Educational blogging is a connection avenue that allows you to share ideas, be supported, and maintain connections. We will use our blog to learn how to establish 'blogging norms', connect ideas, and share our voices. Our first post will be to share about someone you know that has a disability. Think about their challenges and how they managed these challenge. Write a brief entry. Use only first names (changing the name would be even better). Comment on a few posts from your peers.
12 Comments
This year I had the opportunity to meet and work with a kindergarten student who spent the first 6.5 years of his life in an apartment with a mom who loved him very much but was too scared to leave the house. Fear of social services brought them to our door step and within just a few days both realized the power of community and experience. Many 'administrators' said he was autistic but our team was ready to prove that experience deprivation was the primal contributing factor to his learning needs. We developed a very specific program with a coaching model that proved to be a highly successful intervention. We were fortunate to see his first steps on a playground, sprinkler, interaction with a peer, and ocean. With each new experience he began to speak, respond and interact with his world. Questions poured from his thinking and he started to notice the peers around him. His extreme curiosity with drove him (and continues to) to ask and ask hundreds of questions every day (really!) His personal drive to experience the world has not only supported him in this new experience but has been essential to his continued success.
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Stephanie
6/27/2011 03:56:44 am
For the last four years, I have been working with children whose ages range from two to four years old. In one year, I worked with a little boy who was not able to communicate his needs, wants or desires. His family did not want to seek additional sources for help; they did not want to label their child. This little boy had just turned three when he entered my classroom. He was unable to communicate; whenever, he needed something he would throw objects at his teacher or hit you to get our attention. For the first few months, we started teaching him and his family sign language. For example, if he wanted water we would say water and then show him the sign for water. In a few weeks he picked up a few words in sign language. Then we started using just words, if he wanted something he would have to say the word then we gave him what he wanted. For water he would say “wa” then it turned into “wawa” then after a few months he was able to say “water”. The parents also did the same thing at home. In just one year, this child went from saying nothing at all to using four to five word sentences. Granted some of the words where hard for him to pronounce, we were able to understand him.
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Kate
6/27/2011 01:26:29 pm
Within the last couple of years I have gotten to know a very charismatic and hilarious woman who, 5 years ago, had a traumatic fall from her second floor staircase in her home down to the bottom of the first floor. The injuries could have been a lot worse, but right after the fall she was left partially blind and had to learn how to walk again. She had to wear a patch on one eye for a very long time and she did not like going out because she thought that she looked different and was afraid of not really being able to see where she was going. At first she was not able to drive at all, and since extensive rehab is now able to drive locally to places such as the grocery store, but she relies on others for most transportation. She is able to do her beloved gardening but has a harder time seeing what she is doing and it takes much more concentration. She has persevered and regularly goes to rehab, but lives a different life than before the fall.
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Melissa
6/28/2011 05:50:53 am
All my life my uncle on my mother's side has been in a wheelchair. He has been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy ever since he was little. My grandmother carried my uncle everywhere and as he got older and heavier she continued to carry him on her back until he was ten. At seventeen my grandparents stayed by his side when he had to go in for an operation. As I re-read the eulogy I hadn't heard in 14 years, my uncle had to rely on my grandmother for everything from feeding him to helping him in the restroom until he was old enough to live on his own. He is a very outgoing and friendly person and although he has trouble speaking has made many friends who care and look out for him. He has roommates, but when they're not around my uncle is able to get around Boston by himself. He even had his own little business selling cold drinks on the corner of Newbury Street during the hot summer days and has sold hats during the winter. Turning fifty this year, my uncle has proven people wrong that even with his disability he can still be independent. I am very proud to be his niece.
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Nickole
6/28/2011 11:26:07 am
This past year I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Brian, and autistic 5 year old. Everyday I went into this classroom waiting to hear him coming down the hallway excited to work with him. He is the first child I work with who had autisim. Working with him was challening at times but worth every moment. He had behavior problems in which everyone was working on. By the end of the year his problem behavior was reduced. I also had the pleasure of talking to Brians mom alot. She is the mom that every child needs. She has fought for everything Brian needs. The communication between her and everyone who works with Brian is amazing. She is able to communicate her needs as well as Brians but also can understand the limitations the school system has. Brian has had a huge impact on my teaching practices. He is one of the reason on why I want to get my license in Special Education.
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Jenny
6/29/2011 04:52:28 am
I was nine months old when my cousin Andrew was born. For many years of his life he did not speak and the doctors did not know what to make of him. After a lot of doctors and testing they finally realized that Andrew is autistic. Since he is so close in age with me, I have often been considered to be his one and only friend, and many times when I was younger everyone thought we were twins, because of how similar we looked. Through my life I have been able to see the hardships that both he and his family have faced. Luckily for Andrew and his family they have had great support from their extended family and the school that he has attended since he was seven years old. Unfortunately, Andrew just turned twenty two in May so his services were cut off. It has been very hard for him to transition from a place that he considered to be his second home for fifteen years into a day program that he is going to now. Andrew will never be able to hold a job on his own or live on his own. He will always need the help and support of his family. Helping Andrew over the past twenty two years sparked my interest in Special Education. Helping him was so was rewarding for me I decided to explore Special Education more and is why I spent the last year as a Special Education teaching assistant which also reaffirmed my desire to get my Special Education certification.
