Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs children?

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PrettyPrincess
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Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs children?

Post by PrettyPrincess »

Random query, I know. But I am taking my course at school on teaching special needs children integrated into the classroom, and I am supposed to interview 2 people this semester who either have a special needs child, are a teacher of kids/doctor of kids/etc with special needs. I figured I'd ask here first!
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bmonk
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by bmonk »

I help at a summer camp for such persons--but that's not likely to help you out. Lessee--I've been involved now for about 30 years.
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sonicthunder
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by sonicthunder »

I've got some volunteer, family, and teaching experience there. I'll send you a PM with the details.
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MrFireDragon
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by MrFireDragon »

As far as I know I don't have a special needs child, but this weekend I got to wonder.... My girl just turned 5 years old recently, and she still has some speech issues that we are working on to correct... but sometimes she repeats the same sentence up to 3 times, we figured that her speech problems were cause by our own fault of trying to teach her both spanish and english since she was a baby. Sometimes she gets kinda frustrated that she can't express herself in a way that she can make herself understood immediately but little by little she is getting better and better.

But this weekend I got a little, well I don't know if I can call it worried, but I am curious about something. I bought her a sketchbook (a cheap one) so she could draw anything she wanted (I'm an art designer, so she always wanted to draw on mine, so I bought her one), so after a few days of having it I checked her drawings, she has some drawings of her own version of Thor, Captain America, Hulk and her mommy and me, all very cute and all.... but she also made two drawings that she repeated at least 10 times each. One is a face, something like an owl face.... the other one is a rectangle with sometimes 6 other times 7 stick men inside it, under it water and stick men inside the water, some small and some big and she says it's fathers and sons, in other there is no water just the fathers and sons stick figures.

I have no idea what this means because there is no movie or tv show she has seen that has something even remotely close to this, but what has bee a bit worried is the need to repeat the same drawings over and over, am I looking at the early stages of OCD? If you can provide any help at all I will be extremely grateful.
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Mark N
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by Mark N »

I have a site that can help you with your class and some of the questions you have http://www.supportfortheautismspectrum.com/. You may also get contacts that can help your courses and future career. The sites creator has over 20 years experience in the field. I hope this can be of use to you and anyone with questions on special needs children.
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by PrettyPrincess »

Ooh, thanks for the link, I will check it out. I have experience working with kids on the autism spectrum thanks to my work as a cub scout den mom a few years back, as well as teaching children's choirs. I'll be checking in with my teacher tomorrow to see exactly what she's looking for with these interviews. You all are awesome!
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by DinkyInky »

Shooting you a PM
Yanno how some people have Angels/Devils for a conscience? I have a Dark Elf ShadowKnight and a Half Elf Ranger for mine. The really bad part is when they agree on something.

Aphyon chu kissa whol l'jaed.
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by PrettyPrincess »

Ooh Dinky, thanks!

Just so you guys know, I've already started my student teaching with the special needs kids at my local elementary school - these kids are so fun! I've already been doing reading and math tutoring, and I'm excited to see what I get to do today. I have to say, having a special needs kid myself(ADHD, gifted, and possibly on the autism spectrum, but we haven't had that testing done yet since he's super high functioning), as well as fostering special needs kids, I found I've got a lot more patience than I expected... I was worried that I'd mess up, but by my second day the kids were excited to see me and work with me again.
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by PrettyPrincess »

MrFireDragon wrote:As far as I know I don't have a special needs child, but this weekend I got to wonder.... My girl just turned 5 years old recently, and she still has some speech issues that we are working on to correct... but sometimes she repeats the same sentence up to 3 times... Sometimes she gets kinda frustrated that she can't express herself in a way that she can make herself understood immediately but little by little she is getting better and better.
You may want to have her checked for aphasia - I deal with aphasia, and sometimes I get caught like a record, especially if it's something I know is almost but not quite right, or if I am under stress, or especially if I am heading towards a panic attack. I also have a lot of unconscious word substitution, for example I was talking about putting something on the TABLE but the word CARPET came out. I often don't notice them until my kids point it out - going in to teaching, I was planning on telling my students to keep track of the funniest things I say and I'd give a reward at the end of the semester (I figure it's a good way to get them to pay attention to me!).

My son on the other hand, sometimes picks a phrase and repeats it ad nauseum without realizing - that's what we are working on now (well, for the last 2 years, he's getting more aware of it), and we are trying to tell him 3 is enough times to make any sound or say any phrase. His pediatrician says it could be a lot of different things, from mild OCD to a verbal tic relating to possible Asperger's, to a quirk in the way his ADHD processes what he hears/says, or he might have aphasia as well, and he just manifests it differently from me.

