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Education and the Disabled – Your Rights

July 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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For those who have children who are disabled, it is often very difficult to find a balance between giving that child the protected environment you want to provide and giving them the education they need. However, you do have rights. It is a good idea for parents to take steps to understand what those rights are.

Disabled Children and Rights

For most who live in the United States, going to school is a given. It is a constitutional right, in fact. Keeping this in mind, you may wonder what happens with disabled children. How do they get the care they need?

  • Talk to your city’s educational superintendent. This is the person in charge of the schools. Find out what your school does for disabled children when cannot attend school as everyone else does.
  • Do consider the advantages of teaching at home. Homeschooling can be a good option for many disabled teachers. Your school district may supplement that for you.
  • It can be a good idea to turn to an attorney if you just are not getting help and support. If you find your school or state is not willing to provide what your children need, now is the time to get help from an attorney.

In most cases, you have options. You need to simply ask for the help that is available. It is a good idea to know what to expect before taking your child into a typical classroom. Counselors and specialized teachers can often help and provide important information to you.

 

Filed Under: Education, Students Tagged With: , ,

Discipline and the Special Needs Child

June 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Parents of a special needs child can sometimes find themselves in sticky situations in regards to disciplining their special needs child. Most parents realize too late that discipline should start earlier rather than later. While you may not be able to discipline a special needs child the same way you would a child without disabilities, you can adapt your disciplinarian techniques to your special needs child. Adapting is something that a special needs parent know all about.

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Create simple rules for the whole house. Use simplified rules according to your child’s ability to understand them. Cover the most problematic behaviors first and then work from there. However, do not throw a lot of rules and regulations at your child at one time. Start with five or ten and you can begin to build from that. It may take a while to get the first five or ten down before you can move on to others.

Always praise for positive behaviors. Let’s face it what child doesn’t like praise at any age or cognitive level. When you reinforce the good behaviors, children will be more likely to repeat them. When the child preforms several good behaviors in a row, reward the child with something that they really love. The same can go for bad behavior, by taking the object away from the child, the child will make the connection. Not right away but eventually. This leads to the next topic.

Be consistent with discipline, without consistency chaos reigns. This rings true for every child but especially those with special needs. You provide structure for your child to live by and special needs children thrive on structure.

 

Filed Under: Parents, Specialty Schools Tagged With: , ,

Toys For A Handicapped Child

March 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Disabled children learn important skills through playing with toys just as any child does.  It is more important with disabled children.  This is how they learn some fine motor skills as well as how to extend the skills they already employ for everyday use.  You want to make sure that the toys you are getting are not only appropriate for the child’s individual needs but that it also meets the age level too.

Touching, hearing, and seeing objects are important developmental tools for handicapped children.  A child who cannot hear will benefit from toys that are very bright and visual.  It would do no good to get a deaf child a talking doll if they can’t hear it.  However, shapes that light up when you touch them would be a good toy for a deaf child.  The same goes for a child that has no sight.  A light up toy would be pointless to a sightless child.  But, a toy that is loud and that has different textures on it is an appropriate toy for the sightless.  The toy should fit the handicap and should entertain the children as well as teach them.  No one wants to play with a boring toy.

Depending on your child’s mental as well physical ability depends on what age level the toy should be.  If your child tends to put things in their mouth, then the toys should have no small parts on it.  A child with a severe mental handicap will not benefit from a toy that is very complex.  The toy should be interesting and fun for the child.

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Tips For Raising A Special Needs Child

March 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It is hard to raise kids these days.  If you have a special needs child your load just got a lot heavier.  It takes extra effort and thought on the part of parents with a special needs child.  More often than not you are sleep deprived your energy is drained and you still have to maintain some sort of normalcy to your life and schedule for your other children.  Between doctor’s appointments, work and your child’s education needs your life can get pretty hectic.  Here are a few tips for parents with a special needs child.

The biggest thing that you probably are already familiar with is patience, patience and more patience.  You are learning just as much if not more so than your child.  A special needs child will take longer to learn and understand concepts than a normal child sometimes a lot longer if at all.  You may have to train yourself to accept that this is what it takes to help your child progress.  Do not stress you or your child out.

