After reading my textbook, Parents and Families of Children with Disabilities, for class last week two chapters caught my attention. First, there was a chapter discussing how and in what ways to provide support for siblings of children with disabilities. As a future educator, I tried to come up with activities in which I could allow siblings to discuss the disability with the class where everyone would be involved. In order to create that community feel in the classroom, we must embrace our differences. By allowing student to do a presentation or a whole group activity on the rug where other students can ask questions and become familiar with the disability and what the sibling goes through would allow students to understand one another differences.
Not only providing siblings with support, the book discusses ways of providing parents with support as well. I thought it was interesting that one of the stress coping strategies would be to have the parent make of list of all the stressors in his or her life. After the parent has completed the list then one by one you go through and ask yourself is there anything I can do about it? What can I do now? and if there is nothing, discuss coping strategies with the parent. One coping strategy was to tense up core muscles and release.
All good strategies and important information to keep in mind when I get my future classroom.
http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Families-Children-Disabilities-School-Based/dp/0130194883
Hi Brooke - I also found those chapters to be informative. An activity that could be used along with the one you mentioned would be to have a "Sibling Day". All of the students could share their siblings. Students could discover the differences and similarities and celebrate the diversity. The sibling of a child with a disability may be able to relate to and possibly find commonalities that may help with or support how they feel about their sibling. I have enjoyed reading your blog and look forward to learning more!
ReplyDeleteBrooke,
ReplyDeleteI think that having time like this set aside for your students to discuss feelings that they may have inside is a great way to build a community in your classroom. This also gives students the opportunity to know one another on a more personal level because they will also know how their family life can be.
ReplyDeleteشركات تنظيف في خورفكان
شركة تنظيف في الشارقة
تصليح مكيفات دبي