Good morning everyone,
TGIF, right? This week just flew! How is your child with special needs adjusting to the school year? Are you happy with the way things are going?
It's hard sometimes to trust others to notice what we so easily see in our kids. We know our children so well, often times communicating without words. When they go to school we wonder who will understand them, what they want, or need.
One thing I had to do when Ryan was in elementary school was to pull him out on Fridays. Ryan is highly visual and the amount of Disney video watching at school was horrific. I kept up my end of the bargain, so to speak, by not letting him watch videos on school nights. The films made him too hyper and affected his sleep. Instead we did projects, read books and worked on a chore based philosophy together.
Typically he'd watched some kind of Disney flick at school each day. I'd ask him which one and he'd tell me then we'd spend the first couple of hours after school reining him back from Disneyland. However, when Friday night arrived, my son was an exceptional mess. Wondering if he'd watched a video at school I'd ask "Which Disney show did you watch today?" (Not only that we had some echolalia going on with lines from those movies, a dead give away.)
On Fridays he always listed anywhere from three to five movies. His teachers were using Fridays as a "recess" or "planning" day and the kids were watching nearly back to back Disney videos. I had the luxury of pulling him out of school on Fridays every week and he did much better overall. Seriously, he was a quivering MESS on Friday nights after that much TV. I probably would have been one too!
I don't know about you, but unless a video is educational it has NO place in the classroom. When I saw what it did to Ryan? Sheesh! Not only that, how do you even visually process FOUR OR FIVE movies in one day??? I'd be a hot mess too, to say nothing of someone who doesn't have my coping mechanisms. Fridays became a very restricted environment when he was in school, so having our Fridays together, engaging in the real world, made more sense.
Now, if you're a teacher and angry about reading this ask yourself ... "Why am I angry?" Is it because you're showing Disney videos?
As a mother, here's a plea from my heart. Please stop. Please please please. Please teach my child, work with my child. If you HAVE to have some time to prep, then show a Nat Geo flick on something. Get college interns to take over that section of your day.
If you're a parent reading this and you think, "Disney videos don't affect my kid." Take a moment. How do you know? Try going ONE month without them on weeknights. Write down changes in the quality of sleep and behavior.
I have NOTHING against Disney, we especially love the Pixar flicks. However, we save them for a special movie night on the weekend.
Try it, you just might like what you see.
Today I'd like to offer up a prayer for all teachers and parents of children with special needs. May God gift you with inspiration, patience and strength as you move through the school year.
Much love and joy,
Karen
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