Inclusive education for children with specific learning difficulties. Analysis of opportunities and barriers in inclusive education in Slovenia

• Published in: CEPS journal 2015, Vol.5 (1), p.31-52
• Main Authors: Kavkler, Marija, Kosak Babuder, Milena, Magajna, Lidija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Access to Education; Assistenz; Barriers; Behinderter; Bildungspolitik; Children with disabilities; Context Effect; Educational Environment; Educational Needs; Educational Policy; Educational Quality; Einflussfaktor; Finanzierung; Foreign Countries; Gesetz; Inclusion; Inklusion; Learning Disabilities; Lernschwierigkeit; Mainstreaming; Partizipation; Policy Formation; Rechtsgrundlage; Schüler; Slowenien; Sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarf; Special education; Students with disabilities; Teaching Methods; Unterstützung
• ISSN: 2232-2647; 1855-9719; 2232-2647
• DOI: 10.26529/cepsj.152

Inclusive education allows for universal inclusion, participation and achievement of all children, including children with specific learning difficulties (SpLD). Children with SpLD form a heterogeneous group with diverse cognitive deficits, special educational needs (SEN) and strengths, and have a legislated right to the continuum of both assistance and support programmes. Although their intellectual capacity is average or above average, their learning achievements in some learning domains are modest, and they are poorly integrated into their social environment, which often results in their discrimination. Barriers and opportunities in the area of SpLD were analysed with the aid of Ball's model (1994), with factors and conditions being analysed within the contexts of policy influence, text production and practice. The contexts of policy influence and text production provide the basic conditions for the inclusive education of children with SpLD. The context of influence on inclusive policy for children with SpLD represents a systematic approach to policy initiation and to the prerequisites for its implementation in practice. The context of policy text production focuses on professionals and their impact on the enactment of the rights of children with severe SpLD. The context of practice concerns barriers and opportunities for implementing inclusion in practice. Early identification and diagnosis of pupils' strengths, deficits and SEN, together with intensified treatment corresponding to the SEN of children with SpLD, could significantly influence the efficiency of the educational process. Barriers, primarily of an immaterial nature, are mainly encountered in those schools that do not implement the five-tier Response to Intervention (RTI) approach. This approach enables children with SpLD a continuum of team-based diagnostic evaluation, effective adaptations and assistance. The main reasons for the unfavourable situation concern education professionals and their attitude towards children with SpLD, poor knowledge of SpLD, a lack of teamwork in problem solving, and a lack of partnership commitment between education professionals, parents and children. It is expected that changes could be brought about through innovations in the education of future teachers, and through positive cases of children with SpLD being treated effectively in practice. The conditions for the development of the inclusive treatment of children with SpLD could be created through legislat