Disability and Education

All of us have heard lots of times that for being a successful teacher we have to be aware identify and cope with disabilities. Nowadays exist lots of problems related with the children's learning process, from the simplest ones like dysgraphia or lack of attention to the most complex ones such as cerebral palsy, autism or dyslexia.

Thanks to the classes and the visits we've done, I've been able to discover many disabilities that I didn't know. I have also realized that almost every child have some problem related with his learning process.

However, one of the things I like the most is being aware of the amount of tools and resources we can have as a teachers to adapt the class content to these disabled students.

I really enjoyed the visit to "Domino's preschool"; there I was surprised by the number of teachers in the classroom: there were 8 students and 8 teachers (so, 1 teacher per student). This organization leads the teacher to offer a personalized education to every child and allows him to do an exhaustive monitor to check his evolution.

In Spain doesn't exist these type of schools, there are "special centers" for students with disabilities but I have no knowledge of any exclusively for autistic children. I really think that's a great point because in this way they receive a better education that perfectly fits with their needs.

The workshop we did in the Easter Seals Disabilities Centre was very worth too. As I said, I was fascinated on how the hi-tech can be used in the educational world, and I discovered the I-pad as a powerful tool to promote the child's motivation.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was hearing Dorothy experience as a mother of a disabled child: how is her daily life, the situations she has to cope with… because it allowed me to become more conscious of the needs and problems that they might have in the real life.

If I compare this situation with my home country I find lots of differences between the US and Spain. First of all, I think that here in the US the government worries more about this issue and provides more support and financial resources to the families with disabled children.

I realized that the American community gets very involved in these problems too. That's why there are many centers like "Easter Seals Washington" where people give their help without expecting anything in return. I believe that's the attitude we've to promote in Spain because in this way all the people are aware of the social problems and know how they have to be treat them.

Another thing that I would like to share is that, according to Dorothy, here in the United States the teachers are more sensible and prepared to cope with disabled children. In Spain, the mainstream teacher doesn't have much knowledge about how to adapt the class content or the resources he can use to promote a meaningful learning, so his task is only identify the problem because once is diagnosed, is the specialized teacher who has to cope and work with it.

Finally I also observed that here the high technology is widely used in the Education world. I think that's a very important thing because with this system, the learning is transmitted in different ways so each child has the opportunity to understand what's taught. I was really surprised on how the hi-tech (that we think that its use is limited for important jobs) can help the disabled children in their learning process. My country is far behind this situation: the most advanced technology used in schools is the laptop. I have no knowledge of any mainstream school that uses I-pad, screen enlargers or special keyboards.

So, to sum up, as a future teacher I'm aware that in my classroom I'm going to find with many problems related with disabilities and I hope I'll be able to cope with most of them. I firmly believe that each child can learn all the content, so with this belief always in mind, my knowledge and my efforts to find the right resource and information, I think I'll be able to do it; because in these three weeks I became consciousness that there's any problem you can't solve if you really want to take it.