“Wa-wa,” she said with that adorable childish voice.
“No, no Holly say water, wa-ter.” I said (slightly frustrated) for the tenth time that day. I know that during my childhood, my mother heard this conversation between my doll and I more times than she can count. Holly was a doll with a speech impediment that I got for Christmas one wear. She would say basic words (like “water”) incorrectly and I would correct her until she said the word properly. This doll was my first encounter with my dream career.
The summer after my sixth grade year, my mother decided to work as secretary for Special Ed Summer School. Although my little sister Madelyn and I refused to believe it, my mother thought we were too young to stay at home by our selves while she was at work. The next day she hauled us through our kicks and screams to work with her at six in the morning. My mother told me to go help her friend Ms. Tanya. When I got outside Ms. Tanya said hello and insisted that I just call hero she could tell my voice apart from all of the children. Tanya quickly scribbled a name and a bus number on my hand and said, “Ok, go get him off the bus. Tell the bus driver you are working with me. Hold his hand and do not let him out of your sight until you see me.” Petrified, I went to retrieve a kid form a bus with no inkling as to what to expect. The child’s name was Ethan and one look at him had me completely confused. He looked like a normal first grade. When we got to the classroom, Tanya told me that he is autistic.
I watched Tanya work with the kids for the first couple of days before I decided that I wanted to give what she was doing a try. It looked easy enough. I started working with just Ethan and slowly branched out. By the end of the week, I worked with all of the kids. I fell in love with helping those kids. When summer school ended, I went into the seventh grade knowing that I wanted to help children with my future job.
I went back to Special Ed Summer School so I could help Tanya and work with Ethan the next year and the year after that. The summer after my eighth grade year, I met Brian in Tanya’s class.
This Semester I observed a three-year-old girl named Allie. Allie attends preschool at Land of Learning; she is diagnosed with cerebral palsy. It was my pleasure observing her and getting to know her. She is a very sweet outgoing girl that doesn’t let her disability get to her. I observed and assisted Allie throughout her days at preschool. I assisted her and observed her with recess activities, eating lunch, and daily school projects. My past observation experiences I observed at Westgate elementary school in a class room mixed with students with learning disabilities, ADHD and also ELL students the class was taught by Ms. Lewis. I observed a second grade ELL classroom and also a fourth grade classroom. I observed these students during school
Carly’s Voice is a book about a young girl’s journey with autism. Carly was born in January of 1995 with her twin sister Taryn. The Fleschmann family already had a young son, who was rambunctious, then they added two baby girls to the mix. Before even being diagnosed with autism, Carly seemed different than her sister Taryn. She would show little emotion and not hit the milestones she should’ve been hitting as a toddler. This concerned her parents, her parents started Carly in early intervention. At the age of two Carly was diagnosed with autism and developmental delay. She was put into a school called Northland Educational Centre at two and a half, around this time her mother, Tammy, was diagnosed with cancer. There was a lot going on with
Are you able to comprehend the confrontations faced by an autistic child? In the book “The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time” by Mark Haddon, the reader is given the opportunity to understand the challenges faced by the protagonist of the story, Christopher Boone. The author of the book is able to empathize an autistic child, because of his broad knowledge of autism and its many challenges. This will be demonstrated by examining Christopher Boone’s ability to learn to interact with strangers and his ability to deal with new environments.
“The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal” by Jonathan Mooney is the story of his journey around the U.S. in short bus nonetheless to meet with different children and their families who have faced challenges in school due to ADD, ADHD, Autism, and other learning disabilities. Jonathan Mooney himself faced the disability of Dyslexia and often had to deal with many challenges in school himself, but he appears to be one of the more fortunate ones, who was able to grow from his disability and ultimately get a degree in English. Needless to say, his book and journey lead the reader to question what really is “normal”, and how the views of this have caused the odds to be stacked against those who don’t fit the mold. Throughout, this story, for me personally however, this story gave several events that I found moving, and had the potential to influence my further work in education.
The Case of Temple Grandin paints a picture of a young woman’s determination and hard work while struggling with autism during a time when the disorder was unknown. This case discusses Grandin’s challenges, early diagnosis, growth and development in school, and support from her mother. Temple Grandin could not speak like the other children at the age of two, so because doctors could not find any physical issues she had been subsequently labeled as brain-damaged. To communicate with others, she would throw tantrums and scream. She could speak by three and a half years old with the help of speech therapy. A few years later at the age of five, Grandin was diagnosed with autism so her mother worked with her 30 minutes every day to keep her from being placed in an institution. At her aunt’s ranch, Grandin develops the “squeeze machine” a device used to apply pressure without being stimulating. Grandin excelles in school and receives her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970. After her graduation from college in 1970, Grandin attends Arizona State University where she earns a master’s degree in cattle in 1975. In 1989, Grandin earns her doctoral degree from the University of Urbana-Champaign in animal science. Grandin has never married, but she is proof that individuals with autism can lead productive and notable lives (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009).
