Abilities & Disabilities

S T R A T E G I E S  F O R  T E A C H I N G  A B O U T  A B I L I T I E S  &  D I S A B I L I T I E S:

• regularly read children’s books that depict children and adults with various disabilities. Invite children to express questions/ concerns before and after the stories. 
• use posters, photographs and games that show people whose lives contradict children’s misconceptions 
• explore adaptive equipment (wheelchair, walker, crutches, braces, hearing aids, glasses, braces)
• arrange small groups for using various activity centres 
• model specific ways to interact 
• invite people with disabilities to visit your program / visit workplaces that employ people with special needs (Derman-Sparks et al., 2010, p.127-133)

G R O U P  D I S C U S S I O N

During our group discussion, we concluded the book “Lemon the Duck” is a fitting book when communicating to children about disabilities, but it lead us into a conversation about last week’s topic on racial identity and fairness. The book does not show diverse characters and communicates about a disability through a duck rather than a human, therefore making it harder for student to make text-to-world connections. This book would be fitting if it were to be read after children learn about humans with disabilities. It is important to educate children on everyone’s needs and lifestyles including humans, animals and plants, etc. 

We spent much of our time talking about past experiences we had; it helped us learn as some of the things said would not happen often around some of us. My community and schools think differently about disabilities than some of my group members. For example, a student in my group said students with disabilities would remain in their classroom but would often get made fun of by the teachers and the students’ peers. Where I live students are usually in a special education classroom while occasionally joining the class as a whole, being treated like everyone else. In the textbook it says that “since 1975, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has required all children with disabilities receive appropriate education in the least restrictive environment’ – that is, they must have the opportunity to be included in regular (rather than special education) classrooms to the greatest extent possible” (Derman-Sparks et al., 2010, p.125). Through my personal experiences, my schools did a terrible job of this. Students who had a disability when I was growing up were isolated in a separate classroom, only joining our classroom when special events or activities were occurring. As the students classmates, we barley knew the other students with disabilities and we were never exactly educated on disabilities. 

T E X T B O O K  R E F L E C T I O N: 

What happens when you meet someone with a disability? How easy is it for you to initiate interaction? How comfortable do you feel during it? 

I have lots of experience working with children with disabilities, so I feel more comfortable approaching and interacting compared to what I did before I first started working with children. I find it easy to interact with anyone if I am able to find common ground between us. For example, when interacting with a child outside, one may say “lets see how many hops and rolls it takes to get to the other end of the field!” This could be modified to the child’s abilities and a way to involve the child. One may also walk up and introduce themselves, then initiate a conversation based on the child’s interests that are visible.  It is important to be aware of the language used when communicating about abilities and disabilities to parents, children and other people. “Your choice of words and emotional tone models how children can handle questions about disabilities themselves” (Derman-Sparks et al., 2010, p.127).