WILL YOUR CHILD BENEFIT FROM AN INCLUSION PLACEMENT?

As your child develops certain skills through one-to one teaching in highlystructured sessions. these skills
should be practiced and reinforced in novel situations throughout the day, including various people and settings.
As your chiid begins to generalize skills, you may want to consider lf placement for some length of time in a
setting with typically developing peers would be helpful. We have developed a list of prerequisite skills tor
determining a student’s readiness lor supported inclusion.

The child should demonstrate the prerequisite skills with proficiency not only in the specialized educational
setting, but in various other situations with other people before inclusion placement begins. Standards (or
criteria) lor deciding if a skill has been mastered and generalized should be established well in advance. They
may be somewhat diilerent lor each type of skill. Some questions to ask in establishing specific and appropriate
criteria against which to evaluate your chiid's performance are: What is a lunctional level of pertormance; that
is, how accurate and consisten does the perlormance have to be to produce positive outcomes (or the child In
various “natural“ situations? in general, what level at perlormance is expected at typical children of the same
age? What, in particular, is expected at most children in the inclusion setting you are considering? For example,
typical 5-year-olds are probably not expected to follow all verbal instructions from adults or recall their
experiences with 100% accuracy all the time, but they may be expected to do so on at least 90% of all
Opportunities across a range at situations. Certainly a range of periormance on academic tasks is considered
acceptable for any group of first graders; perfect scores on every classroom test is not a realistic criterion for
most typical children. nor would it be for a child with autism.

On the other hand most teachers in typical class rooms have high standards for all children in can areas, such as
independent toileting, remaining quie while the teacher is talking, and retraining from dis ruptive behavior such
as tantrums and aggression anoccasional error might be tolerated, but frequent rors would likely garner negative
consequences ....the child. ln short, Criteria should be strlngent enogh that you can be sure the skill is well-
established ln th child's repertoire before she begins inclusion placement , but not so stringent as to be
unreasonable o unattainable. Generally, high accuracy and cons tency criteria should be set for the acquisition
and generalization of high-priority skills (e.g.. 90% accuracy for three consecutive sessions, with three diferent
adults or children, in three different settings).

The prerequisite skills follow:

1. Language skills

a. Follows two-step directions when prcs'entedt a group

b. Communicates needs and desires

c. Answers simple questions

d. Asks simple questions

e. Engages in simple exchanges of conversation

f. Recalls experiences

2. Social skills

a. Takes turns during activities

b. Waits quietly

C. Reciprocates greetings from peers and adults

d. Participates in circle activities

 e. Initiates play activities with peers with or without adult prompts

f. lmitates peer play

3. Academic skills

a. Learns through observation of others

b. Completes seat work independently

c. Raises hand to seek adult assistance

d. Learns targeted objectives during group instruction

e. Completes grade level academic curricula

4. Behavior skills

a. Responds to delayed contingencies (reinforcement is delivered to child following a period ' time rather than
immediately after the targeted behavior; e.g., the mother contracts with her child for ice cream alter preschool
if the child follows directions. The reinforcerls provided after school so as not to draw extra attention to the
child during school).

b. Exhibits disruptive behaviors at near-zero levels in all environments

c. Stereotypic behaviors under stimulus control; that is. the child engages in stereotypic behavior. if at all, only
under certain stimulus conditions (eg. alone; during play time at home) and not under other conditions (eg.. in
public to places like the classroom).

To illustrate how these criteria are used, let's look a example, a child whom we will call John.

...4 years old and has participated in discrete- al teaching both at home and in a specialized heel for 14 months.
The data show that he akes eye contact spontaneously and on demand. has developed spoken language to the
extent at he can make requests, answer social questions, and reciprocate social information. He folws one-step
directions, takes turns in games, and alts quietly during circle activities or in line. John itates other peers playing
with toys such as ocks, cars, or building materials. Although he exbited stereotypic behavior and noncompliance
at e time of entry into the specialized school program, he now follows directions and exhibits stereotypic
behaviors at minimal rates. The topogphy of the stereotypic behavior has changed -m flicking of fingers in front
of his eyes to infreent tracking of objects in his environment. ln rem to pre-academic skills, he can complete
simple -rl<sheets such as mazes, dot-to-dot puzzles, and ,loring within a boundary. He has mastered the skills
of observational learning and will raise his , nd when he needs assistance. John is currently working on
matching and expressively labeling all tters and numerals up to 10. He is learning to write his first name.
Although immediate, continus reinforcement was used for teaching these skills, they are currently maintained
by delayed re.lorcement. For example, using continuous reinvrcernent, John earned a candy for each correct
sponse when learning to raise his hand when he eded assistance. Currently when John demontrates this skill, the
instructor provides direct verl praise at the end of the entire lessons.

; John‘s parents. Mr. and Mrs. A... reviewed his me data and reports from their son's school acement and felt
that he would beneht from inusion with Support in a preschool program for tipically developing children. Mr.
and Mrs. A. reqested a meeting with the teacher and administrators of the specialized school program to discuss
john's progress. At this meeting. they reviewed the itena described above and discussed progress on his targeted,
individualized objectives. As noted ........................

previously, John has learned much expressive and receptive language and many social skills. He is mastering
some early academic skills and has-made significant progress on the reduction of inappropriate, interfering
behaviors. With respect to the criteria enumerated above, the review revealed that John had mastered the skills
(met the criteria) signified by bold print:

1. Language skills

a. Follows two-step, complex directions

b. Communicates needs and desires

C. Answers simple questidns

d. Asks simple questions

e. Engages in simple exchanges of conversation

f. Recalls experiences

2. Social skills

a. Takes turns during activities

b.Waits quietly

c.Reciprocates greetings ._

d.Participates in circle games

e.initiates play activities with peers with or without adult prompts

f. imitates peer play nip-osm

3. Academic skills

a. Learns through observation of others

b. Completes seat work independently

c. Raises hand to seek adult assistance

d. Learns targeted objectives in group instruction

e. Completes grade level academic curricula

4. Behavior skills

a Responds to delayed contingencies

b. Exhibits disruptive behaviors at near-zero levels in all environments

c. Stereotypic behaviors under stimulus control

John's parents and specialized school administrators determined that he had gained a sufficient number of
important prerequisite skills to begin supported inclusion. Given his age, it wasdecided that the primary purpose
for inclusion Was for socialization, specifically, to provide John with opportunities to generalize social skills
learned in individualized teaching sessions to the novel, group situation. At this point, a meeting was scheduled
with the special education personnel from the local school district to dischuss the recommendations tor
supported inclusion and decided to begin supported inclusion in a preschool classroom for typically developing
4 years old students.