Dissertation

Mainstreaming on a two-way street: A guidebook to getting there

Levy, June R

1979

Overview

“side by side”, a mainstreaming program developed and implemented by the Children's Museum of New Haven, Inc., demonstrated the feasibility of integrating handicapped and nonhandicapped children in two educational settings. Mainstreaming on a two way street: a guidebook for getting there, an outgrowth of the program, can be adapted for replication by (1) teachers and administrators in public schools, (2) curators and artists in museums and arts organizations, and (3) personnel in social service agencies, i.e., Girl/Boy Scouts, Big Brother /Big Sister, YW/YMCA, and community centers, that may be committed to integrated programs for the handicapped but may not have the requisite skills, methodological or curricular, to implement such a program. The project had four major objectives: (1) to sensitize normal children to handicapping conditions, (2) to disseminate a methodology which was multisensory in nature and encouraged diversity in problem-solving strategies and decision-making skills, (3) to teach teachers how to use the Museum's multisensory approach in their own classrooms and how to infuse the arts into the curriculum, and (4) to help parents discover their own creative potential so that they could become more effective facilitators in their children's education. The project utilized two settings: that of the Children's Museum, a unique participatory place for learning and growing, and a public school in a multiethnic, multiracial community adjacent to New Haven, Ct. Each setting had a different focus. The Museum setting served as a site where visually impaired, hearing impaired, physically handicapped, developmentally retarded, and socially or emotionally maladjusted children could be mainstreamed into ongoing programs, while the school setting served as a site to see if there would or could be any carry-over into a public school using the Museum's approach to mainstreaming. The target population of the school component was a diagnostic developmental kindergarten class and their nonhandicapped peers in an open space first grade class. Essentially, both groups participated in outreach programs in the school which focused on developing cognitive and social skills through the arts as a prerequisite to integration, as well as activities which brought the children together for participatory programs. Both groups visited the Museum and participated in integrated experiences there. It was concluded that (1) if children in the regular class were involved in simulation activities (exposure to aids, movies, and classroom discussion), they might show more positive attitudes toward their handicapped peers than children who were not sensitized; (2) if regular classroom teachers could acquire skills in both individualizing the curriculum and using the arts to teach basic-skills, they would increase their abilities to facilitate mainstreaming and thus improve their attitudes toward the process (which tend to relate to this lack of knowledge); and (3) if parental attitudes could be changed toward handicapping condition and if parents were better able to communicate with their children regarding this new awareness, the amount of integration both in the schools and in the community in general would increase.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Special education
• ISBN: 0496007408, 9780496007400