“My son has no friends except for my cousins”, related a colleague recently. “He is having problems at school, but I am worried if I tell them about his special needs, the school may create even more issues”. She confided in me after she read my blog and found out that I have a special needs child.
Even though my baby is still small for school, I could relate to what she was saying. My special needs parenting journey has been less than three years, but I can already see how the special needs tag immediately sets the child apart. The fact that he is just a child like any other, a person first before being disabled, somehow gets lost.
My first brush with this ‘discrimination/ differential treatment’ was when my twins Abeer and Anvay were less than a year old. A relative visited us and when she was about to leave, she handed a toy to me saying it was for Abeer. I was quite taken aback but did not ask her why there was nothing for Anvay. Or why didn’t she say this toy is for both of them? The incident still bothers me. Another relative sent toys for Abeer, he didn’t forget Anvay, but felt unable to choose something for him. But I don’t understand why. Anvay is a toddler and any nice bright toy would do. Why the hesitation or confusion?
We have relatives who call us regularly, but they only ask about Abeer. I have to constantly remind their grandfather, that he has three grandsons – but he keeps going back to asking only about Abeer. I know he is working on it, but I feel bad that this is something that has to be worked on. At parties, lunches, dinners, Abeer runs around making friends with everyone. Anvay, ends up getting largely ignored. Few, if any, people come by to talk to him. If they did, they would see he has a beautiful smile and will give you a high five if you ask.
And these are not just my individual experiences. I am not writing this blog to vent. This is a widespread phenomenon. Every single parent of a child with special needs would have gone through a similar or worse experience regardless of countries or cultures. And this number is not small. If you do a google search, you will see that around 10% of the world’s population has some disability. It is the world’s largest minority group. And I didn’t even need these statistics to figure this out. Until I started writing about Anvay, I had no idea just how many people in my immediate circle had children with special needs. They reached out to me after reading my blog.
I have a young cousin who is visually impaired. His mother, my aunt, says that social exclusion is the hardest. While he is provided with basic rights like the opportunity to go to school, relevant materials, a special educator, but what breaks her heart is how he gets left out of social groups. How often he ends up eating lunch alone or does not get enough invites to birthday parties. She even says she has released expectations from the children in her family – when they know he can’t see, she wonders why they don’t come to him, talk to him and tell him what is happening. She is now teaching him to deal with rejection and avoidance at all levels, to help him become strong.
Being a member of many special needs support groups on Facebook, I keep coming across agonized parents, hurt or angry at how their children get treated. They could be invisible or for that matter ignored. Or even persecuted. Recently a mother of a teenage girl lamented that she did not know what to do for her daughter’s birthday. She couldn’t have a party, because no one would come and that would hurt her daughter’s feelings. Another mother once wrote about how hurt she was when her best friend invited her younger son for her child’s party but expressed her inability to invite the older, special needs child. Another parent talked about how her family was not being invited for an all family getaway and she suspected it was probably because of her special needs child. Another parent received an anonymous letter requesting her to keep her special needs daughter away from their children.
Ellen Stumbo, an active blogger talks about how her daughter with Down’s Syndrome was turned away from a dance class. Or Carissa from the United States talks about how her son Isaac, who is severely intellectually disabled becomes a tag along with his cousins, how his birthdays are forgotten or how he gets pushed to the sidelines in extra curricular activities. Another mother, Caiti is nervous before the start of every school year – wondering how her son will be treated in the new class.
Then of course there are strangers who stare, come across and ask weird questions. There are those who may treat you like the plague and ask their children to stay away.
Sometimes, this could even work the other way around, trying to be over protective could actually backfire. I have a friend whose son is unable to walk. He attended a regular school but got really mollycoddled by his teachers being the only disabled child in his school. This is love – but the reason he was given all this love was because of his disability. The child figured that and like any other child used this to his benefit and the teachers could not be strict with him. By the end of the academic year, his parents were asked to withdraw him from the school as they felt unable to discipline and teach him. But this is another case of disability coming before ability. Had they looked beyond his disability, they would have disciplined him as they did the other children.
I can carry on with many more examples, but the question is how do we address this exclusion? Are people even aware that their behaviour is discriminating? Or do they not care? My friend analyses this very well, “I have understood that there are three categories of people – the first, those who are naturally sensitive, second, those who have not been exposed to disability and do not know how to react and the third, who probably just don’t care or have a very negative notion of disability.”
