Articles

http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/parenting/siblings-disabilities.html This is an article about how to deal with the siblings of children with disabilities. It explains how siblings experience their brother or sister's special needs in many different ways. It talks about how the siblings can show signs of sadness at different times dealing with the differences of their brother or sister. It also talks about how they may be defensive at times for their special-needs sibling, and at other times may wish that they had a "real" brother or sister, not one with a disability. It is also common for the children to feel like the have to compensate for their disabled siblings limitations. This article can be related to my teaching because in a classroom, other classmates of disabled students may have some of the same characteristics that a sibling might feel. Some may be sad for the other students, some may feel defensive, while others may just get frustrated and just want them to be "normal".

http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/parenting/batshaw.html This is an article of an interview with Dr. Mark Batshaw on helping parents deal with having children with disabilities. He talks about how parents should have the child live in their house instead of them living in the child's house. otherwise, the family is defined by the disability and the child. The article also talks about advancements in medicine to help the disabled, as well as how adoption or premature birth may have an effect on having a child with a disability. This article can be used in my teaching because it can help me to have advice for a parent who has a child with a disability, or even better give me advice because in a way, I am the guardian or somewhat parent of that child for 7 hours a day when they are in school, so it helps me to not define my classroom as having a disabled child in it, because then problems could occur that way.

http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/parenting/snparenting.html This is another article about helping out families with children with disabilities. It mainly focuses on parents who just discover that their child has a disability or they are having a hard time dealing with it. It talks about the importance of looking up as much information as you can about the disability. It also talks about the dangers of having a child with a disability affecting a marriage and how it is important to talk about your worries and fear and all your feelings with your spouse so there is no disconnection between you two dealing with this difficult issue. This can also be a good article to read for my teaching to get a good idea of how a parent can feel with a child with a disability to know what to expect from that parent emotionally and to try to help them in any way that I can. It can also help me as a teacher to cope with having a disabled child in the classroom.