Alison’s story is the perfect example of what many families must go through when faced with the possibility of having a child diagnosed with a learning disability. Alison was not diagnosed with visual and auditory dyslexia until the summer before entering college. However, while still a toddler, her symptoms had been brought to her mother’s attention by her sister’s teacher. Alison’s mother then noticed her habits in repeating words incorrectly and how Alison would need tactile clues to follow directions. At the recommendation of her kindergarten teacher, Alison was tested for learning disabilities and the results from the school psychologists were that she was acting stubborn or disobedient. Her family did not stop with the school’s diagnosis. They had private testing completed that confirmed Alison did not have a specific learning disability. The final word came from a relative that happened to be a psychologist. He insisted Alison would grow out of her difficulties. So Alison continued on with her entire elementary, middle and high school journey as a student and daughter with an undiagnosed learning disability.
When I received special education services, peers and teachers were bothered. Peers acted diffidently because they knew I was “special”. The reason I used “special” is because to them, I was one of many special students in the school. Teachers looked at me diffidently rather then treating me like one of the other peers. Yes I had a disability, however they did not need to treat me diffidently. Robert was treated different in the story, the narrator was scared at first, he asked stupid questions, although Robert went along with it. Some of my peers and teachers were never supportive, I was known as one of the emotional students, because I was in the Emotional Impairment classroom. Just having that label was difficult to live back. It like how the narrator said “the blind move slowly and never laughed.” (Carver, Cathedral). Peers always thought EI students were unstable and violent, my thoughts as well. In sixth grade, a EI student bit the EI teacher, that is why I thought the same as my peer. Although now I was an EI student and now they thought I was that kid. By junior and senior year, I never was treated diffidently. The teachers and students understood that I was not emotionally impaired, I was just placed there on mistake, which I was. Although, I still had the label, which caused many opportunities to not become available to
“If I could snap my fingers and be not be autistic, I would not. Autism is a part of who I am,” stated Temple Grandin. (Brainyquotes) People with autism are treated or looked at differently by the population. Autistic people usually experience difficulty in communicating or acting in an appropriate social manner. Most children with autism are diagnosed by the age three, yet there are still adults that might have autism and not know it. People with autism have brains that work in an uncommon way. Yet one very special autistic person is named Temple Grandin used her autism and the strong visual thinking ability that goes along with it, to understand the world around her. Temple Grandin’s characteristic persistency and sharp-wittedness helped
An intellectual college student, who attends Lipscomb University explains the challenges and obstacles that students with disability encounter in school. I interviewed Rudy Castillo, who was detected with autism at the age of three to discuss his personal experience. This student as any other played sports throughout middle and high school but also was bullied by others. Rudy’s story explains his journey about overcoming the struggles that autism presents. After all, Rudy’s plan is to help others understand his disability and encourage those with autism to embrace their abilities. Through the support of his family, Rudy Castillo received help from a specialist in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Nothing will deter me from achieving my goal of becoming an Occupational Therapist. I have
Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice is an autobiographical story from a mother’s perspective. It is a narrative that uses multiple different concepts that have been the focus of class lectures and textbook materials. It touches on different therapies used for children with autism and even focuses briefly on the controversial subject of inclusion verses exclusion. This book provides insight on a myriad of different emotions that parents experience, which is tough for an educator to otherwise understand. The individuals were relatable and the context was extremely easy to understand, without taking away from the medical terminology. This book was a useful resource, as well as an enjoyable heart warming tale.
With this, I now understand the condition and also understand more how to reach out to my aunt because she did not cause this to happen to her. I have a change of heart now that I understand more about autism, and I wish that others in the world would know what I know now because they would reach out to those with this condition as I want
She began to cry and asked them to stop. You could ascertain by the confusion and extreme heartache on her face that she did not comprehend why they were being so cruel to her. She lifted her feet into the seat and put her head over her knees and cried for what seemed to be forever. She looked so miserable and helpless curled up in the corner of the seat crying. My heart was breaking for her, and I felt this plummeting feeling in my stomach. I could not comprehend how they could treat her that way. The children never stopped picking on her; they continued until each one of them exited the bus one at a time. When we finally reached her house; the bus driver called out her name and she removed herself from the seat, sobbing with her head down, and sauntered to the front of the bus and
For the past six weeks, I had the chance to work with Clayton. Clayton is a first grade students at Lincoln Elementary in Cedar Falls. I worked with Clayton for six, half an hour, sessions. The purpose of working with Clayton was for me to gain knowledge on how to work with students on reading and writing. To work on this, we did many different activities such as word sorts and working with letters by comparing features. Clayton and I also worked on his writing by generating stories and recording them.
Everyone makes strange ticks at a baseball game; Brad would fit in just fine. Baseball acted as an outlet and an in with his father who loved the Atlanta Braves. Brad’s father didn’t believe in his son growing up. He saw his child as acting out, not seeing his son for what he was; a person with a gift. Brad Cohen decided to become a teacher. He felt he was born to teach and fell in love with early childhood education. Early on, he didn’t have much luck because while being interviewed he couldn’t hide his flaws like a normal person. His flaw or disability was present to the world. Brad decided to educate those who were interviewing him. He told them he had a brain thing like a sneeze. It was irrepressible; when you have to tic, you can’t control it, he would say. He told them it never caused a problem for him when he was student teaching. All Brad wanted was a chance to be able to prove himself. He felt he was entitled to that chance; under the IDEA they could not deny him his