1. What do you consider to be one of your greatest challenges in being a parent of a child with a severe disability?
There are several challenges and blessings to being a parent of a special needs child. Additionally, the challenges have changed as our child has grown. When she was little the greatest challenge was probably accepting the disability and how others perceived the disability as well. As she grew, it was the worry about educational and medical options that would best benefit and assist our child. Currently, the greatest challenge is learning how to handle the frequent outburst and tantrums our child is having at home and at school. Every new stage in growth and development seems to present its own blessings and challenges.
2. What is one of the major goals you want your child to accomplish by the end of his public school education?
One of the major goals that I want my child to accomplish by the end of her public school career would be to become fully potty trained. We have
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The parent discussed the fact that it was hard to decide on what aspect was most challenging since the “challenging aspect” had changed depending on the age of the child. This is an important aspect for all special needs educators to remember when establishing and fostering relationships with families of special needs students. As the textbook states, “Each family is a unique unit that changes as it goes through the stages and transitions of the family life cycle” (Martha E. Snell, 2011, p. 60). The textbook goes on to explain that special education professionals need to be aware of life cycle stages and transitions. “Two dimensions of the family life cycle that are important for educators to understand include (a) life-cycle stages and (b) life-cycle transitions” (Martha E. Snell, 2011, p.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has two main core criteria, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition (DSM-5). The first of the two criteria is ‘Persistent Deficits in Social Communication and Interaction across Multiple Contexts’ under which there are three categories. The first being deficits in social emotional reciprocity which may include atypical social approach and failure of the back and forth exchange of normal conversation. In addition, there may be a failure to respond or initiate social interaction as well as reduced emotions, interest or effect sharing. In the scenario ‘Ben loves Trains’ it is indicated that Ben is content to play alone for hours, he doesn’t interact with his sister in
Unfortunately, a lot of parents may have a difficult time accepting their child, and coping with their needs and the responsibilities. From the book “The Elephant in the Playroom,” some families dealt with depression and physical and mental deterioration of their health. These struggles were shown in the story by Laura Cichoracki. Laura’s son’s name was Patrick. Patrick was a 6-years-old boy with autism. “I wasn’t eating right, I wasn’t showering regularly, I wasn’t sleeping well” (Brodey, p. 64). I also read the story told by Susan Marrash-Minnerly, which highlighted emotions that parents face. Susan also shed light on how wonderful children with special needs can be to a family, such as her ten-year-old third grader who had autism. Susan talked about how it was normal to feel angry at times, especially with the ups and downs a child’s disability may come with. “When I look back, I want to tell other parents that a child’s future is worth grieving over – but it’s not the end of the world” (Brodey, p. 75). After reading these stories, it became apparent to me that families who are raising kids with special needs, need support, kindness, and available resources. “I was fortunate to be surrounded by other moms who understood my pain…who could be supportive and emphatic.” (Brodey, p. 67). Overall, educators can use this kind of information that was shared in “The Elephant in the Playroom” about family systems and risk/resiliency by creating lines of open communication between families. This is to connect parents together that share similar struggles. By creating open communication is can allows for the teacher and parents to be on the same page when it comes to the issues affecting special needs students and
needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in
Similar to the other interview questions, the answers seemed to vary depending on the age of the child. However, all of the families discussed the issue of “acceptance”, rather it be acceptance for themselves, extended family members, or acceptance from the community and strangers. Other challenges discussed were dealing with family outings, discipline, and the child’s siblings. For the positive aspects, all of the participants discussed how their life “views” had changed for the positive. Other positives discussed were their child’s growth and support and relationships built with other special needs families.
A psychological assessment is a fundamental aspect in measuring intellectual disabilities (Drew & Hardman, 2007). Information provided from partaking in an assessment includes severity of the disability and an understanding of the individual’s limitations as a result of the disability (Drew & Hardman, 2007). Knowledge of these elements, as explained by Drew and Hardman, aid in determining the necessary supports required by the individual to help them cope with the disability. It is important that the assessment measures both cognitive and adaptive aspects of an individual’s functioning because, “Mental retardation is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviour as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills” (Drew & Hardman, 2007, p. 19). Once an assessment of these areas has been completed an individual may be identified as having an intellectual disability.
