Listening to parents of children with developmental disabilities : Reviewing educational experiences for children and young people with developmental disabilities

ISBN-13: 9783639115598 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 60 str.

Michael Shevlin

Opis

Within Ireland the inclusion of children withdevelopmental disabilities is of recent origin.Parents of these children were asked to review theireducational experiences. For many parents access wasfraught with difficulties as schools demonstrated alack of knowledge about the educational adaptationsrequired to include these children. However, manyteachers were willing to learn and the best listenedto parents and appreciated their unique knowledge oftheir children. Parents generally believed that theparticipation of their children in mainstream schoolswas not guaranteed as a right and their inclusion wasconditional. As a result, parents actively campaignedat local and national level to assert the rights oftheir children to a mainstream education. Whilegovernment policy has changed to facilitate theinclusion process parents can still encounterdifficulties in accessing inclusive learningenvironments for their children.

O autorze

Michael Shevlin is Head of the School of Education Trinity
College Dublin.Máirín Kenny is an independent research consultant
with Trinity College. Patricia Noonan Walsh is NDA Professor of
Disability Studies inthe School of Psychology, College of Human
Sciences at UCD.