Before insisting on teaching on a general basis, critically assess the condition of the child, otherwise the child will receive harm from school or kindergarten, and his autistic state will worsen.Many teachers and parents perceive the inclusion of a child with autism in mainstream school as a kind of attempt to try and see what happens. This initially reduces the value of the learning process and provokes a frivolous attitude towards it from teachers. If you are not sure that the child will have a level like everyone else in his class, it is better to refuse such experiments. You have other options. For example, apply to the PMPC and ask for a one year deferral from entering school. Then you need to qualitatively support your request with documents: certificates from a psychiatrist, neurologist, documents of a speech therapist and defectologist, an ABA therapist or other specialists who deal with the child. Opportunity number 2 – is to carefully study how specifically teaching according to adapted programs is organized within the framework of regular schools. The child will not be excluded from the team, but special conditions to be created for him.
At this stage, there are no significant differences in inclusive education in a private or general education school (we do not take into account fees). The availability of the necessary material and technical base and infrastructure in an educational institution varies depending on the desire of the school leadership to participate in the development of inclusive education. It can even be said that nowadays there is much in common in the adaptation of children with special needs in educational institutions of different forms of ownership, in society as a whole. Only through the joint efforts of various specialists, such as doctors, school teachers and kindergarten teachers, social workers and local government officials, a tolerant attitude of society towards special children can be formed so that their socialization takes place.
In Ukraine, there are certain requirements and rules for all educational institutions regarding the organization and conduct of inclusive education, specified in the law No. 2541-VIII on the access of persons with special educational needs to educational services. This law is the basis for the development of inclusive education in the country. The number of inclusive resource centers is growing, in 2020 there are already more than 600 throughout Ukraine. Interactive online maps have appeared in the country, on which parents can easily find a kindergarten or school with an inclusive approach. The process is underway, inclusive learning is gradually taking its place in the education system. The choice of the form and place of education belongs to the parents. But so far not all Ukrainian schools (both private and general education) are ready to accept such children. In addition, it is necessary to give the management time to technically prepare the possibility of staying in it for a special child, prepare a teacher, if necessary, an assistant, and it is advisable to introduce such a child to the students in advance. This is especially important for autistic people. Regardless of where your special child is studying – in a private school or in a general education – there is always a risk that he may not be accepted by peers or he may become an “unwanted student” for the parents of other children and even teachers. To minimize this risk, it is imperative to prepare the team of teachers and children for the arrival of such a child in advance, and this is the function of the parents.
At the moment, many difficulties are due to the fact that children need a long period of adaptation to various learning conditions in a general educational environment, and even during this period of adaptation, children with autism spectrum disorders may experience inappropriate behavior, affective outbursts, up to verbal and non-verbal aggression towards others. In this regard, it becomes necessary to work out the conditions and forms of inclusion or integration of such a child into the educational environment, well-thought-out and well-organized methodological work with teachers. This requires separate classes with specialists, or, even better, take care of these problems while your child is still a preschooler, place him in a correctional kindergarten. This is a kind of intermediate link in preparing for an inclusive or regular educational institution, for example, like our kindergarten «Child with future» https://childfuture.kiev.ua is a well-thought-out system of training and education, taking into account the individual characteristics and level of development of each child.
Today, no one knows for sure how many children with special educational needs are in Ukraine. We have the following figures: about 165,000 children and the lowest rate of inclusion in Europe – about 6% of schools with inclusion, where there are on average one or two classes with one or two children with special educational needs. In Ukraine, the total number of private schools in the 2018/2019 academic year was 228, and their number has been growing annually since 2014. Kiev is a leader in the market for private and correctional schools: about 30% of all private schools in the country.