I want to share another highlight of the Training Institute on Autism at Florida State University sponsored by the FSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD).  For one full day Michael McSheehan, Clinical Assistant Professor of the University of New Hampshire spoke about Inclusive Education. His ideas and plans for executing them far exceeded the typical ’inclusion’ picture being played out in many schools across our country. So often inclusion is the opportunity for a child with special needs to coexist in the same classroom with typically developing peers while receiving different and one on one instruction from a paraprofessional in one corner of the room. As a professional we have all seen the classrooms where the presence of that child is completely ignored by his peers and everyone is careful to not look his or her way. 

From his research and his upcoming book, Michael McSheehan shared a completely different picture of inclusion for special needs children of all levels.  Mr. McSheehan’s starting point is the guiding principle of the “least dangerous assumption,” a concept introduced by Anne Donnellan in 1984 as it relates to individuals with disabilities.  She states ” in the absence of conclusive data, educational decisions ought to be based on assumptions, which, if incorrect, will have the least dangerous effect on the likelihood that students will be able to function independently as adults”. She adds “we should assume that poor performance is due to instructional inadequacy rather than to student deficits.”  From that cornerstone, Michael McSheehan provided tools to evaluate and implement routines that would help the student gain membership, participation and finally learning in a general education classroom. His case studies were fascinating and gripping.  I could go on and on. But I endeavored to provide this information so that you would be persuaded to read his book that will be coming out in the next few weeks. Let me assure you that I have not relationship to Mr. McSheehan or any of the authors and I have no financial benefit in sharing this book release. Nor have I read the book since it has not been made available yet. But if his book is true to the teaching I observed at conference  it will be well worth the read.  I so hope that as a community of people who care deeply about individuals with disabilities we can begin to write a new chapter in inclusive education.  Better yet that we can arrive at a place where no chapter on the subject is needed because every classroom is truly inclusive, regardless of the differences.

 http://www.brookespublishing.com/store/books/jorgensen-67175/index.htm. 

Enjoy the read!

Janice