Wednesday, March 2, 2011
disability vs delay
Last week, we talked about how a lot of children are put in special education classes just because of a delay, when really they do not have a disability. We talked how parents take the word 'disability' very seriuosly and sometimes personally. I wanted to share my story with an experience my mom had when I was younger. I have a older brother. Before I could really talk I would grunt noises all the time and somehow my brother knew exactly what I was saying or wanting everytime. So my grunting continued. Once I was four and in pre-school my parents began to realize I was not at my correct level I should of been with my language. After a couple of doctor visits the nurse told my mom that I had Second Child Syndrome. My mom felt terrible and blamed in all on herself. Soon enough thought (after the nurse felt bad) THe nurse explained there is really no such thing it just means I was delayed because my brother spoke for me. So teachers remember using the word 'diability' is not a joking matter!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Your right Jessica. The word choice is very important. Many parents do not want thier child to become enrolled into Special Education because they see it as negative and their child gets labeled as different. When a child is considered Developmental Delayed in pre-school or Kindergarten, they don't realize that with this extra help that many children can grow and learn so they do not develop a disability. That is our goal as special educators is to help the children grow and learn the same as their peers, not to pull them away and make them feel different.
ReplyDeleteExactly! My mom felt horrible and basically had a panic attack! haha. But ya, I had speach theropy for 4 years and now I never keep my outh shut is what my mom says!
ReplyDelete*mouth*
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have ever heard about the "Second Child Syndrome." It makes complete since after you explained how your brother was doing all the talking for you. But I guess I hadn't really thought about a child being delayed because of their sibling doing all the talking.
ReplyDeleteI also had to go to speech therapy classes while in elementary school and i felt how some of the kids feel having to be taken out and called out infront of the class like my school did when they had to be taken out for their disabilities classes. and also like you jessica i never stop talking now either :]
ReplyDelete