Meeting a Child with Special Needs

      When I arrived at the house my partner and I were assigned to I felt nervous. I was feeling a little under the weather, which created a bad attitude for meeting the family. When we got there we were instantly greeted with smiling parents and that eased away the tension I was feeling. When we sat down in the kitchen, there was the mom, dad, four sons, my partner and I. The family had prepared dinner for us and we had pizza, salad and brownies which made me feel even more comfortable as I was hoping it was food I recognized.  

Instantly we started talking, and the conversation was directed to their twelve year old son. Their son has several disabilities, but even with the disabilities he seems to live life almost as any other child would. Two major disabilities their son has is he can not speak (which I have never heard of) and he has Down syndrome. He has an electronic device which basically talks for him. It is very cool; I have never seen anything like it! He clicks on pictures and the pictures talk aloud so everyone around can hear it. We ate dinner and talked for about an hour but as it was getting dark we left. I felt the time flew by and my partner and I both felt like we had met the parents before.

I have learned from this experience how much you can learn about a family by just coming to their home. I learned that even with the son’s disability the family treats him basically the same. The parents want their son to feel normal and to be treated equal. I tried to put myself in the parent’s situation and it is a situation that is scary and is something parents really have to fight with. They want to their son to be in a normal classroom as much as possible. Their son is in fourth grade and so far the parents and him have had pretty good communication with his teachers in the past. Their son has had pullouts but at a minimum.   

            I have learned that every child and every parent want their child to feel like an equal, feel like they fit in. I think before I met this family I had this idea that children with disabilities wouldn’t notice that they are different and that they wouldn’t care if they didn’t do everything that the other children do. I underestimated children with disabilities. I think one reason why I did is because I really don’t know anyone who has special needs, and so I didn’t know what to think. I have learned that children with disabilities do notice they are different and do notice when they get different treatment. They boy I met wants to do the same thing as the rest of the students in his class, he notices when he is getting or doing something different, and does not like it.

            I have learned as a teacher when dealing with a child with a disability that communication with the student and the parents is key. The family I met with felt like that was one of the biggest components for their son to be successful in the classroom. It seems like such an easy thing to do but a lot of teachers do not communicate with parents. When I become a teacher, I know now to try and include every student to the fullest, no matter what their needs or disabilities are, but try and differentiate the activities or learning instead. After meeting the family it dawned on me that everyone wants to feel included and feel like they fit in, why would it be any different for a child with a disability? I am glad I was able to meet this particular family and feel very blessed for being able to as I think it opened my eyes and my perspective for children with disabilities.