kindergarten fear of special ed kids?

Question

I work in a child care center and we have kindergarteners that come at lunch. One of my k kids is afraid to eat in the lunch room because she is afraid of one of the special ed kids. I would like to help her through this by doing a lesson for the whole group about understanding disabilities. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

I agree with the previous posts. Many kids are not exposed to kids with disabilities and it can be frightening for them. There are many great books helping kids to understand disabilities. My favorite is Someone Special, Just Like You by Tricia Brown and Fran Ortiz. It's a really neat book that points out the similarities between "typical" children and children with disabilities. Here is a link to it, most libraries have it as well. Also, if you google the title of the book, you can also find sites with lesson plans that go along with the book

http://www.amazon.com/Someone-Special-Just-Like-Owlet/dp/0805042687

Answer 2

To the speech pathologist that answered: How can you say 2 is too young and no one would work with her?! Isn't the point of doing it now so we can jump these hurdles BEFORE school?!?! Anyway...At 2.5 her articulation isn't that important. Sometimes it's really hard to get a child into special ed. And if your daughter does qualify for speech, great. She will get what she needs now. In NY the school district picks up kids aged 3 that school year for services as needs. So if your daughter would start school in 2009, she would be in the school district. If she wouldn't start until 2010 or later, she would be evaluated through early intervention. If she's school aged, have her evaluated, if she's EI aged, don't bother because EI doen't care about articulation at all, the measure word associations. If she's evaluated and approved by the school district, she wouldn't get placement (unless there are other issues), she would have a speech therapist come to her. They will go to your home, her daycare, or anywhere that works for you. If she is up to speed like you say, chances are she will test out easily before school starts. I think anything different from the norm is considered special needs, but you shouldn't listen to the horror stories you've heard. You probably have stories from people or parents with older children from when is was bad to have a labeled child. Needing speech therapy is not a big deal, especially for articulation. Have you had her hearing and ears offically checked? She may seem to hear fine, but many times children with expressive delays or problems with articulation may have a small amount of constant fluid in their ears, making sounds a little different. With tubes, usually there is break through with language, because now everything sounds right and can be repeated right. Be sure to look into this if you're afraid of the speech therapy and possibility of a label. **I want to add that my son has some serious problems that should be addressed in a self contained, full day preschool class. He's been kicked out of numerous daycares, is severly speech delayed, and has autistic characteristics (that should be diagnosed in a few weeks), and he only qualified for an inclusion 1/2 day class with speech 2 times per week for 30 minutes. His class has 18 children, a self contained would have a lot less children, and more aides. I had to fight for the little we did get. My daughter has some obvious issues, again autism (aspergers- getting the final report in a few days) and her school still isn't giving her anything, even though she has problems in gym, and lunch everyday, goes to the nurse for quiet time at least 3x per week, and obviously can't socialize like a typical child.

Answer 3

Most people are afraid of the unknown - but kindergarten kids are uninhibited enough to express those fears, where most adults just try to cover up, which results in a very awkward situation. But why is she afraid of only one of the special ed kids? Has she had an unpleasant encounter with him or her? Or is it based on visible differences?
I work with athletes with disabilities. They are an amazing group. If you can invite some of the special ed kids to your kindergarten class -- only a couple, not the whole class -- and design a class activity that they could all take part in, that could be an ice-breaker. The really neat thing about special ed kids is that they may have difficulty learning, but once they learn something, they own it. So, they are excellent teachers when repetition is required.
What will be required here is cooperation with the special ed teacher to put together a 'lesson' that one of the special ed kids can give. It could even work into a once-a-week series of projects, that would involve cooperation between the two groups.
But you may have to ferret out the reason for the reason one of your kids is afraid of one of the special ed kids, and work that into your program.
good luck -

Answer 4

there are easy books that help explain disabilities to small children. exposure will help more than anything. talk to the child and find out why she's afraid. maybe that's all it will take.

Answer 5

Special Ed is a difficult thing to understand for all ages. The S.E kids arent treated the same, and are forced to live there life with the disability. To teach the kids, invite the S.E child in front of the class to talk about something of his favorite things. Remove him from the classroom then, and tell the kids that this child likes the same things you do, and you should treat him/her with respect because they are just like you. Tell them to encourage activity with the special child, and you yourself should talk to the kid by himself to tell him to go out and play with some of the other kids. If there is still a problem with kids who are scared of them, bring them to the side and explain that he is a nice kid. Take the Special kid over to the other child and have them interact. Your problems should be solved. With a special child, music should be incorperated into your lessons. there are studies that say music calms the special children down and helps with social interaction. Give it a try:)

Answer 6

A really neat group lesson is to do some simulations, then talk about how people with disabilities have to do things differently than others, how they feel, etc.

For example, one simulation is to take a pair of glasses and smear them really thickly with vaseline. Then ask the person to wear them and read something to simulate a visual impairment.

You can also have a child put a tennis ball or two under their chin (or hold it between their ear and shoulder), then have them hold a few grapes in their mouth and try to eat pudding or Jell-O. This can help to show them why some kids with different conditions (such as a thick tongue, CP, etc.) may have problems eating and be really messy.

Have kids hold an index card on their forehead. Using the hand they don't usually write with, they write their names on the card, then take a look at it - usually a mess! This can show how hard it is for students with a writing disability.

With permission (you don't want to end up on the 5:00 news over a misundersanding!) gently tape a child's fingers together in different ways (all fingers together, two or three together at a time, etc.). Then have them perform tasks such as tying their shoes, buckling a belt, unbuttoning a shirt (I usually bring a button down dress shirt), combing their hair, etc. Show them how hard things would be if they were physically handicapped.

Sometimes kids think it would be cool to be in a wheelchair all day. Have one sit in a chair and don't allow them to do anything at all - they have to act as though they cannot move a muscle and see how hard it is to rely on others, who may not able to jump every time they need something.

You can also do some simple things like read an unfamiliar, too hard book aloud, really fast, and ask questions, really fast, expect them to know the answer, say things like, "Are you dumb? How come you don't know?" Explain what it's like to have a learning disability and feel like that all the time.

You'll probably find a lot of neat things if you do an internet search. It's a fun thing to do, and the kids can learn a lot.

If she's only afraid of one kid, though, you might want to look into that a little more and find out why and if they've had any serious problems in other settings or if his behavior is so odd that you need to address it specifically.

Good luck!