Archive for May, 2010

Five Novels That Treat People With Special Needs With Respect

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Five Novels That Treat People With Special Needs With Respect

My older daughter has cerebral palsy, and living with her over the past 19 years has given me a sensitive gag reflex for the way people with special needs are portrayed in Hollywood movies. Novelists — not surprisingly — handle these characters with considerably more depth and complexity. Here’s a list of five novels for which I’m particularly grateful.

1. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski (2008).
This enormous debut novel had already been on the bestseller list for months when Oprah chose it last week for her popular book club. And what an excellent choice it is. Loosely based on Hamlet, this tender and suspenseful story is about a mute boy and his special breed of eerily aware dogs in a small Wisconsin town. Some of the most enchanting moments describe the private sign language Edgar has developed to communicate with people and animals.

2. Up High in the Trees, by Kiara Brinkman (2007).
I know people raved about Mark Haddon’s Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, but to me its depiction of autism relied on too many savant parlor tricks. I prefer this heartbreaking story of a little boy with Asperger’s syndrome. His family is struggling to function in the months after his mother’s death. Some sections are almost too emotionally painful to read.

Deafening.jpeg3. Deafening, by Frances Itani (2003).
The heroine of this Canadian novel loses her hearing as a child in the early 20th century, but a sharp-eyed grandmother intervenes and makes sure she gets the education she deserves. Later, her love affair with a soldier sent to fight in WWI is portrayed from both sides: his hell in Europe, her worry at home. It’s bracing, romantic and captivating.

4. The Center of Everything, by Laura Moriarty (2003).
Ten-year-old Evelyn Bucknow tells this sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always insightful story about life with her welfare mother in a small Midwestern town. The title comes from the pastor at Evelyn’s church, and some of the best lines are Evelyn’s reflections on God and religion. When her ner’-do-well mom gives birth to a baby with special needs, their little family finds new reservoirs of patience and affection.

Lamb in Love.jpeg5. Lamb in Love, by Carrie Brown (1999).
My favorite romantic comedy is about an English postmaster, 55-years-old, who falls in love for the first time with an equally inexperienced woman. She’s the full-time nanny for a profoundly disabled man, and the three of them make a thoroughly charming little group in this novel that you cannot help but love.

Of course, these books are very different from one another, with lots to enjoy and appreciate, but one of the things I like about them all is the way they fluidly integrate people with special needs into their stories without sentimentality, pity or romanticism. Someday I hope life will imitate art.

By Ron Charles |  September 25, 2008; 7:00 AM ET

Taken From Washington Post

The Conference ” Positive Attitudes and Actions for Inclusion” -Apply for FREE Invitations

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

The Conference ” Positive Attitudes and Actions for Inclusion” featuring the award winning film “Including Samuel” together with a keynote address from Mr John Maloney TD, the Junior Minister for Disability delivering the key note speech is taking place in the D4 hotel on Thursday 7th October 2010 at 7.30 p.m..( See Including Samuel Link on home page)

This conference is invitation only and invites are free of charge.

Please send us your request for invitations together with your contact details and the contact details of all attendees and we will post out the invites as soon as we have them printed. Capacity is 850 people and to date we have 150 (approx) confirmed attendees- so book early to avoid disappointment!

We look forward to seeing you on the night!

National Council for Special Education – A help or a hindrance?

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE)NCSE_logo_03

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was set up to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children. The Council was first established as an independent statutory body by order of the Minister for Education and Science in December 2003.

Their local service is delivered through their national network of Special Educational Needs Organisers (SENOs) who interact with parents and schools and liaise with the HSE in providing resources to support children with special educational needs.

 A  key aim of the Council is to progressively improve the co-ordination between the education and health sectors in providing the supports for children with special educational needs. They are doing this through participation in the Education/Health Cross Sectoral Group which includes representation from the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Health and Children and the HSE at national level and through interaction with the HSE and their service providers at local level.

They now have a substantial research programme under way and will soon be publishing the results of the first of the projects. This research they claim will help to inform best practice in the special education area and provide a basis for developing policy advice as appropriate. Does this imply that the the Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education is not the policy?

The remit of the Council will be significantly extended as the EPSEN Act 2004 is commenced. While certain sections of the Act have been commenced, the implementation of key sections which confers statutory rights to assessment, education plans and appeals processes on children with special educational needs has been deferred due to the current economic circumstances. However, the Council will continue to work towards achieving the ambitions of the Act in every way possible, pending its commencement.

Why aren’t the Council protesting that they cannot do their work properly because of cutbacks?

The Council’s research report on the  Role of Special Schools and Classes in Ireland is a very poor and would suggest that the council will soon become part of the problem rather than a provider of solutions!

This council despite it’s good intentions is failing miserably to effect change in Special Needs Education and given that it does nothing to fight cutbacks that dramatically affect special needs education – its’ members should do the decent thing and resign!

 

 

 

Salamanca Revisited!

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

SalamancaI have mentioned the Salamanca Statement many times in these blogs – and I keep returning to it – as it articulates everything that needs saying about Inclusion and Inclusive Education.

“The challenge confronting the inclusive school is that of developing a child centered pedagogy capable of successfully educating all children,including those who have serious disadvantages and disabilities. The merit of such schools is not only that they are capable of providing quality education to all children; their establishment is a crucial step in helping to change discriminatory attitudes, in creating welcoming communities and in developing an inclusive society. A change in social perspective is imperative. For far too long, the problems of people with disabilities have been compounded by a disabling society that has focussed upon their impairments rather than their potential.”

 

” A child- centered pedagogy can help to avoid the wate of resources and the shattering of hopes that is all too frequently a consequence of poor quality instruction and a “one size fits all” mentality towards education”

It gets better and better and better as you read it ……. if you would like to read a full copy of the ” Salamanca Statement and Framework For Action on Special Needs education – please email tommy@myspecialneeds.ie  and we will email it back to you. It truly is profound, inspirational and something that must become a reality!

What Goes Around Comes Around!

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

A feel good story!

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”

Well, all she had was a flat tyre, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tyre. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.

After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.

There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard….
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”

And so say all of us!!

Free Pictures for Social Stories

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010