A comparison of mainstream and special education for teenagers with Down syndrome: Implications for parents and teachers

Authors: Sue Buckley, Gillian Bird, Ben Sacks and Tamsin Archer

Published by Downsyndrome Research and Practice 9(3), 54-67

This article presents data from a research study designed to compare the achievements of teenagers with Down syndrome educated in mainstream classrooms or in special education classrooms throughout their full-time education. Progress is reported for speech and language, literacy, socialisation, daily living skills and behaviour. For all the teenagers, there is evidence of progress with age on all the measures except for communication. Communication continued to improve through teenage years for the included children but not for those in special education classrooms. There were no significant differences in overall outcomes for daily living skills or socialization. However, there were large significant gains in expressive language and literacy skills for those educated in mainstream classrooms. Teenagers educated in mainstream classrooms showed fewer behavioural difficulties. Further, comparison with data published by these authors in an earlier study, showed no improvements in school achievements in special education over a 13 year period in the UK (1986-1999).

Buckley SJ, Bird G, Sacks B, Archer T. A comparison of mainstream and special education for teenagers with Down syndrome: Implications for parents and teachers. Down Syndrome Research and Practice. 2006;9(3);54-67.

doi:10.3104/reports.295

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In 1987, two of the authors of this article published information on the development and lives of a large and representative group of 90 teenagers with Down syndrome.^[1] In some ways, the progress of the teenagers was disappointing – very few had made any useful progress at all with reading, writing, number and money, and social independence skills such as crossing roads and travelling alone were very limited. Most led rather isolated social lives and only 42% had speech that was intelligible to those meeting them for the first time (for example in a shop or café). The authors commented that their findings should not be taken as indicating what teenagers with Down syndrome could achieve, but rather, that the findings may be due to the nature of the curriculum in special schools, low academic expectations, being bussed out of their own communities every day to school and social attitudes which did not allow children with Down syndrome into clubs and activities in their communities. In 1987 94% of the teenagers were in schools for children with severe learning difficulties (SLD), 6% in schools for moderate learning difficulties (MLD).

In 1988, as a result of this study and in line with legislative change towards inclusion in education in the UK, the Portsmouth team began to develop inclusive education in local mainstream schools for the children with Down syndrome starting school in the southeast part of the county of Hampshire. In the rest of the county most children with Down syndrome continued to be placed in special schools. Down Syndrome Education International funded a psychologist to work with the schools, parents and the Education Authority to develop successful inclusion. This work has provided a unique opportunity to compare the outcomes of special versus mainstream education for two groups of children with Down syndrome of similar backgrounds and ability. It enables us to test out our view that the teenagers in 1987 were underachieving and socially isolated as a result of segregated special education. Are the teenagers who have been included in mainstream education showing the predicted benefits of going to school with their typically developing local children?

Specifically, we hoped that included children would be more likely to have friends in the neighbourhood and better social lives as teenagers, with better social independence skills for getting around their communities, more friends and more involvement in clubs and activities, that their speech, language, behaviour and social development would benefit from being with typically developing peers and that their academic achievements would improve. Does the evidence demonstrate these benefits?

In 1999 we repeated the survey^[2] that we had carried out in 1987 with the current group of teenagers, including some additional measures. This enables us to compare the benefits of mainstream and special education for the 1999 teenagers and also to ask if, as a group, they are benefiting from changes in social attitudes and better education when compared to the 1987 teenagers.

Many of the results of the study were not as the researchers might have predicted, and the findings raise some important issues for parents and educators of teenagers with Down syndrome to consider.

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