Potts 1 Anne Marie Potts Dr.

Karin Mendoza Intermediate English Composition (ENGL-2089-085) 18 February 2014 Why is Mainstreaming Important for Children With Autism? Mainstreaming has been an issue in education for a long time now. Some people think it is effective and others do not think so. Mainstreaming is having students with special needs participate in regular classrooms instead of being secluded all day in their own classroom. I decided to focus on why this is important for students who have autism. Autism really interests me because I tutor a boy who has autism, and it has really helped me understand the disability and why they do certain things, or act in a certain way. I learn something new about it every single day, and I find them to be very smart children. When I graduate from college I want to go to grad school and become a Speech Language Pathologist. I want to work in an elementary school with younger children, or maybe even work at a center for autism. Many children with autism go to speech therapy when they are young, so this paper will also be beneficial to my future career as a speech therapist. I do not think many people are aware of what autism actually is so I think this topic will be very important for everyone to read, especially for parents who have children with autism, and teachers since it involves education. I also think that students are an important audience for this paper because if they have a child with autism in their class they might look at them like they are weird or treat them differently. If they

Potts 2 know more about autism and understand it, then we will not have that problem as much. I compiled my research throughout a few weeks in February. My sources include many scholarly articles, a few popular articles, and a few books as well. I liked to use a variety of sources to get different views on my topic.

Barnard, Judith, Aidan Prior, David Potter. Inclusion and autism: is it working? The National Autistic Society, 2000. 1-28. This article is from the National Autistic society. They decided to look at the topic of Autism in a broader way and get feedback from how it affects the society as a whole and how it can affect the families of children with autism. They are trying to get the whole community to look at the bigger picture and not be so narrow about the topic. This source is useful to my paper because it is good to get a better background in autism, and how other people view it. Baugh, Candice, Elizabeth Roberts. School Inclusion for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Child Study Center. 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/school_inclusion_children_autism_sp ectrum_disorders This is an article that talks about how school inclusion, also known as mainstreaming, can work for children with autism. It talks about the process they go through so they can have an educational plan that fits that particular person. This article is useful for my research paper because it shows that mainstreaming is successful when gone about in the right way. The author is trying to tell teachers

Potts 3 and parents the benefits of mainstreaming so that they consider it for their own children with autism. Harchik, Alan. Inclusion, National Autism Center. Retrieved from: http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/learning/inclusion.php This article from the National Autism Center talks about the pros and cons of inclusion, or mainstreaming. The author wants to show us that there are benefits of mainstreaming, and there can be some disadvantages to it as well. It talks about how some schools are not able to provide the child with autism all of their specific needs and may not have the best program for them, which can be a downside to it. This article is helpful to me because it is good to see both sides of an argument and see what can be fixed to make my argument stronger for mainstreaming. The audience of this article is directed towards people who work in schools and parents of children with autism, so that they know the ups and downs of mainstreaming their child. Jordan, Rita, Glenys Jones. Meeting the Needs of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: David Fulton Publishers, 1999. Print. The book Meeting the Needs of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders is a great book to use for my research because it has everything from autisms definiton to how parents and teachers experience and understand it. The author is trying to give as much information to the reader about autism so they are more aware of it and know how to handle a child with autism if they are a parent, teacher, or anyone that works with or related to the child with autism. This book is helpful to my paper

Potts 4 because it is important to understand all aspects of autism before trying to convince people that mainstreaming is the right thing to do. Murray, Stuart. Autism. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print. The book Autism talks in depth about autism from the history of it to the science of it. It really helps one understand the condition deeper, because a lot of people do not know the history of it. It also talks about how autism can be misinterpreted and how it is interpreted by people today because they are not fully aware of it. The author is trying to get all people who come in contact with someone with autism to understand it so they are more accepting of it. This book is important for my research because it provides a good background of autism for me before I start talking about why they should be mainstreamed. Neuwirth, Sharyn. Autism: Decade of the Brain. NIH Publications, 1997. Print I found another book called Autism. This one answers many questions that people might have about autism such as medications for them, if they are able to live independent lives when they are older, and can autism be outgrown. I found all of these questions to be very interesting and some I have never thought of before. They also have a section about the educational needs of students with autism and I find this to be really helpful with my research along with all of the other questions and answers they had in the book. Robertson, Kristen, Brandt Chamberlain, Connie Kasari. General Education

