An MR/DD School

Visit an alternative learning setting for children or adolescents (other than a general education class in a preschool, elementary, junior high, or senior high school setting). Appropriate settings would include one of the following: segregated special education classroom, segregated special education school, alternative school for students with disciplinary or behavioral problems, jail, hospital, psychiatric facility or other similar setting. If possible, interview a staff person in the facility.
Report to the class regarding (1) general observations regarding the facility; (2) information regarding the types of students that attend the facility; (3) observations regarding the academic component in the setting; (4) information regarding special education services; (5) information regarding the communication between the observed setting and the student's home school and (6) your impressions. Be sure not to specifically identify the name of the setting.

For this assignment I visited a county board of MR/DD school for disabled children. I had at one time worked for a county board of MR/DD, but I had never really checked out the school portion as I worked in homes with adults, so I thought this would be of interest. This was a rather large school and had several rooms. However, the rooms weren’t separated by grade, as usually seen in public schools, but rather, the rooms seemed to be separated by activities and abilities. Also, in a regular Jr. High or High School, there are home economics rooms where various life skills are taught, but at this school, there were several rooms which had a focus on life skills, as well as more traditional rooms devoted to academics.

The life skills rooms were what you would typically expect. There were rooms with kitchens and there were rooms with laundry facilities. Though these were not in use at the time I was there, I was told that these rooms are for the older students whom the school hopes will be able to live on their own someday. In these cases, living on their own may be through one of the many facilities the board runs – semi-independent facilities where the client has regular visits by a worker. Cooking is taught to the students in a very methodological fashion, using recipes approved by the school. All of the basics are taught and constantly reinforced. Always use hot pads. Always wash your hands. Always make sure that everything is turned off, etc. Admittedly, few of the students will ever progress to the point where they can cook unsupervised, but from my experience in the homes, I can say that the training they receive is extremely helpful. We did cook with clients, and though none of our clients could cook alone, it was our goal to have them be able to do everything on their own with us present. Also, information on serving is taught. The students are taught to measure out the correct serving and they are taught that that is what you get to eat. Anything more would be bad, they are taught. To me, this seems unfair, as I am used to eating whatever I want, but I do understand the need for this for these clients. Hygiene and the correct way to safely wash dishes is taught. It was interesting to see a school where every little aspect that we take for granted is laid out in an orderly fashion. Similar instruction goes on for laundry and bathroom cleaning in a home – all set up in the school.

The academics were much more what I expected. Here (and here, class was going on when I visited), students of many ages were grouped together in the rooms, but the subject matter was the same. The students’ abilities, not age, determined what class they attended. I never did see anything more than basic reading (third grade levels, maybe? I haven’t really taught these grades) being taught or basic math (addition and subtraction, and a lot of work with money with most of the math being devoted to developing money skills). The lower functioning students were all in what seemed like a pre-school or kindergarten environment. There were a lot of toys and activity centers to enjoy. There were some crafts on the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Here, though, all the students were given some individual instruction. I was amazed at the amount of workers – sometimes three or four to a classroom, with only a handful of students. Apparently, many of these were volunteers – often family members of those where were attending the school. From what I gathered, the good the school did and the community it fostered encouraged the families to be involved. Sadly, we don’t see this in public school setting enough, and the students in public schools are “dumped” there by the parents and the parents think it is someone else’s job to do the work.

I enjoyed visiting the school. It was good to see the students enjoying their school day and receiving the attention they need. It may have just been that this was a good day, or that this school excelled above others in its work (this county has an excellent reputation in Ohio for its MR/DD facilities), but this visit made me think that for some, maybe inclusion in a general classroom isn’t best, as it would be nearly impossible to devote the time needed. Here, the student’s get that time.

Filed under: EDC 541 Curriculum and Instruction for Diverse Learners
Copyright: July, 2003 - David Profitt