I think she is bang on and hope that perhaps most people fall in the second category. I mentioned my family above – I know they all love us and I love them back. They would never do anything intentionally to hurt me or my family. Perhaps they just need to realise. And be willing to make that extra effort to overcome their awkwardness.
As a parent, I know I am my child’s best advocate, and it is my job to make people understand. It is my job to create awareness and sensitivity. It is my job to fight for his rights.
Being inclusive is simple. You just need the right intent. Remember to –
- Accept – the first step to being inclusive is to accept. Accept people of different abilities in your attitude, speech, and actions. Talk respectfully and behave respectfully.
- Understand – people with special needs are humans too – their disability should not come before their ability. They are complex individuals with emotions, needs and wants. Just like us.
- Communicate – someone who is different, is just that – different. Like you and I are from each other. Their difference should not set us apart – you can communicate with them with your eyes, words and hands.
- Empathise – understand how a special needs person may feel. Don’t sympathise, do not pity. No one needs that. Share and connect.
- Educate yourself – have a special needs person or parent around you? Don’t make your assumptions about them – talk and understand. Ask questions. Do not feel awkward – everyone can tell the difference between genuine concern and general curiosity.
- Raise an inclusive child – teach your child to be accepting of differences and diversity. They will be a better person for it.
Being inclusive is not difficult. Despite the challenges, there are some bright days. When Carissa’s older son Aidan, asked her to let Isaac be part of his school band, she hesitated, having seen him sidelined so many times. She went to the performance expecting Isaac to be the runner boy, but literally bawled to see him play the percussion with the rest of the team, having a GREAT time!
Inclusion is easy. As my young cousin Arijeet points out. “Inclusion means treating someone very different from you, just like any other human on earth (that’s what we all have in common). Talking with them, showing what you do, the games you play or the books your read are things that you can do to make a slightly different friend welcome and the same as you!”. He is happy to have found his set of friends who understand him and stand by him.
I will use Arijeet’s words as my parting shot. “My message would be to break the iceberg of difference between you and any peer, disabled or not, smart or dumb, short and thin or tall and fat with abs or not and make them melt into your warm friendship like water!”
Remember, just like you and me, special needs people deserve love, friendship and kindness. Let’s make this world a little more inclusive, a little more happy.
Please share this message and I look forward to your thoughts.
Such a heartfelt and beautiful my written blog – like always. And so relevant for everyone…be inclusive. Your thoughts are relevant not only for the issue raised but in general. We as part of the society are not the most inclusive. If someone cannot speak our language or does not look like us…we tend to isolate them…time to introspect and make changes!
Well written ..
Nothing is difficult ,our own understanding or the lack of it is the biggest block.
Instead of acceptance empathy we get overwhelmed by pity and guilt. Reasons to ignore and exclude and carry on with our own lives …
Sakshi am proud of you
Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts , Sakshi. It’s important to you e the right thing. You rightly said that inclusion is not difficult. One just needs to understand and accept. Anyone who has ability to care being oneself can do it.
Well written and melts my heart!
Makes me feel small in many ways, as I am always crowded with thoughts and things which are actually trivial and insignificant! And you are fighting a battle so easily….
Inclusion is the key, but the sensitivity has to start from adults and parents of so called normal kids so that they can help their kids to accept the kids who have special needs.
One of the best blogs so far!!
I think the word “inclusion” is a simple concept, but difficult to realise for some human beings!! Human beings apathy towards “Special needs” beings has also a psychological side and if I dare say a bit of genetic history behind it!!
The need of the hour is for the society to make a conscious move towards inclusion in every which way!! The process should start from childhood – at home, at school, at playground, then maybe we will get over our psychological and genetic history baggage!!
Very apt blog and I am sure it’s a great step in educating both category 1&2 people how to embrace the differently abled into our world and become part of their world till there’s only a common world to share.
Very well written, Sakshi! It is not difficult to be inclusive but understanding the need to be inclusive is so difficult for our society!! I am sure, strong moms like you and Ruchi will bring this change… Will make people understand the importance of being inclusive. Wish more strength and more power to you! Feel so proud of you!! Lots of love to you and your triple A 🙂 🙂 🙂
Very beautifully written. Touches one’s heart.
