Maintaining the mainstream: Part 2
Lovitt's Lines: What did Professor Lovitt present in his column for SET for July 1984?
Editor’s note: We published a regular column by the late Tom Lovitt in the original print version of Special Education Today. We called it “Lovitt’s Lines,” and this is the content published on page 11 of the July 1984 issue of Special Education Today, 1(4)—JohnL
In the last issue I noted that, like it or not, mainstreaming is here. And accompanying that noble idea of integration are dozens of educational and social problems. But I added that help is available, and I identified books and programs that could aid teachers, both regular and special. In this column, I'll note some ideas that should help youngsters pull off this lofty concept, mainstreaming.
Nonhandicapped Youngsters
One way to bring regular pupils into the act is to alter some of their attitudes and conceptions about handicapping conditions. Freddie Litton, Mary Banbury, and Karen Harris provided a valuable list of references for educating nonhandicapped students about their handicapped peers in the Fall, 1980 issue of Teaching Exceptional Children. Some marvelous materials, written by handicapped children, are available from the Racine, Wisconsin School District. One of their booklets, about youngsters in wheelchairs, is entitled "The Wheelers and the Pushers."
A second important area in which nonhandicapped children can aid mainstreaming is to serve as tutors for their handicapped mates. Two excellent monographs are available that provide how-to's on tutoring, not to mention the series on tutoring running in these pages. The booklets are Cross Age and Peer Tutoring by Joseph and Linda Jenkins and Peer Tutoring, Implementing Classwide Programs by Nancy Cooke, Timothy Heron, and William Heward.
Handicapped Youngsters
Three important areas of training should be considered when assisting handicapped children to blend with the mainstream. One is self-management, a topic of the University of Virginia LD Institute. When youngsters are taught to self-manage (become independent), the likelihood of their being successful in classrooms is greatly increased. Two excellent reviews on self-management were published in the Fall, 1979 issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
A second area of training for handicapped children pertains to social skills. Three researchers who have developed training ideas and approaches on that theme are Tanis Bryan, University of Illinois (Chicago), Hill Walker, University of Oregon, and Steve Asher, University of Illinois.
The third important way to help handicapped youngsters blend with the mainstream is to teach study skills. The group that immediately comes to mind is Don Deshler and coworkers at the University of Kansas. The work of Ann Brown at the University of Illinois and that of the LD Institute at Virginia on metacognition should also be considered.
Many other clever investigators are supplying us with help not only for the children but for teachers, regular and special, as well. This might be considered the golden age of practical research in special education, particularly for those being mainstreamed. So take heart, and by all means keep up with the new ideas.
Tom Lovitt was a Professor at the University of Washington.