Renay was bouncing a few ideas around the office this week in preparation for October’s blog and then she had to go do some medical things. Unfortunately, the line the first time Renay went to get a flu shot was too long, the medical offices closed and she was not eligible to get the shot that day. So, when the next open slot happened a few weeks later, Renay went and got the shots a half hour earlier, they did stay open five minutes over. While Renay waited ninety minutes, she had the privilege of meeting a local adult with disabilities.
Renay knows most of the local adults with disabilities, but this one she had not ever truly met. This meeting came after a professional development day whose main idea was to identify goals for students and improve writing IEP goals. While IEP goals impact how paraeducators look to target work with students with disabilities, the end goal is to create a student who can be independent and interdependent when necessary. Looking to the moments that students can be independent and follow instructions may feel at some distant time especially if your student has more pressing needs like learning to communicate or medical needs.
Looking to the moments that students can be independent and follow instructions may feel at some distant time especially if your student has more pressing needs like learning to communicate or medical needs.
ParaEducate
This is no more apparent and timelier in the consideration of the impact of Hurricane Helene in several of the southeastern states of the United States. Those communities, cut off from the rest of the country waiting for the return of electricity, streets, and potable water have a lot to rebuild. For those schools and communities, the last thing on their minds is going forward with the school year. They will return to functioning communities with modern conveniences, but for the time being, the immediate need is ‘survival’.
This brings us to the idea that the behavior of students is a catch-all solution. Students wholly are not all idealistically behaved, regardless of disability or not. For the students who stand out behaviorally because of safety, respect, or communication, this raises challenges. Even more challenging is when three or more students exist in a classroom with behavioral needs and trying to balance all the things that the students need. Reaching out to the school behaviorists and other staff for suggestions on how to really leverage with a student, even when things that are appropriately reinforcing may not last long. Yes, some of the reinforcers may only last a week, but not to give up because those connections are building ways to help the student realize someone has invested an interest in the student. Even when the student shows that connection in the least appealing ways.
Good Not the Enemy
Renay was directed by a self-advocate who is critical of the new Disney movie, “Out of My Mind” which centers on the school experiences of a character who has Cerebral Palsy and uses an AAC. Renay read the book by Sharon Draper years ago, and fell in love with the book just because it was the opportunity to find a book that has a representation of not only a person with a disability but the representation of what it means to presume competence by adults around a child of disabilities.
The final trailer dropped, and the movie will be released in November. The place Renay needs to stay is that the truth remains: representation is critical for children with disabilities. It is not just the attitudes that can be positive and negative, but the use of AAC modeled for all. Additionally, the school moves from a limited model to an inclusive model for one student. While the idea is that all students are included academically and socially with like-aged peers, this representation looks at one opportunity.
We receive no compensation for mentioning this movie nor have we any vested interest in either Disney nor “Out of My Mind” by Sharon Draper.
If you haven’t heard
When ParaEducate started in 2012, we had a whole social media plan and part of that plan involved our involvement with Twitter and reaching our followers in that platform. Lately, while we still control our platform on the renamed X, we have not been posting on X in the last few months. We will retain control over our name and our interests through social media, but we will not be updating our followers on X.
Do you have any comments about this month’s blog? Do you have a question for us? Would you like to have an opportunity to pilot some materials at your campus? Find ParaEducate online here, here, here, and on our website. ParaEducate is a company providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published once a month during the academic school year. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.
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