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Last week at my children's elementary school, they had a program on disabilities and how they might be able to better understand their peers that live with these disabilities. The program was developed by a mom who has a son who is Autistic.
The purpose of the program was to teach these kids (ages 5-11) what it must be like to walk in another's shoes. I was able to volunteer to be a part of this program. I was there all day and truth be told, I loved every second of it. To see the light bulb moments these kids had when we would ask them to perform a task that they would normally be able to do, but were somehow impaired and unable to do without thinking outside the box was amazing! They had to draw their own conclusions about disabilities and the possible ease or difficulty they might entail.
The program was designed to:
-- Help kids understand disabilites
-- Give them tasks they can relate to
-- Have them try these things in a short amount of time
-- Maintain educational merit so as to be considered a learning event in school.
The program is set up in such a way that hopefully the students will be able to explore and understand through attempting tasks using adaptations and modifications of their own abilities.
Some of these activities included:
-- Strapping heavy weight belts to the arms, legs and waists of the students to help simulate MD. To demonstrate how hard it is to use your muscles and make them do what you want them to do.
-- Putting one arm in a sling behind the students' back and then getting them to lace and tie a shoe one handed.
-- Steer a wheelchair through a track with cones that have tennis bells on top of them. The goal behind to manage the track (sidewalk) without knocking off a cone.
Other activities included ways to help children relate to autism, deafness, blindness, asthma, speech impediments and Cerebral Palsy.
It was amazing the watch these kids suddenly gain some understanding of what it must be like to NOT be able to leave the station and move on, but to live this way all the time. I heard comments like, "You have a good arm and I have a good arm, let's help each other." I saw some kids trying to help me to understand the kids who were attempting the speech impairment experiment.
Can you teach students to be more understanding of their peers with disabilities? I certainly hope so. I do know that programs like these are a wonderful way to start.
What are you doing to help you child learn to be more understanding and gain a better knowledge of how other people live? Better yet, what are you doing to help yourself better understand those with disabilities? When you come across a blog of someone who shares that his/her child is Autistic, do you stay around to learn more or automatically think, "I have nothing in common with them." What about someone who is deaf? Do you try to learn the best way to communicate with them in real life be it through sign language or lip reading or do you write them off?
It is a small world we will in. It would be better if we all took the time to understand each other.
Have you read the adventures of leelo and his potty-mouthed mom?
Or maybe Autism Diva?
Or even Second Chance to Live?
No? Then check them out and while you are at it, you really do need to go see The Gimp Parade.
Read It. Learn It. Live It.
BlogHer Contributing Editor Jenn Satterwhite also blogs at Mommy Needs Coffee, Mommybloggers and Aggroqueen.
