Chapter 1 (in Friend)

Chapter 1

-          When talking about Thomas, his grades were not mentioned. His acting out could have been from boredom. He seems pretty smart when it comes to terminology. I feel like they should have done more observations on him and record keeping before going to autism as the reason.

-          I think that Angel’s story goes to show how much a child with such a disability, can accomplish. Due to the fact that Angela had support at home and at the school, she was able to be successful. Also, the guardian and school professionals were able to build a relationship that a loud them to work together = teamwork.  http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/resource_infoBrief/nichcy_org_pubs_factshe_fs4_pdf.html This website has a really good and quick explanation of down syndrome. IT also talks a little bit about how the school system deals with these situations, especially as soon as the children are diagnosed.

-          When I was in one of my field experiences I saw some mainstreaming. The special needs children would join the regular class for a certain period, and were buddied up with someone. The immediate positive thing I saw was how responsible the non-special needs children became once they received their buddy for the time. I think that it also teaches them respect for one another even though they are different, and this is something they will defiantly need outside of school.

-          Whenever I think about or a professor is discussing the Brown v. Board of Education case, the topic is colored children integrating. Reading about it further in this book has made me realize that it affected other diverse groups including special needs children.  http://www.nichcy.com/ - when I went to this site I saw how there were still many lawyers out there that are here to protect the disabled of all ages, which is good.  However, these days people unfortunately abuse the system.

-          As  I’m thinking and reading about all of the different court cases that deal with special needs children going to school, I am reminded of my aunt. She has cerebral palsy and is either in a wheel chair or on crutched.  So back then, before all of these acts were brought up she probably wouldn’t have been allowed to go to a regular school. She went to college and then continued with a master’s and now she is a speech pathologist, helping children with special needs.

-          When dealing with special needs children I think that the cross-categorical approach has a good point to it. This is “where more attention is paid to students’ learning needs than to their labels” (Friends pg 2). I think this is so important because if you pay attention to what they needs then they might do better than they were ever expected. 

-          http://www.kidstogether.org/disability-respect.htm I thought that this link helped give some good quick tips about how to approach or more easily be around a person with special needs. Of course it doesn’t cover most things, but just a few tips for a person that has never really approached a person with special needs. I have never dealt with a deaf person so it was neat to read those tips. These tips are called the 10 commandments of etiquette for communicating with people with disabilities.