Understand your child’s personality.  If the child cannot speak her wishes, you should understand that she still has a mind and personality all her own.  If you need to cater a little bit to her needs then do so.  Even if your child has full capabilities it is still a good idea to cater to their needs as long as it is not hurting them.

Try not to cloister your child.  Protecting your children is an automatic thing for parents, for moms in particular.  You are not helping your child by protecting her from all harms.  Let your child experience things as other children would.

Filed Under: Parents, Teachers Tagged With: , ,

The Differences In Gifted And Exceptional Students

March 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Every parent is concerned with their children’s learning capabilities.  As parent’s we often wonder if our child is where he should be developmentally.  So when a school tells us that our child is gifted or exceptional, what exactly does that mean?  You may think your child is gifted but maybe your school does not agree.  Below you will find what exactly gifted and exceptional really means.

When a teacher tells you your child is gifted it could mean broadly or specifically.  A gifted child excels in areas of study either creatively, intellectually or in specific areas of academics.  Your child may be way ahead of his peers in his reading level but cannot write a complete sentence.  Also, your child may excel across the board on all subjects.  Parents will often find that their gifted children have a hard time making friends with children their age.  Either because the child is so far advanced the other kids feel put off by that or because they choose not to associate with their peers.  Most gifted children are very humorous because of their quick thinking minds and they tend to get along with people who are older than they are.

Exceptional children encompass all children who have some type of learning disability.  These children can be either in a traditional classroom setting or need to be taught in a separate classroom depending on what their individual needs and learning ability happens to be.  Gifted children and exceptional children often have the same personality traits with the exception of their learning ability.  There are children who are classified as twice exceptional because they are not only gifted but they also have a learning disability.  The gifted may be overlooked because of the disability.

The school uses screening tests for both gifted and exceptional children.  So that your child will get the best education that they can receive.

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A Passion for Teaching

January 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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A passion for teaching is necessary for anyone entering the teaching profession, but nowhere is this more evident than when one’s career goal is that of teaching special needs children. While dealing with their diagnosed special needs, whether they are physical, mental, or emotional is rewarding, it takes a certain “something” that only a few people possess. For this reasons, those who pursue degrees, especially in early childhood education, where so many of these children first enter the academic setting, are highly sought.

It is these people whose passion and emotion for teaching must far exceed that of other teachers. Fortunately, in the majority of cases, these teachers rise to the occasion in ways we may not be able to fathom.

Sometimes a person may be studying for an early childhood education degree and through some opportunity — perhaps a student teaching assignment or a substitute teaching job during one’s free time—this person discovers that she has that passion for teaching required to teach special needs children. For this person, the option of taking online courses through such resources as elearners.com can help them make this a realization.

This can be especially true if a person is nearing the last eighteen months to one year of college. This revelation may come at this time, since this is when many people begin to participate in actual classroom settings, and the concern that the courses covered so far may not be sufficient to meet this challenge may surface.

However, by utilizing resources such as elearners.com, one can receive the education needed to succeed in this calling (for this indeed is what it very well may be), because the courses that will prepare them for the many emotional challenges that come with teaching special needs children will be available. This is in addition to others that a person may feel necessary in order to pursue this rewarding but very different career path.

Filed Under: Education, Teachers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Understanding Expressive Language Disorder

December 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Expressive language disorder (ELD) is usually a childhood disorder and it usually manifests itself during the grade school years because that is when the child is most likely going to start communicating with other children his age on a consistent basis. There are actually two different types of the disorder. The first comes without any known cause and can manifest itself without any real type of warning. The other type of ELD actually occurs after a traumatic brain injury thanks to blunt force trauma or some other catastrophic event. Acquired ELD can also occur after someone suffers a stroke, though obviously that particular ELD is not occurring very often in school age children.

Developmental ELD is the type that generally shows up in students and children and can very much get in the way of learning and interacting with their fellow students and teachers. Imagine you understand exactly the question you want to ask of your teacher and yet you simply cannot get the words out. Now imagine that you are out on the playground trying to enjoy recess but you cannot play with the other children because they don’t understand what you are trying to tell them. This is the problem many students with ELD face.

