Support: One challenge in the life of a person who is caring for or working with a person with an intellectual disability is in the area of discerning the proper level of support. How much can she do for herself? How much help do I give? What kind of help should I give? As a parent, I have to guard against giving too much support. After all, I have known her since she was a baby and each new stage of growth requires me to consciously relinquish to her more responsibilities. At school, when she has been in mainstreamed classes, I have given her a lot of help with school work and homework. Sometimes I read aloud text to her or have her read it aloud to me, and then we talk over the corresponding questions before she puts something down in writing. Is this too much support? Is this doing her homework for her? There is definitely a fine line, but for me the line has been drawn by asking the question: What portion of this can she do on her own, now, vs. what portion is going to be just exposure to a concept? Last year she read some challenging texts in English class--A Tale of Two Cities, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sherlock Holmes, etc. Was she able to read and comprehend these texts independently? NO WAY!! But with help from home, exposure to these texts turned out to be a positive thing, and she really enjoyed each literary work. She turned in the requisite questions for each piece, but only after we read the texts together and then talked about the questions together. Was this cheating? Was I doing her homework for her? I dont think so. Leaving her to her own devices would have left her totally frustrated and without any appreciation of the literature. This way, at least she did get something out of the work, and when references come up again, she can say, Hey, that was just like that story we read! This is another reason I think inclusive connection to the regular curriculum--what I call Unspecial Education-- is better than intensive work on Life Skills in a self-contained classroom. My daughter, and many others with intellectual disabilities, can gain much from the richness of the regular class curriculum. Why does a person with an intellectual disability need to read A Tale of Two Cities? Why does she need to learn about American History? Why does she need to study biology? Well--why does anyone? Its probably not going to contribute to job skills or life skills, but it IS going to contribute to the depth and texture of that persons life, just as it does with anyone. Support is what allows those connections to be made. You take the regular world and the regular curriculum, and you hold their hand through it until it is OK to let go. The analogy that comes to mind is teaching a child to ride a bicycle. You hold on and run along side of them...not letting go...until at one point, you do let go and they are riding! This is how it has worked for Hayley both in school and in the job world. At her volunteer jobs, we hired a job coach to work alongside her for six weeks. Day by day, the coach relinquished more of the support until Hayley was doing it on her own!
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 22:20:24 +0000
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