Context

Riverview School is a Junior Kindergarten to Grade five school with a student population of 270. It exists in a mixed residential area in Brantford where the population is increasing monthly with continued housing developments being built.

The Grade two class has been very transitional this year with an average of 28-31 students. Within this class not only do I have Matt, who is autistic and the main focus of my paper, I also have students with hearing and sight difficulties, seizures, allergies, and students medicated for behaviour difficulties. I have a few parents that assist in the class on a regular basis and an educational assistant for three quarters of the day.

Abstract

I have always felt comfortable, as a teacher, with students with special needs in my classroom. Perhaps, this is partially because of my background in special education or my increasing interest in this area. However, I know that there can be an added stress to a teacher of 30 students.

Hopefully, other teachers will read this paper and understand that students with special needs do not have to be a hindrance to their class. They can actually be helpful, which happened in my case. My classroom became a welcoming inclusive atmosphere not only to Matt but to every student in my class.

Why was I concerned?

When I taught the Developmentally Delayed class three years ago the autistic students were not truly included in the school. We set up several situations where my class would be included in an event in the school. However, there was no true inclusion. Students in the school would not initiate communication or socialize with others.

When observing Matt last year in Grade one I always saw him with the educational assistant or the teacher in school and on the playground. Never did I see Matt socially interacting with other students.

Did Matt actually know how to socialize with others or was he even given a chance to use friendship skills that he had learned? At the Autism Symposium 2002 Tony Attwood and Carol Gray write:

Normal childrens' conception of friendship changes over time and it is notable that children with autism and Asperger's Syndrome often have an immature and unusual definition of friendship. The social play of children with an ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) is often more immature than their peers and includes unusual characteristics such as having less motivation to seek friends, autocratic qualities and being less able to demonstrate the wide range of behaviours that we use as an index of friendship skills (Attwood & Gray, 2002).

What was my concern?

In June of last year (2001-2002), I was handed my class list for the following year and noticed that Matt was included in this list. Matt is a 7 year old autistic boy that started at Riverview in Grade one. Over the summer months I thought a lot about how Matt would cope in my Grade two class. My concern was that Matt would be segregated from his fellow classmates and his only sort of socialization would be with the educational assistant, myself or set up situations in the group.

This is what I did

My action research started off ironically with a mother of one of my students bringing a book and a CD in about inclusion. The title of the book is Don't Laugh At Me, and the CD that comes with the book is a recording of the song. The book and song is about how different we are but at the same time we are all the same in God's eyes. In God's eyes we're all the same, someday we'll grow wings and fly (Seskin, Shamblin, 2002).

The first thought in my head was WOW! What a great way to start introducing inclusion to my students. My students loved the book and song and wanted to sing it at assembly. We practised and practised and on the following Friday parents came to watch. Matt learned the song and during the week sang bits and pieces of it. During the last chorus of the song students put down their papers, put their arms around each other and swayed. A student beside Matt put her arm around him and they swayed. Tears rolled down my face, parents, teachers and students. Inclusion had started at that moment in my classroom.

To extend my student's knowledge of inclusion I used a great resource called Lessons in Inclusion. I used a lesson out of it on including and excluding. I read scenarios and my students would give thumbs up if it was inclusion and thumbs down if it was exclusion. They loved this so much they formed groups, including everyone, and acted out a inclusion or exclusion scenario.

To teach my students about autism I read a book called Ian's Walk: A Story about Autism. My students listened very well and started understanding why Matt does certain things. Why he lines his crayons up a certain way, clears them and starts again. Why he hides under his desk when the class gets noisy and why he plugs his ears at certain sounds.

This seemed to be a good thing but what next, what was I going to do. I started to consider trying this next year instead because of the uncertainty of what I wanted to pursue. At the Brantford Action Research Network meeting on November 20th, 2002 I shared my concerns with the group. Chris Ryder convinced me that I have a great opportunity. She told me to start taking pictures of students working with Matt, post them in the class and start journals with the students on how they feel when they include Matt (Reflective Journal, Nov. 20, 02).

After my conversation with Chris I believed my focus question in my classroom was: How can I use photography to promote inclusion of an autistic student in my classroom?

What were my next steps?

The digital camera became my best friend. I started taking pictures of students including others. I introduced the Special Kids, Special Friends bulletin board and journal. Each student received a book with a picture of themselves including another student and a copy of each picture went on the bulletin board.

Most of the pictures were of students working with Matt. In their journals they wrote what they were doing and how it felt. Matt was so interested in seeing himself in the pictures. Matt orally told Bev Riley word for word what he was doing with Caleb, while Caleb wrote what he was doing with Matt.

At Friday assemblies I started handing out Special Kids, Special Friends awards to students I noticed including others, especially Matt.

In the next month I saw students socially interacting and including Matt a great deal. Lara, Rebecka, Presley, Caleb and Michael all helped Matt with individual work. If Matt was picked on outside I would have half my class sticking up for him and reporting to me. Others would try to encourage Matt to come to circle when he didn't want to join.

Indicators of Success

Colleagues

Bev Riley, Matt's educational assistant noticed that members of his group were including Matt in conversations about what they were doing tonight or plans for the weekend. Also, Matt was telling Bev when he played with a friend or saw a classmate at the mall (Reflective Journal, Feb. 18).

