I NEED TO INTERVIEW A PARENT WITH A DISABLED CHILD

[zeezee]

Please help! I need to interview a parent with a disabled child for my child and development class. Answer whatever questions you feel comfortable with. Thank you



1. Is there anything I cannot ask you or you don’t want to talk about?



2. When did you discover your child had a disability?





3. How did you feel?



4. Were the medical professionals helpful?





5. How did this affect your family?



6. Was the father supportive?





7. Were you referred to regional center? If applicable.



8. Were services easily obtained from the school?





9. What difficulties have you had getting your child what they need to be successful?



10. What “life outcomes” do you expect for your child?

[healthy11]

Zeezee, welcome to our forum. Several other prospective school psychologists and special ed teachers have had similar assignments to talk to parents over the years. I suspect it's going to be difficult to get responses from parents of younger students, because they're often too busy/overwhelmed with trying to get through each day, and still trying to figure out what their child's needs are and how the school might accommodate/address them.

I'm traveling over the next few days, and doubt if I'll have internet access to answer specific questions. Although my son is older now, you still might find his story to be of interest. You can read it at www.millermom.proboards.com/thread/13329/future-teacher-parent-interview
and please SHARE resources about "2e" students with your professors and peers!

P.S. Another piece of advice that I neglected to mention, but is vitally important to be aware of, is that even if parents recognize that their student is struggling (some are in denial), others may not appreciate any suggestion that their child could have learning differences. They may get upset at thinking their child is "abnormal." Certain types of learning issues can "run in families" and the parent(s) may feel like they "were the same way in school, but grew up and turned out okay," so they don't think it's a real problem. Dealing with the day-to-day issues of having young children is stressful enough for most parents, but if parents have their own learning and executive functioning weaknesses, it can be even harder. (For some very good information about Executive functioning, see www.nldline.com/executive_functioning.htm )

I don't have LDs myself, and I could "sense the differences" between my son's school experiences and that of "more typical" children. (Note that I don't use the word "normal," because there is no such child!) I'm also a fairly well-organized and detail-oriented person who was able to undertake the tasks of trying to learn ways to help him and to "educate the educators" along the way, so we could work together to "maximize his potential." It wasn't easy, but I feel the results have been worthwhile.