Inclusive practice for students with neurodevelopmental disorders in Sweden

‘Inclusion’ aims to achieve adaptation of the environment to the diverse prerequisites and needs of individuals, instead of demanding of individuals to cope with the challenges of a given context themselves exclusively. All Scandinavian countries have made formal decisions to enhance inclusive pract...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bölte Sven, Leifler Emma, Berggren Steve, Borg Anna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sciendo 2021-01-01
Series:Scandinavian Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.21307/sjcapp-2021-002
Description
Summary:‘Inclusion’ aims to achieve adaptation of the environment to the diverse prerequisites and needs of individuals, instead of demanding of individuals to cope with the challenges of a given context themselves exclusively. All Scandinavian countries have made formal decisions to enhance inclusive practice for children and adolescents with disabilities in educational settings, seeking to implement international conventions. We investigated current inclusive practice for students with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in Swedish primary, secondary and high-schools using the 61-item INCLUSIO scale among N=4778 school staff with educational responsibilities in 68 public and private schools across 11 municipalities. Overall, school staff reported not to be well prepared to teach students with NDDs and that their school’s implementation of concrete inclusive practice was limited. Findings indicate a gap between inclusive educational ambitions and current practice for students with NDDs. Enriched teacher education and supervision for NDDs, a shift in pedagogical views of NDDs and better collaboration between community services, as well as systematic evidence-based implementation plans driven by policy makers and educational authorities may help improve inclusive practice.
ISSN:2245-8875