5 Simple Ways To Teach Your Child About Disabilities

You can encounter many people with disabilities, but how do you tell your child that no two people are same in the world and there are differences that are noticeable?

Your child might not have seen many people with special needs, but once he starts going to school, he may meet some whose needs are special or different. This will naturally lead to your child asking you several questions regarding the person’s condition and the cause of the disability.

To prepare your child to deal with special people, you must answer his curiosity in a polite manner and let him understand that he should be fair and ready to help. It is your opportunity to instill in your child an inclination towards acceptance and inclusion by discussing about the same and teaching him that everyone should be treated respectfully.

5 Ways On How To Teach Children About Disabilities:

Preconceived notions about disabilities can be deeply entrenched, but there are many ways by which you can make sure that your child an inclusive one: Here we give you 5 simple ways for teaching children about disabilities

1. Discuss Openly:

Your child may ask you openly about the differences in people’s outlook.

• Dr. Kathy Cologon, Lecturer (Inclusive Education at the Institute of Early Childhood), encourages parents to accept their inclination towards investigation about disabilities in some people.
• According to her, “Be open to the acute awareness that children have and try to not shut things down or make them taboo”.

[ Read: How To Motivate Children ]

2. Perceptions Must Be Changed:

You may be kind and charitable towards people having disabilities. This is the main issue that should be corrected.

• Though it seems that it comes from a good place, this attitude treats special people as inferior.
• Dr. Cologon says, “We have ableist beliefs not because we intend to or want to but because we were children brought up with these views; however we need to work to disestablish these perceptions”.
• The very first thing in bringing about a change in your attitude is that you must start to accept and deal with the conception of ableism and the way it influences your activities and approach.

3. Differences Versus Disabilities:

If you teach your child to understand and accept the differences instead of disabilities, this will lead him on the way to inclusivity.

• Talk to your child about the fact that everybody is not born with the same looks and there are differences. Teach him that this is what makes the world a beautiful place.
• Discussing about all kinds of diversities like cultural, religious, disabilities, age and sex related variations should be encouraged with your child.

[ Read: Raising Children ]

4. Observe Your Words:

Any disabled person should be viewed as an individual first and foremost. He should be referred to as, ‘person experiencing disability’ instead of ‘disabled person’.

• This will prevent defining any person by his differences.
• It is also vital to make use of respectful terms, and some phrases related with disabilities should be avoided.
• Some derogatory words like ‘retarded’, ‘crippled’ or ‘handicapped’ are outdated and should never be used.
• Words such as ‘struggling’, ‘suffering’ or ‘burdened’ often used for people moving on with their lives is normal.

5. Disability Programs In School:

Inquire if your child’s school is thinking of ways for teaching children about disability awareness programs.

• These programs will make your child aware about various kinds of disabilities through engaging activities and inviting guest speakers.
• If they require parent volunteers, you must participate as it will be healthy for you, your child and other students.

[ Read: Good Habits For Kids ]

Parenting is a big responsibility and molding your child into an amazing adult is the end goal. If you make your child understand about differences in people and he turns out to be helpful and respectful towards them, then you have done your job well.

Hope this article has cleared your views about how to teach children about disabilities.

If you want to share something with other readers, please write in the comments section below.

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