Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 26/02) - Behavioural problems and disorders are just the tip of the iceberg for Anita Griffore and Liz Baile.

"We have students from the whole intellectual spectrum, from the lowest functioning individual to gifted kids, and all in between," says Griffore.

Griffore heads student support services with the public school board. Baile is her counterpart for Catholic schools. The two work closely to offer children in their jurisdiction the support they need to learn.

So what are Baile and Griffore dealing with? Cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, Prader-Willi syndrome (an eating disorder with learning and behavioural impairment), Tourette syndrome (an inherited, neurological disorder characterized by repeated involuntary movements and uncontrollable vocal sounds, called tics), profound hearing impaired, blind, apraxia (severe language delay), aphasia (an impairment of the ability to use or comprehend words), oppositional defiant disorder, Asperger's syndrome, bipolar disorder, and medical illnesses such as cancer and a hole in the heart.

Also, increasingly, Northern children are being diagnosed with autism and pervasive development delay.

"A strong population is being identified with ADHD (attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity) and, with that, in about a third of the children, comes bipolar disorder and conduct disorder. There is lots of fetal alcohol syndrome and cognitive impairment," says Baile.

If that's a mind-numbing list, consider that Baile could throw in many more.

"We're learning that a lot of children's behaviour is around internal anxiety. As adults, we may not recognize that. We have coping skills," says Baile.

"I could go on," adds Baile. "It's important to show the diversity. Education is not as simple as it used to be. Children often will not just have one issue, but a combination of issues."

Facing changes

Children today are dealing with more than they can handle, whether the root cause is physiological, neurological or emotional.

Children are also facing a barrage of possible diagnoses, depending on how they present -- what symptoms parents and child experts witness in their behaviour.

If that's not enough, all children are deeply involved in the radical shift that has occurred in how education is delivered.

Once, children with special needs were segregated, placed in special schools with like children, or separated from their peers in regular classrooms.

The North and, increasingly, jurisdictions worldwide have adopted a new way. It's called inclusive education. Inclusion favours diversity, it nurtures differences, and it works with the strengths of the child.

Baile cannot provide numbers or statistics on how many children have what disorder.

"We don't gather numbers. We don't require a label to provide support -- support by way of educational or classroom assistants or learning to read, counsellors," she says.

Rather, the GNWT hands each school district its budget for the year, based on a certain amount of dollars per child. An additional 15 per cent will be added for inclusive schooling this coming year, three per cent more than last year.

"All our kids are met in an inclusive environment," says Griffore.

The goal is to ensure that all children have access to learning and that all children are, in fact, learning. If there's an impediment to learning, it's dealt with at a classroom level, then at a school level, and then, if necessary, at the district level.

Aid also flows in the opposite direction, from Baile and Griffore, to support staff in the school and to the teachers, by way of information, professional development and training.

Furthermore, Baile says children learn from other children.

"It's a child's right to be with kids the same age. Special needs children have distinct abilities and talents and they can contribute in ways that are different from other students."

By the same token, other children have much to offer their special needs peers.

"And children being in the same class breaks down myths and barriers. They become much more sensitized to understanding a person with disabilities."

Baile and Griffore also network with various other organizations in Yellowknife, such as the child development team at Stanton Regional Hospital and NWT Health and Social Services.

"We just can't do it alone," says Baile.

"Our 15 per cent doesn't go all that far. We are all aware of this," says Griffore.

"The support community is inadequately funded. Certainly we have to push the envelope, stretch the support."

Support includes program modification, assistance with classwork and homework, counselling and behavioural intervention, specialized rehabilitation and medical services, and personal assistance and special equipment.

"Classroom assistants are the most visible support offered children with special needs. They work with children who would not be able to participate and learn without that support," says Griffore.

But she says that's not an appropriate response for all special needs kids.

"It creates a dependency. We want to build on the ability to learn and participate, to be independent."

Baile says it would be doing kids a great disservice if a classroom assistant was attached to all special needs children.

"We have to build coping strategies. That's the bottom line. We have to think long-term. What is in the best interest of the child? A one-on-one classroom assistant is a strategy, not a solution."

Resources needed

Speaking in the legislative assembly last week, Frame Lake MLA Charles Dent addressed Joe Handley, acting minister of education.

"For years," he said, "boards have asked that we identify funding according to the challenge that a child faces. This is a common approach across Canada.

"Will the minister bring in a policy to do that in the Northwest Territories?"

Handley replied that to do so would take "back some of the authority we have given to the boards, and some of the flexibility they currently have."

Griffore and Baile agree with Handley's position.

They cite jurisdictions bogged down by a nightmare of paperwork to have one child recognized in one of several categories of special needs, which are very stringent.

If the child doesn't fit the criteria to the letter, that child's out of luck. No funding.

For example, in Alberta, where they devote seven per cent of their annual education budget to special needs, the province continues to rely on strict categories of need and does not plan to reconsider the practice.

The NWT is part of the Western Education Consortium, which is developing a special education protocol.

"One piece of advice given to the NWT is, 'Don't go into categorical funding. Don't go there. Don't start identifying which kids get and which kids don't.' It's more exclusive than inclusive," says Griffore.

But inclusive education is not possible without adequate resources.

"Fifteen per cent is not enough," says Baile. "Fifteen per cent would be great if there was established community and organizational support systems for families. But when you don't even have that, you're in trouble."

Inclusive education, adds Baile, requires a commitment.

"If there's not the dollars behind it, it's just a great theory."