Preparing for Contact Between Mainstream Pupils and their Counterparts Who Have Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Despite the increasing societal inclusion of young people with a disability in Ireland, there is very little evidence of any substantive improvement with regard to inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities (usually referred to, in educational settings in the UK, as pupils or students with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties). As a result, these young people often remain isolated within their local communities and have minimal contact, if any, with their mainstream counterparts. One innovative schools link programme in Ireland offers structured curricular activities that include mainstream pupils and their peers who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. A video programme was used in the pre‐contact phase of the programme and this paper explores the effectiveness of the video programme in preparing the mainstream pupils to meet their counterparts who have severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities. Michael Shevlin, who teaches in the Education Department of Trinity College Dublin and has research interests in inclusion, argues that it was evident that the mainstream pupils reacted positively to the video programme and found it useful in overcoming their anxieties at the prospect of contact. He discusses the implications of these findings in relation to the further development of structured contact sessions in integrated classrooms and to the wider issue of societal inclusion for young people with severe and profound and multiple learning disabilities.