In ending my blogging experience, I begin to reflect on what I have learned through the blogging process. We were instructed to begin with inquiry questions based on our own interest and then were responsible for finding our own research to build upon our inquiries. Through research, our textbook, interviews, powerpoints and fellow colleagues, I have begun to internalize my role as a teacher in families with children with disabilities. Here is an excerpt from a fellow classmate's blog that had a very similar inquiry to my own:
“…it is not the child’s disability that handicaps and disintegrates families; it is the way they react to it and to each other” (Dickman & Gordon, 1985, p. 109).
Today’s parents face a world of challenges with everything from keeping themselves healthy and happy to providing their children a safe environment that fosters the physical, emotional and social growth of their children in today’s society. Sometimes the everyday demands of life seem too great to overcome and families will experience stress and/or crisis as they try to survive. Often families will fall apart or choose to split up the family unit in response to money struggles, addictions, abuse, health, or just plain unhappiness. It is no surprise then to learn that having a child with a disability can also drive families apart or into a state of chronic stress or crisis. This does not have to be the case. This article addresses not only how having a child with a disability can impact the family system, but also how families can use their circumstances to become a more resilient and healthy family.
Site that expands on the above topic:http://www.ncaonline.org/monographs/17family.shtml
As a future educator, it is important for me to understand children's backgrounds. In doing so, I must assist to provide the families with my own professional knowledge to make them feel comfortable with their child in my classroom. Through the information I have learned through this blogging experience, I have found it is important I research the unknown to fulfill understandings in which I am unfamiliar.
