Because I can only handle watching so many versions of Santa Clause with Tim Allen, I thought I would sneak in a post and hopefully my kids won't notice! Most of us go into special education for personal reasons. Rarely have I met a special education teacher or student majoring in SPED that has not been personally affected by a disability. A cousin, a brother, a child, an uncle has cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or they themselves have ADHD. This personal experience drives us to care and advocate. The downside to special education is that there are so many disabilities that it is impossible to truly know each one. Learning disabilities can be especially difficult to understand because students with such disabilities can be very high functioning, socially gifted, and generally fit in with their peers but fail to start, fail to finish, or quit because the directions are beyond them. A common command, by the general education teacher, I heard in the school I worked in was, "Are you gonna start?!" as the student stared at the paper. Students with learning disabilities generally will not require a paraprofessional next to them but without compassion and understanding from the general education teacher the student will not be able to organize their thoughts to write what the teacher wants, will not recall the formula to solve the problem. So I am offering a great link to experience what it feels like to have a learning disability. I hope if you have gotten this far that you actually try it out. The simulations that are offered to really make you feel what a student with such a disability include: reading Issues, writing issues, attention issues, math issues, and organization issues. You can choose which grade and which issue. I will put up visuals about how to reach the site but if you would like the quick way: www.understood.org then Parent Toolkit, then Through Your Child's Eyes, then scroll down to Simulations There will be a short testimonial of a real child. The next part is experiencing the disability. If you would like to feel some real anxiety try "organizational issues". They have you start out playing a simple game which gets harder and then completely ridiculous. So when you give a child with ADHD multiple directions, verbally, at one time, it may give you an understand why that's not a good idea. Let me know if you felt it changed your perspective!
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AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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