excluded by the group?

2. How hard did you try to become part of the group?

3. What did you do to try to get in?

4. What did the group say or do to you to keep you out?

Resource person will ask the group members:

1. How did you feel about excluding the volunteer?

2. How far were you willing to go to keep the volunteer out?

Type of activity –Group

 Participants will be divided into small groups.

1. To develop an understanding of challenges faced by children with visual impairment in going

Type of activity – Pair.

Material – Blind Folds/ Cloth

 Participants will be divided into two groups A and B.

Objective- To develop understanding on various terms related to disabilities.

Type of activity – Group

 Participants will be divided into small groups.

Type of activity – Group

 The teachers will be divided into small groups.

1. Mental Retardation/ Intellectual Disability

Type of activity – Group

 The teachers will be divided into small groups.

Type of activity – Group

 The teachers will be divided in four groups.