Potts 5 Teachers Relationships with Included Students with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2003: 123-129. Proquest Research Library. This scholarly article discusses the relationships between students with autism and their general education teachers. Children with autism have a hard time interacting with other people in general so it is hard for the teacher to build a close bond with that student. This article is important because if the general education teacher is more aware of autism and knows the social and interacting aspect of it, they are more likely to put in more effort with the student with autism and build a better relationship with them. Mainstreaming children will help them build relationships. This is useful for my argument because teachers should be aware of this issue and become more informed to make the child feel more included. The audience is teachers in this article. Schremp, Valerie. Autism in the Classroom. Tribune Business News. 2009. Proquest Research Library. The article Autism in the Classroom talks about the rise of children with autism and how the number is going up fast. The author is trying to tell us that since the number of children with autism is going up, the need for teachers with a special education background is increasing. It expresses how many of the teachers are not fully aware of autism and that it is on the rise. All teachers need to have some sort of background in education. Especially if the child is being mainstreamed, the regular education classroom teachers need to be prepared for this. The audience for this article is teachers who work with students with autism. This is useful to my

Potts 6 research paper because it is important to have teachers who know more about autism when they are being mainstreamed in a regular education classroom. Williams, Robert J., Bob Algozzine. Teachers Attitudes toward Mainstreaming. The Elementary School Journal, 1979: 63-67. The University of Chicago Press. This article from the Chicago Journal shows teachers attitudes towards mainstreaming and how they feel about it. This was a study to show the teachers attitudes and reasons they have about having children with special needs in their regular classrooms. Teachers have their reasons for being opposed to mainstreaming. Some regular education classroom teachers may have a different attitude about having children with special needs in their classroom. This article was important because teachers should have a say in mainstreaming students or not. Zhang, Jiabei, Ann J. Griffin. Including Children with Autism in General Physical Education: Eight Possible Solutions. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 2007: 33-50. Proquest Research Library. This scholarly article talks about how children with autism should be included in general physical education. The author talks about how it is important for students with autism to do physical education because it helps them learn skills other than just math, science, reading, ect. It discusses how physical education should be modified to fit every single childs needs. Physical education is important for students with autism because they feel included, and it helps with their social skills.

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What I learned: After reading all of these articles and books I have learned a great deal more about autism, and how mainstreaming can be beneficial to children. I also learned about the way that some of the regular education teachers do not feel mainstreaming is effective. Some of their attitudes towards children with autism and other disabilities are different than their attitudes toward the other students. I was under the impression that all teachers want education to be equal and I learned that was not the case. I still firmly believe that students with autism should be mainstreamed and I found supporting evidence for this.

What I will do next: I want to learn more about the cons of mainstreaming because I was not able to find a large amount of information on that yet. I would like to interview the mom of the boy that I tutor for and get her perspective on mainstreaming and how she would feel putting her son in regular education classrooms. I have more research to do about everything and I look forward to finding out more and more information about my topic. I will find more research by using the UC libraries website, and going to the library to find more books about mainstreaming. I would also like to find more studies done on mainstreaming and the benefits of it.

Potts 8 Works Cited Barnard, Judith, Aidan Prior, David Potter. Inclusion and autism: is it working? The National Autistic Society, 2000. 1-28. Baugh, Candice, Elizabeth Roberts. School Inclusion for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Child Study Center. 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/school_inclusion_children_autism_sp ectrum_disorders Harchik, Alan. Inclusion, National Autism Center. Retrieved from: http://www.nationalautismcenter.org/learning/inclusion.php Jordan, Rita, Glenys Jones. Meeting the Needs of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York. David Fulton Publishers. 1999. Murray, Stuart. Autism. New York. Routledge. 2012 Neuwirth, Sharyn. Autism: Decade of the Brain, 1997. NIH Publications. Robertson, Kristen, Brandt Chamberlain, Connie Kasari. General Education Teachers Relationships with Included Students with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2003: 123-129. Proquest Research Library. Schremp, Valerie. Autism in the Classroom. Tribune Business News. 2009. Proquest Research Library. Williams, Robert J., Bob Algozzine. Teachers Attitudes toward Mainstreaming. The Elementary School Journal, 1979: 63-67. The University of Chicago Press. This article from the Chicago Journals the teachers attitudes towards

Potts 9 Zhang, Jiabei, Ann J. Griffin. Including Children with Autism in General Physical Education: Eight Possible Solutions. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 2007: 33-50. Proquest Research Library.