© Kamla-Raj 2008 J. Hum. Ecol., 23(3): 203-209 (2008) Classroom Communication and Placement of the Deaf Child in an Inclusive Class J. Abiola Ademokoya Department of Special Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria Telephone: +23408023414162, E-mail: biobera@yahoo.com KEYWORDS Instructional Language. Schoolchild with Hearing Disability. Inclusion Movement. Total Communication ABSTRACT Inclusiveness is an educational reform aiming at redesigning the general education structures to accommodate both able-bodied learners and learners with disabilities. This is a departure from an old practice of training special needs learners in special schools. This new reform however faces some challenges. For instance, placing the deaf schoolchild in an inclusive class with the hearing classmates would require a communication mode that is acceptable to all parties and is also very effective for dispensing classroom instructions. This paper therefore identifies total communication as the functional communication mode considered most appropriate for use in an inclusive class for hearing and nonhearing learners. The paper highlights the qualities of total communication. It also discusses means for enhancing the use of this communication option to facilitate the realization of inclusive education objectives. INTRODUCTION The movement towards placing all special needs learners in the same learning environment with nondisabled learners has been described as one of the most contentious professional issues ever engaged in the field of special education (Hallahan and Kauffman, 1994). This is because debates for and against total inclusion and partial inclusion (those of a more conservative persuasion) have nearly torn the field of special education apart. Inclusion has therefore become one of the most contentious issues in the field of special education in the recent times (Bracker, 1995). Though inclusion started as a social issue in the 1980s, it has however grown to be a significant educational reform programme in the 1990s and 2000s. Milter (2000) defined inclusion as a reform process aiming at ensuring that all learners, regardless of their physical or sensory defects have access to the whole range of educational and social opportunities offered by the school. Inclusion therefore implies the removal of all persons and learners with disabilities from segregated settings (institutions and special schools) into the community living and regular classes where they can live and learn side by side with nondisabled persons or learner (Westwood, 1999). Inclusion also depicts the preparedness of the nondisabled populace (both in schools and in communities) to admit and tolerate the persons with disabilities. As Farrell (2000) put it, inclusion reflects the extent to which a school or a community welcomes individuals with disabilities as full members of the regular schools or the community and values them as inseparable and respected members or citizens. Inclusion therefore is underpinned by the philosophy of love and acceptance by the nondisabled persons for persons with disabilities (Ainscow, 1997). It entails a framework within which all persons regardless of their conditions and disadvantages have equal accessibility to available social, political, educational and economic opportunities services in a society (Vadeh and Anongo, 2004). As an educational enterprise inclusion hinges on a philosophy that all learners regardless of their disabilities are a vital and integral part of the general education system (Westwood, 1995). As a result, the general education should therefore provide these learners (who require special attention, intervention and support systems) with necessary provisions capable of preparing them as competent as their able-bodied colleagues for a quality future life experience (Davis, 1990). Inclusion therefore proposes a merger between general education and special education. Regular class teachers would be required to cater for the needs of an increasingly diverse group of students (Fuchs and Fuchs, 1994). The special educators’ roles would include that of providing itinerant or resource room services as well as providing support services in inclusive schools (Hallahan and Kauffman, 1994).