Insights From Those Who Know About What It Means To Live With a Disability
The first day of school is a reminder that your child is a year older and growing up. The insights of those who’ve grown up with disabilities are essential to parents like me, trying to help our kids on the road to adulthood.
On the blog The Thinking Person Guide to Autism are two posts by adults on the spectrum about what they wished they had known when they were in school. Louise Nebeker, recalling transitioning from a special education classroom to a typical first grade one, writes that “I wish I had known not to be ashamed to ask for accommodations and support during my school years.”
Nick Walker also reflects on his earlier years in school, noting that he wished he could have known then what he learned as a teenager and adult: “ I wish I’d known the things that I later learned through aikido training: the self-regulation and self-defense skills; the ability to both inwardly access and outwardly convey calm centeredness and physical confidence. And I wish I’d known that I wasn’t alone, that I would eventually find more and more people like me.”
Erin Breedlove at Healthy, Unwealthy, and Becoming Wise writes about getting started for another year in college. Erin has cerebral palsy and her post, Five Things All Professors Should Know, is a must-read not only for college professors but for teachers of students with disabilities. One point I’d like to highlight is Erin’s first one, “students with disabilities are students first.”
That’s the best advice I can think to pass on as we all face a new school year. Wishing everyone a very good one!
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