Generally speaking, fixing developmental ELD can be done with extensive therapy with a speech therapist. Eventually a therapist can explain to the child several different tricks that will allow them to express themselves in a way that allows them to get along in school. Eventually developmental ELD can be overcome completely and put aside like it was a very bad cold. Of course Acquired ELD’s prognosis is much worse because the onset is usually triggered by actual physical damage to the brain. While treatment may eventually make the Acquired ELD manageable, there is seldom a real cure for this type of disorder.

Filed Under: ESE Classrooms, Specialty Schools Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Learning Disorders Are Not the End of the World

December 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment

When a child is first told that the reason they are having problems in school is because they have one learning disorder or another some families feel as though this might be the worst news they have ever gotten. What family members and the children need to realize is that while being diagnosed with a learning disorder is not actually good news it does meant that help is just around the corner and that the student’s struggles are not because he is somehow less than other students.

Once the diagnosis has been made, treatment can begin and the child can begin to actually beginning to learn in a way they had a problem before. As long as the family can approach the diagnosis as a sign of real hope because they finally have an answer to the problems their child was experiencing then being diagnoses with Dyslexia can be something they can all build a future upon.

Living with Dyslexia is also something that has become much more manageable over the last few decades as more and more information has become known about the disorder. With the latest developments in treatments with learning disabilities like Dyslexia the disorder is something that can be overcome with just a modicum of effort and understanding by the child and their family. Of course having a teacher on the child’s side will also mean the difference between overcoming the disorder and succumbing to it. A teacher who understands that while the child will need a little bit of extra rope when they have first been diagnosed, that extra level of patience will pay off in the long run both with the child and the kind of work he is doing in the classroom. When teachers and family members band together to help the child overcome something like Dyslexia, there is a much better chance of the diagnosis being less of a problem.

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Educating Your Child About Their Dyslexia

December 22, 2010 by Leave a Comment

One of the biggest problems when dealing with Dyslexia is convincing the child who has been diagnosed that the problems are not rooted in that child being stupid but rather it is a problem they cannot overcome without help and that IQ is not a factor. Children who are fresh off a diagnosis of Dyslexia often feel as though they are the only people in the world who have the disorder and that it means the end of the world for them. Families and teachers of kids who have been diagnosed with Dyslexia need to make the children realize that there is treatment and that what they have isn’t so different that it needs to change their whole world.

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that can affect someone’s ability to read and write but it does not mean that they can’t learn a way to do both as if nothing was wrong after a period of time. Unlike some learning disorders which are marginally treatable at best, Dyslexia treatment basically involves retraining your brain to do something, but it can be retrained. Dyslexia is not a life sentence the way its mathematical counterpart Dyscalculia is. Dyslexia can even be worked around even if you cannot completely retrain your brain by understand the context in which words are being used and therefore they can suss out the meaning and spelling of the word.

Children who are diagnosed with this particular disorder most of all need to know that they are not going to have to face it alone. They need to know that their family is going to be there with them, is willing to spend the time that needs to be spent in order to work around the problem and that they don’t think any less of the person with the disorder. This will go a long way in helping the child get over the initial shock and deal with the problem head on.

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Dealing With ADD and ADHD

December 12, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Imagine you are sitting in your fourth grade class every day, all day and you feel as though there is a tidal force pulling you away from what you are supposed to be focused on. Imagine that the harder you struggle to focus the stronger this pull becomes. You don’t want to be the kid in the class who is constantly being told to be quiet; you don’t want to be the kid in the class that the rest of the students give a wide berth because you are impinging on their education as well. But you cannot help yourself.

This is the problem that children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have to deal with every day of their lives. These are not kids who suddenly decided they want to be the problem in the classroom. These are not kids who simply one day woke up and decided they had no interest in learning the same things the other kids in their class was learning. What teachers and parents and school administrators have a hard time understanding is that this isn’t a matter of choice any more than being an alcoholic chooses to hurt themselves with booze. This is a disorder they cannot control and need real help to gain any semblance of freedom from the symptoms.

There is treatment out there, there are drugs that can be dispense if the right licensed professional feels that is the way to go, there are also treatments that deals with the way the child feels inside that can at least allow them to tamp down the urges to fidget and squirm and lose focus. This is not a matter of a child suddenly wanting nothing to do with school it is a matter of a child who has a disease that can be treated if properly diagnosed.

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