5.5: How to Teach Children About Different Disabilities

Image Source: Audrey Moser. Disability History and Awareness Month Poster Contest. Delaware.gov

Fig. 5.5. Colored pencil drawing/poster reads "Together We Are Able" - silhouettes of children holding hands, one child in a wheelchair, one child with an artificial leg, another with glasses. Adults holding hands in foreground one with artificial hand and the word "Acceptance" written on the arm.

Teaching Children About Different Disabilities

Children of all ages and stages have their limits. In children with special needs, these limitations are often magnified because of the physical or sensory issues associated with certain conditions.

In a classroom setting, there is often a mix of children who do and don’t have disabilities. Some children may be unsure how to respond to classmates with special needs. For many kids, encountering someone with special needs may be confusing or frightening. As a teacher you have an opportunity to model loving and respectful behavior for the children in your classroom. Teachers can help students form positive feelings about peers with disabilities, instead of fear or awkwardness.

Educate Yourself

• To help children develop healthy and age-appropriate understanding of students with special needs in the classroom, it’s important to educate yourself first. However, it’s not necessary to become an expert.
• Small children aren't looking for a lecture or to be overwhelmed with facts, they are simply looking to you to help them understand what’s going on and how to treat their classmates with compassion.
• Cultivate an understanding attitude toward behaviors of children so you can appropriately guide them if they are making fun of or becoming scared of classmates with disabilities.

Watch the short video below to learn from other teachers on how they provide inclusive environments for children with disabilities.

Educate Your Students

• Embracing each others' differences is an essential life skill.
• Seek out opportunities for the children in your class to interact with a variety of classmates
• Keep in mind that because every child is different, they will process information differently
  • younger children may become easily overwhelmed or confused if given too much information

Know it's okay to be confused at first

• Let them know its okay to be unsure or confused at first about the best way to include or speak to kids with disabilities
• Let them know that the feeling will go away when they play with their classmate

Focusing on Similarities

Another great approach for explaining disabilities to students is to focus on similarities. Instead of only explaining the differences, point out shared interests or traits between people with disabilities and everyone else. You could talk about similarities like:

• favorite songs, colors, or foods
• common hobbies, games, or toys
• favorite books or stories
• common feelings and emotions

As kids realize what they have in common with people with disabilities, it becomes easier to relate to them. This practice can help with empathy development, encouraging kids to experience someone else’s point of view.

Teach patience

• Another thing to help a child understand is that children with special needs can often do the same things as their peers — it just takes them a little bit longer. Patience goes a long way toward building friendships and including others. If a child understands their classmate’s disability, it will be easier for them to display patience if they move slower or take longer to understand a game or activity.
• When young children notice another child is different from them teach them, help them shift their focus to how they are alike rather than different.

Play

A child who has a disability or physical limitation is still a person who enjoys activities and engaging with others their age. They want to be loved and accepted by their peers, but may simply require special accommodation to do so.

Encourage children to invite their classmates who have special needs to join in playground games and extracurricular activities when appropriate. If they aren’t sure what’s okay or of their friend requires special accommodation, teach them how to best include and assist their friend. Let them know it's better to ask questions than make incorrect assumptions and leave people out. Teach children how to introduce themselves, be curious, and ask if it's okay to ask questions.

• teach children to interact with peers with disabilities just the same way they would with other classmates
• play is a valuable tool for understanding and connecting
• teach children the importance of giving all students a chance to participate in activities

Recognize Boundaries and Limitations

• teach children to understand that their classmates may have boundaries and struggles
• teach children to be sensitive to their classmates needs:
  • many autistic children or children with sensory issues don’t like to be touched
    • model how to for how to respond to meltdowns or outbursts that are simply part of the child's disability
  • think of the wheelchair as an extension of their classmate’s body so it's not okay to lean on it or ask for a ride, or push it without permission
  • conversation may be challenging with classmates who have hearing loss teach the class some basic signs
    • engage and interact during playtime
  • talk to nonverbal classmate to show an interest in them
    • say "hello" and ask how they are
    • tell a brief story about something they did

Everyone Wants to Have Friends

If children don’t know any better, they may assume that a classmate who has difficulty communicating verbally does not want or need friends. Even children who are unable to communicate their needs or participate in certain activities want love and acceptance. Continue to remind children how important it is to focus on the things they have in common, rather than their differences. Remind them that everyone wants to have friends and be included. Even if their body doesn’t allow them to walk, run or speak, they are still human, and they love having friends who care for them.

Make Sure Kids Ask Before Helping

Many kids like to be helpers at school. However, it’s important to teach your students to ask before trying to aid a child with a disability. If they try to help before getting permission, it could worsen the situation. For instance, a student might want to comfort an upset child with special needs. The student might think a hug would help the child, but in reality it might make them feel more uncomfortable.

Teach your students to ask before jumping in to help. Asking a quick question like “Is there anything I can do to help?” can empower people with disabilities to set boundaries and accept the help they need. This will help them feel more comfortable within the classroom.

Resources to Learn More

A great way to help young children understand disabilities is to make use of your local library. There are many great children’s books that talk about people with special needs and teach children how to engage with them. You can also look for online videos or television shows that positively portray people with special needs. Sesame Street does a great job of this and can be a great video resource for younger children.

One thing parents often forget is that videos and books are more effective if you take the time to talk about them with your child after they read or view them. Ask what they think, how they feel and how they can apply what they learned in everyday situations. If your child has a classmate with a disability, this is a great time to make the connection between the material they just encountered and the individual they see every day.

Image Source: Six-level Communicator. EnablingDevices

Fig. 5.5.1. Photo shows a six-level communicator that can be used by a child who is nonverbal. This image shows cards depicting 6 different toys each with a corresponding button. For example, a child may be asked, "Which is a teddy bear?" The child responds by pushing the button that corresponds to the teddy bear.

Explain Adaptive Equipment

You can also discuss adaptive equipment with your kids. Explain how people with disabilities use extra tools to help them. While you describe the equipment, you could provide common examples, like:

• Hearing aids
• Wheelchairs
• Crutches
• Scooters
• Canes
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices
  • tools used by those who are non-verbal

In addition, you could talk about other helpful tools for people with disabilities, like designated parking spaces or wheelchair ramps.

By teaching kids to recognize adaptive equipment, they can be more understanding when seeing it in the future. You can also explain how to treat people that use the equipment. You can explain that the equipment is helpful for kids with disabilities and that you should treat it with respect.

Have Adaptive Equipment and Assistive Technology in the Classroom

Some of this may depend on each students’ individual needs, but having the appropriate adaptive equipment and assistive technology available in the classroom goes a long way toward effective instruction. Using assistive technology in the classroom empowers children and ensures that those with varying levels of ability can be included in many different activities.

With the proper support, children who have special needs can thrive in the classroom environment. For more than three decades, Enabling Devices has worked with parents, teachers and individuals with disabilities to develop exceptional, high-quality products that help individuals with special needs succeed in the classroom, the workplace and at home.

Our ultimate goal is to help everyone we work with to live a full life and experience the joy of being able to fully engage in the world around them. Ready to help your child or student thrive in the classroom?

Books that Teach About Different Disabilities

There are many children’s books that cover different topics when it comes to disabilities. This is where we as educators need to know the class we have and their developmental level. Here is a list of a few books to choose from:

We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, and Eduardo Trejos

My Brain is Magic: A Sensory-Seeking Celebration by Prasha Sooful, Geeta Ladi

Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl Changed Percussion by Shannon Stocker

This Little Wonder: A No-Limits Primer by Joan Holub

What Happened to You? By James Catchpole

Source

• How to Include Students With Disabilities in the Classroom. EnablingDevices.com