Educating and Including Classmates in a Mainstream Classroom Setting

Last year my son started all-day Kindergarten  in a public mainstream classroom. I was (and still am) a huge advocate for inclusion for my son Liam who is deafblind.   One of my biggest hopes and goals for inclusion was all about the "social".  I wanted Liam to feel like he belonged and for him to make friends, for him to be a "kindergartner" and to be included. Of course I wanted this to be done in a way that makes sense for him and is appropriate, while supporting his unique educational and communication needs.  Last year went very well for our first year and this year is even more amazing.

I wanted Liam to have friends. I realized that, even though kids may want to play with Liam, they wouldn't necessarily know how. I knew his classmates would have questions; I wanted to encourage them to ask those questions.  I created a book called the "Meet Liam Book".  It is a book that includes real-life pictures of Liam.  It answered "real-life" questions kids had asked me about him before.  Prior to the school year starting, I talked with Liam's teacher to see if I could come in to read the "Liam Book" sometime during the first week of school.  She was very accommodating and invited me to come read the book with to the class.  (I also read to other classrooms in the school that requested it).  It was great!  I was able to read the book, answer any further questions, talk about ways the students can approach Liam, talk to Liam, be his friend, support him, etc.  The students were so excited and sweet.  Liam is a well-loved little boy. He has many friends at school that he loves to be with.  Liam is learning to be a friend right along with them.  

I feel that it is important to educate children and allow them to ask questions about students who may be different than what they are used to.  The whole theme of the Liam Book is "using questions to help us be a friend". I discovered that once his peers learned why he uses a cane, or why he makes those noises, or how he talks with his hands they accepted those things and most importantly accepted my Liam for who he is.  

First, you need to come up with your own questions you feel kids may have about your child.  It is also important to mention things that are important to and for your child, things that would help support your child, and ways to communicate with your child.  I originally got the idea for this book from Person Centered Thinking-The ONE PAGE.  I wanted to create a ONE PAGE that Liam's peers would understand and enjoy.  That inspired the idea of  a children's book.  

I created my book using Shutterfly.  Most photo places online have options to make books fairly inexpensively (if you watch for coupons:).  My state's Family Support program helped fund my books.  I made a large one to keep at home; I used that one for when I read to classrooms. I made a couple of smaller versions for the classroom teacher to keep in the class so students could read it and I also made one for church.