Students with Physical Disabilities

Today in class, I had a hard time not taking over and lecturing people on my personal views on physical disabilities. As I have commented before, I spent a memorable two months on crutches and a decent amount of time walking around with a bad limp. For this reason, I often consider myself to be a great expert on physical disabilities, whether or not this is true.

At any rate, there are a lot of things that I have to say for this blog post.

In class, we discussed accommodations for students with physical disabilities. Careful and methodical planning cannot be under-stressed. Here are a few things I would like to build on from what I learnt in class:

Manoeuvrability
Can the student move between the tables and chairs in the classroom?
Are surfaces slippery?
Will surfaces become slippery when wet?
Crutches and rubber wheels get snow caught in them, which can make surfaces more slippery.
What strategies will you put in place?

Travel Time
Will a student need extra travel time or to move to different areas when there is lower traffic?
Will the student need to rest while moving from one place to another?
It is very depressing to make your way somewhere alone because you trailing behind a group travelling at a faster rate than you. Take this into account for travel times. Consider pairing student with a physical disability who travels at a slower rate with another student so that they can move together (at the same pace!) and keep each other company. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes a world of difference.

Carrying Belongings
Will the student be able to carry their own belongings, or will they sometimes need assistance?
Should you designate another student to help?

Sport Participation
What modifications will you consider so that the student can participate in Physical Education class? Please see below for more details on this.

Inclusive Language
We discussed this in class, and I realized it was something that I had never considered before, even though I have experienced this myself. My classmate gave a really great example: compare "Please take a seat." with "Come join us in the circle." If a student is in a wheelchair, the first option is excluding that student.
When I was on crutches, a friend described me to someone else as "The girl with the crutches." This was a little weird and a little hurtful. Suddenly, my (temporary) disability was a descriptor. It made me wonder if that was all people saw me as, and it also made me wonder how my friend would have described me before I had broken my leg.

This summer, I was lucky enough to shadow an occupational therapist for a morning as she went about her rounds. She had a lot of experience working in classroom settings. I was able to talk to her about making accommodations for students with physical disabilities, including making sure that there is an accessible bathroom on site. There are many little details like this one which you don't really think of unless you have a physical disability or have particular training in accommodating physical disabilities. I think that I would want to have a good talk with an occupational therapist (preferably the student's occupational therapist, if they have one) about accommodating a physical disability in order to ensure I was addressing everything.

 I'd also like to mention Emotional Needs, as I mentioned in my last post. When I had a broken leg, I felt a little useless. I needed help to do so much! I couldn't shop for groceries on my own (and believe me, I tried), and I couldn't even carry a bowl of soup from the stove to the kitchen table. My self-esteem  plummeted and I felt guilty that I was so reliant on others.

Moreover, I was often reluctant to ask for help, even if I couldn't manage. In the end, I would end up getting hurt (like the famous time I tried to take out the compost bin by myself on a dark and icy night) and ultimately hurting other people's feelings because I was rejecting their help.

I think it is really important to be aware of the emotional difficulties of a physical disability. I want to be there for my students to confide in. I want to be supportive, but I also want to guide them away from behaviour like the ones I described above. This is especially important for a recently acquired disability, or one which has recently evolved to become more challenging.

In class, we also discussed turning a physical disability into an asset. I love stories like the one of Luca "LazyLegz" Patuelli I'd like to share my favourite here: http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

This is a Ted talk given my Aimee Mullins, who has two prosthetic legs. In the video, she describes how she has turned what could be interpreted as a physical disability into an advantage. In particular, Mullins talks about wearing a particular pair of prosthetic legs to a party. This particular pair has substantial heels, which make Aimee quite tall.
"That's not fair!" says someone at the party.

Freeze frame! Just in case you didn't catch that, someone at the party is envious of Aimee's prosthetic legs because they are giving her an advantage.

Later on in the video, Aimee describes working with an elementary school class. She discusses making prosthetics with the class, and one student asks, "What if they could make you fly?"