Upon review of the case study on Ashley Martinez, I have reached the conclusion that there are three issues in this study, 1) the district did not set up the infrastructure to facilitate data driven decision making, 2) the administration fighting over which database will be used to gather data from and 3) the ad hoc committee could not reach a decision and the superintendent refusal to mandate on system. After review of the information, I have concluded that Principal Martinez knows that her problems are as follows: 1) one data base was not mandated to be used by all participants; 2) teachers were not computer literate; and 3) the teachers had not been prepared to use data to drive decision making in the classrooms. (Kowalski, 2008)
I interviewed a woman who has a child with special needs. The child is now in kindergarten. The mother reported having a normal pregnancy with no complications. This was the second child for the mother, who has another child who was five years old at the time. The mother disclosed that during the pregnancy, she was in the process of separating from the child’s father and that this caused a moderate level of stress. At the time of the pregnancy, the mother was also working full time as a waitress in a local restaurant. The mother reported that her job required her to be on her feet for long periods of time. She was able to work until around a week before her child was born. The mother reports that the child was born around two weeks early but that labor was easy and the child was born healthy.
At times throughout your education you learn about families who have children with special needs – you may say to yourself “wow! being that parent must be so challenging” followed by expressing feelings of gratitude for the life you live, and then moving on with your life taking things for granted. However, this assignment places you directly in the shoes of such families. You get to really see how brave, strong and loving these families are. These families teach you that people are people all the same and no disability can label or determine a person’s life – it is part of them, not all of them. If someone were to say “I’m sorry” to Ms.Vo for having a child with a disability, she would laugh and say “why? I’m not”. Listening to Ms.Vo’s journey and observing Tammy will undoubtedly help me in my profession. You get to know a broader range of amazing individuals and hearing and viewing the needs of Tammy permits me to think of ways I can accommodate children who may have special needs in my classroom. For instance, maybe a child with special needs could use multiple visual aids and warnings before cleaning up and transitioning or maybe they need some form of leadership role like Tammy appreciates, in order to help them engage better among the class and their peers. This experience has also provided myself with a more broad knowledge on the many different resources that are available to the public and to a multitude of families, to which I can keep these resources provided and use them to further assist the families of the children in my future classroom. It is one thing to see on a PowerPoint the difficulties families can face when raising a child who has some type of a disability – whether its from medical bills, to finding resources, money or stress – but it is another thing to go out and experience and observe a chunk of a family’s life who have children with disabilities,
My son is nine years old and suffers from Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and mental retardation.He was born prematurely and critically ill. Though odds were very much against him, he made it. A year later, after his first MRI, we first heard the words Cerebral Palsy. By the age of two I knew he was Autistic but we could not get a diagnosis until he was seven. He was put on medication to help his self-abusive behaviors and self-stimulation.
tried giving him a drink or some food in the hope that she had guessed
This interview was conducted to assess whether siblings of children with autism were at greater risk of emotional and behavioral problems. In the interview, 50% of the participants stated that siblings of children with autism are not at greater risk for emotional and behavioral problems. The other 50% of participants stated that siblings of children with autism are at risk for some emotional and behavioral problems because of the time and attention taken away from the siblings. Moreover, all participants reported that the relationship between siblings of children with autism normally are varies. Some siblings are upset because of the challenging behaviors of their autistic siblings and sometimes, they do not want anything to do with their siblings.
Over the past few weeks, a number of local education agencies (“LEA”) have raised questions about special education prior written notice (“PWN”). Failure to provide legally sufficient PWN continues to be a frequent allegation in special education due process hearing. In fact, six of the Texas Education Agency’s (“TEA”) 2017 published special education decisions involve the issue of PWN. While the statutory requirements for the content of PWN can be found at 34 CFR 300.503, we would like to share some practical advice and address some common misconceptions.
I sent out multiple emails, trying to find someone willing or have the time to answer my interview question. The first person I interviewed was the Head of the Special Education Department, in my High School, Sue Shlapack. The first question I asked her was what advice would you give a future special education teacher? She responded with really listening to the parent. What I found interesting was Shlapack not only said to listen but said why by explaining how in her experience most parents are feeling. “Some parents present as feeling very guilty that their child has a disability. Reassure parents that they are doing a good job and that you understand that parenting can be difficult for anyone.” I never really considered this angle of thought
According to Morgenegg (2013), when you first learn that your child has a disability, the parenting practices will suffer and be affected. At first, they will experience sadness and sorrow, but through positive parental practices, they can get all things synchronize and satisfying as to the positive view of life. Parents should move forward and adjust to whatever happens once they found out and knew the disability possessed by their child. Parenting practices help give awareness to every family member to be aware and do all possible things that can improve their situation. They may take time to adjust to their child but, parents should also give enough positive encouragement to their disabled child.
Rachel is a sixth grader with specific learning disabilities, lately she has not been completing her homework, receiving low grades on tests, and is not passing any of her classes. She has no drive or determination to do well in her classes. Students with learning disabilities like Rachel has usually have average or better intelligence, though have trouble in processing information that affect their learning. According to (Walcot-Gayda, Ph. D., 11/02/ 2001). Learning disabilities refer “to a number of disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information. A learning disability can be identified by consistent low grades and under achievement like Rachel exhibits in school.