- May 5, 2014
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Term paper writing
The chosen topic focused on the problem of mainstreaming autistic children. This topic uncovers problems and specificities of the integration of autistic children in the conventional school setting. In this regard, the topic was quite broad because there were a number of issues related to the topic of the research and the problem of the integration of children in the social life, which I considered at the beginning of the research. However, I have managed to narrow down the scope of the research focusing on the specific age group, children, and I attempted to find out why they often fail to integrate into the normal social life. I found out that autistic children start their development just like other children, while the retardation begins at the age of three years old and I attempted to find out how these children can be integrated into the school environment and how the difference between children can be minimized.
In fact, as I started my research, I faced the first problem. I have revealed diverse views on the problem of mainstreaming autistic children. Many researchers agreed that children till the age of three develop in the similar way compared to non-autistic children. However, after this age they just drop out of the social life. Thus, I identified the one of main questions of the research, why autistic children fail to integrate in the school environment and normal social life. In this regard, I identified two different approaches. On the one hand, some researchers argued that the problem is caused by the affection of certain parts of the brain that causes the general cognitive retardation and focus on the internal world of autistic children that led to their exclusion from their peer groups. On the other hand, some specialists suggested introducing structure, behavioral and cognitive intervention that could help autistic children to mainstream. However, the main problem in the research was the lack of effective methods of mainstreaming of autistic children.
In the course of the study I have revealed certain contradictions. On the one hand, I found out that autistic children are different from other children but there are different programs and approaches that aim at their mainstreaming. On the other hand, I found out that autistic children are focused on their internal world and their integration into the social life is virtually impossible. Such diverse, if not to say antagonistic, views of specialists on autistic children are quite puzzling.
The major challenge in my writing was to combine all facts and views concerning mainstreaming of autistic children. substantial difference in views of specialists made it difficult to avoid taking sides of some specialists and write the paper objectively.
This is why I have presented different arguments which uncover diverse views on the problem of mainstreaming autistic children. I considered Toulmin argument model and Rogerian compromise model to conduct the research and to write my report.
On completing the research, I found out that the study of such problems as mainstreaming autistic children may raise a number of challenges and often it is difficult to conduct objective and independent study avoiding influence of different researchers, who develop persuading argument in favor of their position. Nevertheless, the critical analysis of diverse views helps to conduct the research effectively.