Many people are afraid, feel pity, or are disgusted by children with special needs. I never understood why. I see special needs and regular ED children as God’s little angels. People just don’t understand just how special these children are. But I can’t fault you if you’ve never had the pleasure of knowing someone like this.
I had the opportunity to work with these children for close to six years. At first I was a little nervous, because I wasn’t sure if they were going to like me. And wouldn’t you know it, the first day I got put with one of the most difficult students in the class. I found out she was only difficult when she was either tired of you or didn’t like you. I could never say she didn’t like me, because she always blew me kisses. Other people she would spit at or hit. Another thing, they are extremely sensitive to other peoples energy. What that means is, if your only “acting” like you like them, they’ll let you know they know your intentions. That’s what a lot of people don’t get. With children it’s all about energy, that goes for regular ED children as well. It doesn’t matter what you give them or how nice you’re pretending to be, they can always read the “fake”.
That’s why it sometimes pisses me off or makes me sad when I see someone treating a person with a disability like they’re nothing, because they deserve so much more. Children and adults with special needs have the ability to see a person’s soul before they see anything else. When they love you, or like you, you know it’s real because they aren’t stifled by societies views. The only thing is, many times their brains are impacted by their disability and it breaks your heart sometimes to realize they don’t remember you. That’s one of the reasons why the person taking care of them can’t go long periods of time without seeing them, because they’ll forget who that person is.
Just to think about it, I remember seeing one of “my babies” a year after he graduated 5th grade. I tell you, I wanted to cry when I realized he didn’t remember me, but I was prepared. My mother and the teacher I was working with helped me to be alright with it. I have to say, I loved all my kids, you couldn’t tell me they weren’t “my babies”. I loved them so much, and still do. I wonder how they’re doing….. I just hope they’re living a comfortable, happy, complication free life. What I mean by “complication” is medical complications, because they all had a lot of them. All “my babies” had their own special talents and all of them were smart, funny, and sneaky. I remember one of the little boys I use to take care of, he was so mannish. He loved to hit women on the butt. Certain people thought he didn’t know what he was doing, but he knew. They blamed it on his disability. How are you going to blame mannish ways on a disability? I don’t know, but that’s exactly what they did. Then there was “my daughter” . This little girl was so smart. Her smarts came from her mother working with her everyday. I tried teaching her things too, but I could only teach her things the teacher allowed.
Most of these children I had ever since kindergarten. So naturally, I got emotional when they graduated. I miss them. I wish there was a way for me to know if they’re alright. But there’s one I think of almost daily. I’m sure it’s because I spent so much time with him. I remember he would get so happy when I would come back from lunch. My co-worker/ friend would always tell me how quiet and disengaged he would become when I left the room. But when I came back it was a different story. He would kick, laugh, scream and squeal until I came over to talk to him. Working with those children, I never had a bad day.
But, I have to say I did have a couple of sad ones. My first sad day came when I found out one of my students passed away. I knew something was really wrong with her because she stayed in the hospital way too long. Every time she was suppose to get out something would happen and she would have to stay in longer. Then it happened, she died. When I found out it felt like my heart dropped down to my stomach, I couldn’t stop crying. Not to mention, this happened my first year there. If you didn’t know, I’m an extremely sensitive person. So things like death I don’t handle well, especially the death of a child I was just getting to know and starting to build a relationship with. It took me a long time to get over that, but eventually I excepted it and got over it. But that wasn’t the only time I lost one of “my babies”. The second time was three years later. I hadn’t had the chance to really get to know this little girl, but it stung to know she was gone.
Inconclusion, don’t let someone’s differences stop you from getting to know them. You never know they could be your blessing.
Photos Provided By: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/9e/00/1e9e00456a95f5118031189341776798.jpg, https://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/29/special-needs-children-benefit-from-mainstreaming/73007.html, http://raisingtheextraordinary.com/sharing-special-needs-daughters-class/, http://imgfave.com/view/6412059?u=134105, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/68/9e/a6689e648196ee9d867d8478d78f9de8.jpg
Shads Short Stories 