Ordinary lives means ordinary schools: towards a unitary 0-99 years policy for adults and children with learning disabilities
Tizard Learning Disability Review
ISSN: 1359-5474
Article publication date: 29 January 2020
Issue publication date: 28 February 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to look forward to the next generation of policymaking on learning disability and recommends a unitary strategy covering all phases of life including childhood.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the author addresses the policy gap between inclusion in ordinary (“mainstream”) schools and inclusion in ordinary adult life. The author asks why what has been accepted, at least in principle, for the adult two-thirds of the learning disabled population is still contested for the other, younger third. In the following sections, the author summarises the present discrepancy, compares the rights of children in general with those of people with learning disabilities and outlines the rationale for a 0-99 years focus in research and practice on learning disability, and for future government strategy to establish a 0-99 policy.
Findings
It is in the broad context of a unitary 0-99 years approach that policymaking must in future be addressed. The education of children is key to the success of their adult lives, and makes the policy of educating them together in ordinary schools (i.e. giving them from the start the “ordinary lives” that are the main goal of adult policy) an imperative.
Originality/value
The need to consider children’s rights in a general sense has not previously been applied to the field of policymaking for adults with learning disabilities.
Keywords
Citation
Goodey, C. (2020), "Ordinary lives means ordinary schools: towards a unitary 0-99 years policy for adults and children with learning disabilities", Tizard Learning Disability Review, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 40-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLDR-05-2019-0021
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited