Your children will someday interact with a peer with disabilities. There are so many things to teach them and how to treat those with differences is on the long list. As parents, we may not be the best at really knowing how to do this. Maybe, we could use a little help in this aspect ourselves. The lawyers at Summit Disability Law Group reached out to over 100 child and family therapists to ask them their advice on how to teach our children about disabilities. This blog post is a compilation of some of their responses:
Teach Your Child We all have Differences and Similarities
“Talk to your child about the idea that differences make life exciting and unique – not scary! Kids tend to categorize people and things according to whether they are “the same” or “different.” Think back to your own days of watching Sesame Street; we all remember refrain: “One of these things is not like the others, one if these things just isn’t the same!” A child who is coached in feeling comfortable about others’ uniqueness will not only be skilled in showing kindness to others, but will likely feel more kindness towards themselves. We can help children focus on what similarities they share with others rather than believing that differences define us.”
-Tonya Miller
Encourage Friendships
“The second recommendation would be to expose your children to other individuals with disabilities. By spending time with an individual who has autism or in a wheelchair, you begin to see them as the person they are, and not as the disability. One mother of a child with a disability shared with me that it only takes her a few seconds to know if someone has been around a person with a disability because she can tell by the way they interact with her child. Allow your children to get to know people with disabilities so it won’t be a novice thing, but rather something totally normal in their daily schemas.”
-Megan Rigdon
Let Questions be Asked
“Learn people’s stories—We fear the unfamiliar. Learning people’s stories makes them real to us. One of the most effective youth group activities I attended recently was one in which an individual with xeroderma pigmentosum told her story and answered questions from the teenagers in the group. She went from being a strange person wearing lots of clothes to a relatable human being with feelings.”
-Lori Schade
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