I love Aimee's examples of how to transcend a physical disability and make it into a positive asset. While this may always be possible, I think it is very important to keep this idea in mind. You can choose to be debilitated by a setback, or you can keep going and look for the positives. As an educator, I want to work as hard as I can to accommodate a student as much as I can, both in terms of physical accommodations, and in terms of providing emotional support. Most of all, I refuse to view a physical disability as a "downside." Different abilities have different needs, and it is my job to help all of my students shine either despite their difficulties or because they have harnessed a potential difficulty and turned it into a triumph.

Learning Disabilities

"Okay," I said to my student, "you're working really hard on that 'K.' Let's have a few more goes to see if we can get it down pat."

I watched in dismay as time after time, the 'K' came out of the pencil lopsided, like an 'R' with all the lines  going in the wrong direction. No matter how much I coached the student through the process, it was always the same. I could talk him through every detail of pencil movement, or none at all. It didn't seem to make a difference. At one point, I even considered the idea that my student might have hearing issues, but I remembered that he responded promptly to his own name. 

"Gee," I thought to myself as I wrote up my experience in my teaching journal, "he just didn't get me."

After my class on learning disabilities, this student's issue finally made sense. I suspect that the student had a learning disability which prevented him from understanding or retaining my instructions. I spent a lot of time with him, often reviewing information we had covered before (especially that infamous 'K'), which seemed to have vanish from his memory. 

Moreover, the student was very quiet and often struggled to form complex sentences, another sign. Many students with learning disabilities simply have trouble understanding language.

My time with this student happened when I was in eleventh grade, volunteering in a kindergarten classroom. I realized then that the student's difficulty with learning was not anyone's fault-not mine, for not teaching well enough; not his for not trying hard enough. We were both trying our best. 

I did a little research on learning disabilities, starting with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqDq0fimXk 

This six-minute video is narrated by a boy with a learning disability. He is also dealing with ADD (his term) and, I suspect, depression. Although Andrew (the narrator of the video) is in high school, I think he expresses valid points which are also applicable to elementary school.

I would like to draw out a few important things that were mentioned in the video:

1. Things come too fast. Andrew says he needs more time to do things. A strategy for dealing with a student with a learning disability should be giving them more time to complete a task. Time pressures will just increase stress.

2. Andrew has a hard time understanding how other people can organize themselves quickly and effectively. Andrew has a lot of trouble getting himself organized at the end of class; he cannot fathom why his things are always so messy.

3. Andrew has worked hard to get into a leadership position which is a source of confidence and pride.

This is important because a student with a learning disability often struggles especially with low self-esteem and loneliness which can be symptomatic of the learning disability. Having a leadership position helps him to connect with others and to gain respect from peers who he might normally consider superior to him, for instance because of their ability to be organized. (see number 2)

4. Andrew has found someone else who also has a learning disability. He has someone with whom he can commiserate, who really understands what he is going through. Andrew complains of feeling lonely, so making a new friend could be really helpful.

Points 3 and 4 demonstrate an important point not just in learning disabilities, but in special education: educators need to target two main issues with the student. First of all, teachers need to modify their instruction, assessment, and classroom environment for the student, making sure that the student can do as well as possible in school (IEPs in particular can be helpful). Second of all, teachers need to be vigilant for signs that a learning disability is taking an emotional toll on the student. Feelings of isolation, frustration, and inferiority to other students can be cripplingly depressing. Giving students opportunities to shine can be a great validation technique. Furthermore, facilitating a friendship with another student can be extremely helpful for feelings of acceptance. 

We focus a lot on learning about how to change our methods of teaching (like IEPs) to help students with special needs to learn best. We need to remember to focus on the student as a person, too, with feelings and a personality who may be struggling to cope with  special needs. What that student needs more than any learning is to feel safe and accepted.

Introduction

Introduction

If you have never experienced something, you probably don't know much about it. If you have lived in the tropics all your life, how can you really know about frost? If do not suffer from a disease, how can you really know how difficult it can be? If you have never been discriminated against, how can you really know how much it hurts? You may not know how hard things can be, but even worse, you may not know that some hardships exist at all.