On February 28th I had a seating plan change and moved Matt away from Caleb. Matt was upset at first but then I noticed that Matt and Caleb still socialized throughout the day. Bev Riley told me she was happy to spot Caleb with his arm around Alex, who was going to stay sitting with Matt, having a chat about what to do if Matt gets upset. Bev heard Caleb say, "if Matt gets too upset about this seating plan change I will move right back" (Reflective Journal, Feb. 28, 03).

Parents

Matt's mother comments on how pleased she was with other students playing with Matt outside of school. Matt's mother expressed her happiness on November 22 saying "I'm really happy that Rebecka is calling on Matt to come out and play" (Reflective Journal, Nov. 22, 02).

Students

Students provided me with a lot of evidence that inclusion was happening. Presley had a great deal of understanding of autism just by spending some time with Matt reading.

Following this Presley wrote in her journal about how she felt about including Matt. She read this to the class and as I listened tears formed in my eyes. Here is a student new to the class, not here when we sang the song or read the book, understanding autism.

At the first of January, two new students joined my class. I needed to introduce them to Special Kids, Special Friends. I asked the class to tell the new students what this was all about. Lots of answers included to help each other and to be nice to each other. Presley put up her hand and said "it means to work with Matt because he has autism and he sometimes needs some help" (Reflective Journal, Jan. 15, 02)

Caleb became Matt's security blanket. Matt would now self-initiate social interaction between himself and Caleb, which is very different for autistic individuals to understand this concept. Matt would ask for Caleb to help him get ready for early bus. On February 7th Caleb was helping Matt as usual and I tried to get Matt to say "thank you Caleb." Caleb turned to me and said "it's okay Mrs. Rivers, he doesn't need to say thank you." Caleb was including Matt not because he was asked but because he actually cared for him as a friend (Reflective Journal, Feb.7, 03).

Caleb extended his friendship with Matt very early outside the classroom. Caleb invited Matt to his birthday party. This was a big step for Matt because he had never been to a party by himself without his brothers or his parents. When talking to Caleb's Dad he told him me that Caleb told him about Matt having autism and said "it will be okay Dad" (Reflective Journal, Nov. 28, 02). Matt went to the party and on the first day back from the weekend Matt was very excited to tell Bev and myself about it. Caleb brought pictures for Matt to keep. I talked to Caleb's mother and she told me Matt was right in there with the rest of the kids. The only time was during gift opening, he didn't want much to do with that so he played with toys by himself. She talked to Matt's mother and told her that she would love to have him again (Reflective Journal, Dec 3, 02).

After acknowledging all the indicators of success I came to the realization that my question had evolved from something quite narrow and small. The photography was just a small part of creating inclusion. It had been a motivator for students in my class to start to create an inclusive atmosphere. But, at the same time equally important as the books I read and the song we sang. Therefore, my question changed to;

How can I create an inclusive atmosphere to support an autistic student in my classroom?

What conclusions did I draw from my evidence?

Much of my evidence that inclusion has happened in my classroom, as a result of using photography to capture moments, has come from my students. However, I believe I have created an inclusive atmosphere by creating a community of learners and promoting healthy relationships that ended up extending outside of school.

Caleb has become my greatest success and because he is quite a popular student in the class, other students help Caleb assist Matt. Carol Gray writes that it is critically important to have a best friend and that social interaction is a highly personal event (Autistic Symposium, 2002).

On Feb. 19th Lara was stamping agendas with Presley and when she came to Caleb's agenda she put two stamps in his agenda. Presley asked why she had put two stamps in Caleb's agenda and Lara replied by saying "because he is good, he helps Matt."

Inclusion was put to the test when I decided to move Caleb away from the group Matt was in and see how this effected Matt. I had discussed this with Caleb before the move was made and it was agreed that if Matt got too upset Caleb would move back. The afternoon that the seating plan was changed Matt was upset and kept pointing to Caleb and hiding under his desk. However, the next day Matt did not show any signs of being upset. I believe it's because Caleb still kept in contact with Matt by talking to him quite often and helping him in different ways during the day (Reflective Journal, Mar. 3, 03).

To this day if Matt needs help Caleb is the first to help and when Matt needs help he will seek it from Caleb.

When I first introduced the camera and the idea of taking pictures I wasn't sure whether they were including Matt to just get their picture taken or if they really wanted to help. At first I took pictures every time I saw a student including or helping Matt and then after a few months I took pictures on a more sporadic basis. Therefore, students did not know when they would get their pictures taken and when they wouldn't. This weeded out the class clowns that just wanted to get their picture on the bulletin board and brought out the students that wanted to help. Photography was the catalyst for initiating an atmosphere however, helping Matt became intrinsic to the students.

The evidence from these key teaching and learning strategies validated my claim to knowledge and made me proud of my accomplishments. My concern that started over the summer was no longer a concern and I was now able to take a step back and look at the inclusive environment in the classroom that my students and myself have created.

References

Attwood, Tony and Gray, Carol (2002) Understanding and Teaching Friendship Skills.

Geneva Centre International Symposium 2002.

Gray, Carol (2002) Improving Friendship Skills and Social Reasoning. Geneva Centre

International Symposium 2002.

Lears, Laurie. (1998) Ian's Walk: A Story about Autism. Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company.

Seskin, Steven and Shamblin, Allen (2002) Don't Laugh At Me. Toronto: Tricycle Press.

Vandercook, Terri. (1993) Lessons on Inclusion. Toronto: Inclusion Press.