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Jim
6/29/2011 04:58:25 am
I know a girl called Alison who suffers from moderately severe OCD as well as recurring bouts of depression. She carries everywhere with her specific items which she needs to dispel panic attacks in the event of a trigger. She is consciously aware that her precautions and compulsions don't make logical sense, but this only makes things harder. The fact of her OCD combines with her depression leading to alternating periods of manic energy and bouts of lethargy and inability where she comes to believe her life is horribly screwed up, and that she is helpless against her own problems. She believes that her life is somehow empty, and puts much effort into finding new things to learn and become good at. She has, over time, whittled down her compulsions to the point where the presence of disinfectant satisfies the compulsion instead of full blown washing. She plans to continue this.
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Sairta
6/30/2011 02:29:39 am
For the past 5 years, our family has grown up with the Beet family. I met Rose in a new mom's group when our sons were 6 weeks old. I soon found out that her husband was a cancer survivor and was actually still taking chemotherapy. When he was 25, he was diagnosed with cancer in his knee and after a replacement, an amputation resulted, leaving him with a prosthetic leg. They now have three boys, and it amazes me all the time how seemingly effortlessly there life seems normal. Although, I am aware that it is/must be difficult for him to be the dad of three active boys who love to run and play sports. He has to drive with a special pedal in their car, shoveling snow falls on Rose to do, and at the end of the day he is happy to be in his home with his leg "off." Recently at their son's parent teacher conference, the preschool teacher ended with a critic that despite numerous attempts to teach Micheal how to skip, he refused to learn. Instead, when asked to skip, he keeps his back leg straight just like his dad's.
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Chelsey
6/30/2011 02:45:24 am
A few summers ago I worked as an aide in a summer school for special education. The students in the class ranged in age from 12-16 years old. During this time I had the opportunity to work with a thirteen year old girl who had Down Syndrome. She struggled with many of the academic tasks in the classroom, as well as with communication skills. She became easily frustrated when she was unable to express what she wanted or felt to her peers or teachers. She enjoyed repetitive activities, like looking at flashcards with pictures of animals or listening to High School Musical cds. I found that by incorporating such activities throughout the day, her focus and motivation increased. She had a wonderful support system at home, who provide a stimulating learning environment outside of school and worked with me to ensure that that she was able to advocate for herself in different situations. Working in this class and spending time with this girl opened my eyes to a new aspect of education and is why I am pursuing a degree in special education.
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Lauren Gosline
6/30/2011 03:55:54 am
For the past two years I've worked with a group of severely autistic, seventh graders. Although each child faces many challenges, there is one in particular that truly inspires me. This student's name is Jack and he is considered "semi verbal." Most of Jack's speech comes from you tube clips that he plays over and over in his mind. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate Jack actually trying to communicate something that he needs from a movie or TV show on repeat in his mind. His favorite line is "I want some pepperoni pizza, I'm starving." When asked what's that from, he says counts talking, from Sesame Street. Jack also gets bad movie clips stuck in his mind. Similar to that one awful song from the radio that you can't get out of your head. When this happens usually Jack starts crying, kicking, jumping, screaming and swinging his arms, because it bothers him so much. The first time this happened Jack looked at me with the help me eyes. I felt so helpless though because I didn't know what to do. By the end of the year I found ways to calm him down. Although these episodes were awful, it was nice to feel that I was actually helping him.
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Anthony
6/30/2011 06:46:19 am
I know a child named Angie who has Cerebral Palsy. She has her good days and her bad days but Angie is such a sweet girl who is always smiling. It it out of th e ordianary for her to be uphappy. As long as she has her ipod listening to music and dancing in her wheelchair once a day she is great. The challenges that Angie has is that one, she is in wheelchair. she is mobile by an electreic chair which she moves with her one hand because the other has paralysis in it. She has to have assistance on everything she does, goin to the bathroom, she can eat by herself a litte but mainly she is mobile but need assisance all the time. Angie basically has to be dependent on a person or people and that challenges here everyday. Angie is a wonderful person and looks positively towards living her life.
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Denise Jackson
7/3/2011 12:30:17 am
I had a student named Ramon in my 2nd grade class this year who is on the higher end of the autistic spectrum (so I have been informed). Ramon is a Hispanic male and the youngest of four siblings. His mother doesn't speak english so he has to have an interpretor during IEP and SPED meetings and calls home. He uses language that is too advanced for his age (8), and can clarly understand adult sarcasim, jokes and cenarios. He acts out on scenes from tv that have a sexual content and calls himself gay. Ramon has a tic where he makes jerking motions with his neck and head, and he blinks frequently and widens his eyes when outside. The students in my class were afraid of him in the beginning of the year, but as time passed, they came to find out that he is an exceptional artist and that broke the ice. He's very sweet and totally honest with his feelings. Ramon will ask questions about realities of life and expects answers at that moment.
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