Future Special Needs Teacher needs some help

[hanna]

Hi everyone I am new here and I have questions that I would like if any parents with children with special needs would like to answer for me. I have an assignment and I would like to get the answers anonymously. I will appreciate anyone who wants to answer these questions for me and thank you.

1. What is your typical day like?

2.What types of things do you like to do together as a family?

3. What do you enjoy doing with your child/children?

4.What types of things does your child enjoy?

5.How do you and your family has adapted to changes or challenges that you have experienced as a family?

6. What helped you cope?

7. What advice would you give to other families?

8. What is one thing you would like others to know about your child?

9.Can you describe your experience with assessment process/tools?

10.What was it like for you?

11.What programs/community resources did you have access to?

12. What has been helpful?

13.What have you learned through out this process?

14.What have been some of the opportunities and challenges?

15.What challenges did you face?

16.Who was your number one support?

17. What traits would you like to see in a professional working with your child/family?

18.What qualities do you feel is important in helping professional?

19.What recommendations do you have for a beginner like me who wants to work with children with special needs and their families?

[healthy11]

Hanna, 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. Not only that, needs and expectations keep changing (ie, 'til 3 or 4th grade, students are learning to read and after that, they are expected to read to learn, so a child with delays is going to need different instruction and assistance as they move through the education system. )

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 DO 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.