Inclusive classrooms can benefit from intervention programmes

There has been a recent interest in the inclusion of children with special needs in schools, which is encouraging, as inclusiveness is starting to become a global trend (“S’poreans support inclusive education but do not walk the talk: Study”; May 31).

The benefits of an inclusive classroom, even for children in general, have been shown by research such as the literature review “Effects of inclusion on students with and without special educational needs reviewed” (from the Educational Research Review journal).

The researchers observed that, across the studies, the academic achievements of children with or without special needs in these classrooms were comparable to, or better than, those in non-inclusive classrooms.

Children without special needs in inclusive classrooms seem more willing to play with and have more positive attitudes towards children with special needs.

However, this attitude may be specific to their classroom peers with special needs, and not people with special needs in general. And the children with special needs were not as well accepted as their peers without special needs.

It seems the inclusive classroom is academically beneficial for all students but has mixed social effects. This is where intervention programmes are implemented (“Interaction with special needs children beneficial to pre-schoolers”; June 3).

I believe it is feasible to implement these, since there were positive attitude changes even when a child with special needs was not present in the classroom.

I am aware that my conclusion is based on non-significant results that could be owing to a real effect masked by a small sample size, or a null effect.

At any rate, the results show that having a child with special needs in the classroom is able to amplify the programme’s benefits — more evidence of an inclusive classroom’s benefits.

This gives inclusion a strong case, especially when it is coupled with intervention programmes. There are two inconsistencies, however, regarding inclusion in Singapore.

First, the general attitude towards children with special needs is not positive. But it should be. Given that children with and without special needs both seem to benefit inherently from inclusive classrooms, I see no cause for anyone to be concerned.

Second, there are schools dedicated to special education, probably owing to the lack of these education specialists. This means that consolidating expertise in a central location is more practical.

Such establishments may cater for children with different types and severities of special needs. Those that cater for children with milder special needs should consider gradual integration of these students into mainstream schools, and instead cater for children with more severe special needs.