Crafting, cooking and laughing together.
At Hometown Elementary, we provide an environment for students in special education an opportunity to participate in classes such as physical education, art, music and library alongside their non-disabled peers. Reverse inclusion is the opposite. It provides opportunities for general education students to spend time participating in activities within special education classrooms. Research shows that there are many benefits to reverse inclusion. Scheduled and structured contact between typically developing and special-education students fosters positive relationships in the classroom and on the playground. Reverse inclusion provides a positive environment for the modeling of age-appropriate behaviors and typically developing students gain empathy by interacting with students who have different abilities.
The month of April is national Autism Acceptance month. On April 26, we celebrated our special education students by doing a school wide bubble blowing bonanza! All students were encouraged to participate, giving general education students a chance to spend time with their special education peers in this fun event. Later in the day, students were selected to participate in our first Reverse Inclusion Day. Two students from each classroom were chosen to go spend some time in different CASE (Communication, Academic, and Social Education) classrooms with our special needs students. They played games together, made cookies, and created art projects. It was a special day for our CASE kiddos to be able to share with their general education friends what their rooms look like. Thank you to our CASE teachers and aides for making this day so special.