What is your educational background?
High School Diploma, fifteen college credits in Early Childhood

What other experiences, or staff development has prepared you for inclusion?
Numerous inservice, worked in inclusive classroom for the past ten years.

What is your job role?
Paraprofessional in home-based program. Working with special needs children and their parents birth to three. Paraprofessional four mornings a week in and inclusive child care setting.

What is your role regarding the inclusive component of the program?
Special Education Para working in inclusive child care program with 50% special needs and 50% regular education children.

How has your role changed or have you adapted your role as it relates to the inclusive program?
For the past ten years my role has been the same.

What were your biggest concerns about participating in an inclusive program?
Other co-teachers not treating the children the same.

What were your experiences related to these concerns once inclusive services were implemented?
The special needs children and the regular education children both have benefited from it. I think after the co-teachers got to know the children they felt more comfortable with them.

What do you see as the benefits of moving toward inclusive services?
I have seen that the special needs children, after they get in the inclusive program, make faster progress.

Can you offer one or more anecdotes that you feel illustrate the benefits of inclusion?
We have a little boy who came into our program. He couldn't bear weight or hardly do anything. Now he walks with his hand held. He scoots on his bottom and he doesn't wail any more. He eats better. Overall I think he accomplished a lot in the inclusive setting.