By Gregg Davis
Exceptional Children Teacher
Sedge Garden Elementary School
All parents walk a common path: they experience the joys and frustrations of helping their children develop into healthy, productive adults who have maximized their potential. For parents of children with special needs, the path can be a little different. The joys of parenting are no less but the challenges of helping their children develop can often be tougher and more complex.
Because of that, the teachers of Exceptional Children (EC)
at Sedge Garden Elementary School held their first Parent Night on Thursday,
May 25. The brain child of first-year EC teacher Zane Gibson, the program
focused on two areas — helping children become more independent and helping
parents locate community resources that provide support and
developmental programs. Dinner and daycare were provided by the school staff so
that parents could attend the program. Community resource providers, ranging
from sports teams to educational programs to dentists who provide services to
special needs children set up booths in the school cafeteria and talked to any
interested parents.
Like all children, EC students are often more independent
at school than at home. The school
system’s Autism Team gave a presentation showing parents how their children use
picture schedules at school to manage their day. The same approach can apply at
home and the Autism Team provided parents with schedules that they took to use
with their children. The rest of the program was a parent round-table
discussion moderated by parents with exceptional children. Through years of
trial and error, the parent moderators have developed a list of community
services and advice for how to best access them.
An extra benefit to those parents in attendance was the
opportunity to talk about common experiences and share common problems. As one of the parent moderators put it, “Just
remember, you are not alone.”
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