I used to be frustrated by people who shuffled down stairs, clutching railings. I used to sigh with impatience as someone on crutches "hogged" the sidewalk. I silently disparaged people on the bus in wheelchairs, who took so much time to be safely buckled in. I am not proud of my behaviour, and I am thankful for the chance to turn myself around and really understand.

Two years ago, on a fateful ice skating trip, I lost my balance and fell, ripping apart my ankle joint. Three days later, after an x-ray and a cat scan and a lot of time sitting being wheeled around in a wheel chair, doctors cut open my leg, screwed my tibia back together, and sent me home on crutches.

The next 8 weeks were the longest of my life. Living in Canada, I had to contend with a snowy January and February with only one functional leg and two crutches which represented at once my difficulties and offered my only means of escaping the confines of a chair. Distances which I could have covered on two legs in 30 seconds seemed to stretch long and treacherous as the Fundy Footpath. Climbing stairs looked about as safe as climbing Mount Everest without a rope. I was at the mercy of people who often didn't know that I needed help, or how to help at all.

Slowly, I learnt to walk again, at first clutching everything in reach, and then proudly adding a whole new meaning to "Look, Mom, no hands!" I am grateful every day for the ability to walk, and with my gratefulness I also remember how difficult it was for me when I couldn't walk. My opinions of people with disabilities have radically changed, and so has my attitude towards other equity issues. I am painfully aware of other issues which I may not know enough about and people who I may not treat with the respect they deserve.

I hope that my class on exceptional learners and equity issues in the classroom will help me not just to be more aware and accommodating of exceptional students, but also more aware and accommodating of equity issues in the world around me.

My first readings for the class were Realizing the Promise of Diversity: Ontario's Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy and Equity and Inclusive Education in Ontario Schools: Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation. These two policy documents outlined the Ontario Ministry of Education's policies on equity and inclusive education, which helped explain relevant equity issues in the classroom and suggested ways I could target equity issues within my classroom and the larger school community. 

Both of these were fairly lengthy papers, so I tried to condense them into my main "takeaway" after reading and taking notes: 

We need to work to reduce gaps in student achievement, particularly those caused by equity issues, and increase overall student achievement. Furthermore, we need to increase general confidence in public education. 

I was impressed by the methods these documents suggested: teamwork and collaboration on every level, with students, teachers, the school board, and the wider community all contributing and making an effort to increase equity in the classroom and welcome exceptional learners. Making a big change in the school community is not something you can do alone; you need everyone on board. 

This link is a short clip which summarizes what I will be learning this year and why it is so important. Essentially, I need to make sure that I am catering to all the students in my class, making sure that they are getting the best education possible. Over the course of the year, I will learn how to cater to different needs--every student is unique, and I cannot try to wedge all my students into a cookie cutter scheme of how they should be and how they should learn. 

When I first started thinking about differentiated instruction and equity issues in the classroom, I have to admit that my heart sank. More work?! More planning?! Couldn't students just learn to adapt?

Then, I remembered by high school biology teacher, Miss S. (You'll hear a lot about Miss S. in this blog) I was in a challenging biology class which was fast-paced and required students to work hard to understand material. Everyone in the class was expecting to pursue a science-related career. None of the students had an IEP. However, Miss S. differentiated her instruction as a matter of course. Every homework assignment had three options: one for people who learned by getting creative, one for people who liked to ponder the deeper implications, and one for people who valued practicality. For example, an assignment about Carbon Dioxide in respiration had these options:
1. write a poem about Carbon Dioxide use in respiration (creative!)
2. a case study about a situation where several people are in a confined space with limited oxygen. Students should consider the implications of this situation (deeper implications!)
3. Make a chart which illustrated Carbon Dioxide use (practical!)

Though this was not an IEP, Miss S. was differentiating her teaching to suit different learners so that everybody could learn best. Hopefully, with a little work, I'll be able to do it as naturally as she did.

Here are details on the two Ontario Ministry of Education policy papers I mentioned:

Canada. Ontario Ministry of Education. Realizing the Promise of Diversity: Ontario's Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy. Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009. Web. 23 Sep. 2012.

Canada. Ontario Ministry of Education. Equity and Inclusive Education in Ontario Schools: Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation. Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009. Web. 23 Sep. 2012.