Children
with Disabilities Benefit from Classroom Inclusion
A The secret to boosting
the language skills of preschoolers with disabilities may be to put them
in classrooms with typically developing peers, a new study finds. Researchers
found that the average language skills of a child’s classmates in the fall
significantly predicted the child’s language skills in the spring – especially
for children with disabilities.
B “We found that children with disabilities get a big
boost in their language scores over the course of a year when they can interact
with other children who have good language skills,” said Laura Justice,
co-author of the study and professor of teaching at The Ohio State University. In
fact, after one year of preschool, children with disabilities had language
skills comparable to children without disabilities when surrounded by highly
skilled peers in their classroom. “The biggest problem comes when we have a
classroom of children with disabilities with no highly skilled peers among
them,” Justice said. “In that case, they have limited opportunity to improve
their use of language.”
C Justice conducted the study with other three professors.
The study involved 670 preschool-aged children enrolled in 83 early
childhood special education classrooms in Ohio. About half of the children had an
Individualized Education Plan, signaling presence of a disability. Between 25
and 100 percent of children in each classroom had a disability.
D All children’s language skills were measured in the
fall and spring of the academic year. The average score of all children
in an individual classroom was used to determine each child’s relative status
in terms of language development, and whether their classmates were more highly
skilled, less skilled or average. While all children’s language skills were
affected somewhat by the skill levels of their classmates, the effect was
strongest for those with disabilities, the study found. For those children with
disabilities who were in classrooms with the most highly skilled peers,
language scores in the spring were about 40 percent better than those of
children with disabilities who were placed with the lowest-ranked peers. Students
who had no disabilities showed about a 27 percent difference in scores between
those with the highest-ranked peers and the lowest-ranked peers.
E This study finds that the most highly skilled students
are the ones whose language improvement is least affected by the skill of their
classmates, Justice said. “The highly skilled children aren’t hurt by being in
classrooms with children who have disabilities,” she said. “But children with
disabilities are vulnerable if they
aren’t placed with more highly skilled peers.”
boost
– oživit, podpořit, zvýšit
vulnerable
– zranitelný, citlivý
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Their
knowledge and skill enhance in a year significantly
2 Results
of the study
3 Skilled
children aren’t slowed down by the handicapped
4 Preschoolers
with disabilities should attend normal preschools according to a new study
5 A study at
preschools in Ohio
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What did
the study refer to?
2 Who is
Laura Justice? What are her findings?
3 What are
the results of the research?
4 Where was
the research carried out?
5 How do
disabled preschoolers influence their typically developing peers? And vice
versa?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 preschoolers with disabilities
2 typically developing peers
3 limited opportunity to improve their
use of language
4 enroll in early childhood special
education classrooms
5 average score
4) Answer the following questions.
What are types and causes of disabilities?
Are Czech preschoolers with disabilities included into general preschools? What
problems do they face? What role do teachers and families play? What are
examples of new creative methods?
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