You should look in your area for early childhood intervention - in my area it's called Kids on The Move, http://www.kotm.org/, and they have speech therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, all dedicated to helping kids under 5 get on track for all the developments they need to be successful as they grow - the earlier a kid gets the help they need, the better. I didn't get into speech therapy until I was 7, and it made a HUGE difference, but working on my speech pathology even earlier would have been a big help.
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by PrettyPrincess »

I will also include the interview questions for anyone else who has worked with special needs kids and wants to give me some input - just PM me your answers, suggestions, or experiences, and I'll figure out a way to work them into my paper:
Suggested interview questions for Field Experience

Please feel free to use any of these questions for your interviews for your Field Experience. These are to help you
think of questions pertinent to regular and special education. Be creative and think of some of your own which
would interest you.

You have to interview any two of the following professionals or parents. About 10–12 questions.

Special Education Teacher (Certified)
Regular Education Teacher
Parent of a Special Education Student
Any member of the Child Study Team who tests the students to qualify for Sp. Ed.

How long have you been teaching?
What is your favorite part of your job?
What is the most frustrating part of your job?
What are some of the disabilities you have worked with?
As a regular education teacher, do you feel adequately trained to work with Special Ed. kids in your class?
What kind of training would help you most?
Do you get enough support from the Special Ed. teacher?
How does the Special Ed. teacher or teachers help you?
How would you want the collaboration improved?
What kind of parent support do you get?
How do you get parents to help more?
Have you been involved with inclusion?
How do you feel about inclusion?
As a Special Ed. teacher, how much do you collaborate with the regular Ed. teachers in which your Special Ed.
students are places?
What kind of accommodations do you make for some of the classified students (Sp. Ed.)?
How helpful is the IEP to your teaching plan?
As a regular Ed. teacher, how do your feel about IEP meetings?
Do you feel the principal is supportive and understanding of special needs kids?
Have you had parents refuse help from Special Ed.?
How do you handle parents who refuse or are reluctant for Sp. Ed. help for their child?
What changes would you like to see in Special Ed. as it relates to you as a teacher or parent?

Parent questions:
When did you find out your child needed help?
What was your reaction? What was your family’s reaction?
How do you feel about how the school meets your child’s needs?
What are your suggestions?
What are you doing at home to help your child?
How does your child react to your help?
How is your child’s relationship with peers?
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DinkyInky
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by DinkyInky »

PrettyPrincess wrote:Ooh Dinky, thanks!

Just so you guys know, I've already started my student teaching with the special needs kids at my local elementary school - these kids are so fun! I've already been doing reading and math tutoring, and I'm excited to see what I get to do today. I have to say, having a special needs kid myself(ADHD, gifted, and possibly on the autism spectrum, but we haven't had that testing done yet since he's super high functioning), as well as fostering special needs kids, I found I've got a lot more patience than I expected... I was worried that I'd mess up, but by my second day the kids were excited to see me and work with me again.
I'd still get him evaluated. They can streamline his IEP to help him discover where his strengths/weaknesses are. It also nips behaviour issues in the bud, because they can help you look for signs of stimming, thus curbing or even eliminating meltdowns/tantrums.

BTW, echolalia(the broken record bit?) is also a thing with Aspies and folks on the spectrum in general. High functioning Autism also has a danger of kids getting bored with their classwork, and in general ends up with them not doing it, because they have no challenge. A tailored IEP helps with that, as when the teacher sees them not doing their classwork, but acing tests, that they need more challenge, and can custom tailor workbooks for their levels, thus keeping them engaged, and learning happily.
Back in the 70's there wasn't any of this special help for kids and parents. My mother figured out on her own(considering she was learning English at the time and studying for her Naturalization documents was an impressive feat), and had my father take her to the school supply store and bought several levels of workbooks until we found out what made me not bored. When the teachers refused to listen to her(because she was a "foreigner"--but that's another kettle of fish), she just signed off on me not doing my homework, and gave me six pages of "HOMEWORK" to do before bed. Trust me, hers was a challenge!

Congratulations and good luck in your classroom!
Yanno how some people have Angels/Devils for a conscience? I have a Dark Elf ShadowKnight and a Half Elf Ranger for mine. The really bad part is when they agree on something.

Aphyon chu kissa whol l'jaed.
--Safyr Drathmir
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DinkyInky
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by DinkyInky »

How'd your paper go? Love to see a follow-up.
Yanno how some people have Angels/Devils for a conscience? I have a Dark Elf ShadowKnight and a Half Elf Ranger for mine. The really bad part is when they agree on something.

Aphyon chu kissa whol l'jaed.
--Safyr Drathmir
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PrettyPrincess
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Re: Anyone work with/parent of/doctor to special needs child

Post by PrettyPrincess »

Still working on it, actually - next week is my last week of student teaching/field hours, then I get to assemble everything into a cohesive work. I also have to pick a disability I would be likely to see in a future classroom and read 2 professional journal articles on the subject, and I am trying to decide between ADHD and Aspergers.

This class has actually been making me want to get my son officially evaluated, since we have known about his issues for a long time - it also points out to me how 'normal' my daughter is in comparison to myself and my son! Even though she looks like me, she is totally different in how she learns and what makes her brain tick.
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