An essential life lesson that all parent needs to help children learn “be inclusive”, world will surely be a better place!! 🙂
Some of us are not “mentally programmed” to understand that special needs child is similar to others -until and unless you experience it personally. Only when we step into those shoes comes the awareness. But a better way is to raise awareness, it does help writing and talking about it
As with all your writing Sakshi,
beautifully expressed, moving, and powerful. You’re right, I think the struggle for real understanding in the context of disability manifests ‘differently’ based on cultural context, but it’s a struggle alright. It’s sad that as individuals we find it so hard to wrap our heads around other humans being ‘different’ from ourselves. If only we could observe the shared humanity, reflected in the inherent sameness of our aspirations, and our needs, our joys and pain, it would help build compassion, empathy, and true inclusion. Will share with my other friends! Keep going!
I work in special school and I can feel your pain. Society do just opposite SPL needy kind D’s need more love and attention whereas they neglect them.if u treat them normal ,then they can have confidence in them and act friendly.
I can understand the difficulties that such kids go through as i have a distant cousin who is disabled. Will share yoir tips ahead! ☺👍
it’s so heart breaking for the parents at the same time they have to become strong to handle the situation and come through it.
It is heart breaking .But I understand what you are trying to.say.I had a parent who had a mental challenge and explaining that made me more inclusive than I would probably ever be.We need to go a long way.
This post touched my heart! Seriously only the parent and the child can understand the pain of unequal treatment. I hope this will change.
This is such a well written post. Straight frm the heart. True, no one understand like a parent can and how Challenging it can be. But yes we all need to make sure we don’t discriminate. This mentality needs to change.
You have really poured your heart out here and you deserve applause. We need more outspoken voices like you in the blogging community.
Most of us belong to the second group. Unaware how should one respond. It’s heart gripping and hence more need to educate ourselves. Coming from a mother who is spreading awareness this post is closest to reality.
That’s such a heart touching post, only the parents can understand what goes through behind. Such a nice share fir all parents.
Nice thoughtful post indeed sakshi. Having friends is a good thing but I feel the quality of friends should matter more than the number. Having a inclusive society is something that should soon happen in our societies and for larger good.
Kudos on the concept of your post. It will be beneficial to patients whose kids who are faced with this problem
Thanks
Its so sad people discriminate like this. It is frustrating for a mom and is a huge psychological pressure created unnecessarily on the kid. I hope better sense prevails in people.
I hope so too 🙂
You have shared your feeling and dont think it is a vent out, it is something we need to talk a lot to make things better for our younger ones. Quite a few people do empathise but as you said they arent aware what and how to get gifts or even talk about it.
Thanks gunjan 🙂
Sometime I feel the problem is not with the child who is not a normal but the problem is with the normal people who actually are abnormal in the real life. we should always look towards everything in a similar way why we should discriminate between kids I really don’t understand how people do that and which so much of confidence
Yes, you are so right. People need to change.
I really appreciate the way you have tried to make people understand that these are no different children but just need little support and love. I think the major thing required is understanding their situation and emotions. We all need to also teach our kids to be sensitive towards special kids. So that they also get an opportunity to grow like all other children.
Yes, you are so right. We really need to teach our kids…. At least the next generation can be better.
This is so well written. I believe that we should accept every fact and others should also learn to accept it
Thanks!
People need to educate themselves and emphasize…The post is really well written
Thanks so much!
Such a beautifully penned post. The problem lies within our upbringing… We are taught to ignore or not to befriend a special needs person right from our childhood. If we just change our perception it would help so many people
Absolutely.
This post touched me deeply. Awareness and education is the most important aspect. Everyone deserves love and respect.
Thanks so much kinshoo. Please do share if possible.
I’m so passionate about the subject and constantly try to agree to this to my children. My son said at his school they have a table at recess called the Buddy table and if you don’t have friends you can sit at it and everyone else is encouraged to ask those kids to play. I thought it was so sweet
Yes, it is a really nice concept. I heard about this for another school too.
This post was super emotional. As a mom of a son with special needs, we go through this daily. Thank you for helping to spread awareness. I wish the entire world would read your post.
Thanks so much for your words. Do share the post if possible.
“Let’s make this world a little more inclusive, a little more happy.” Peace and positivity go along way, I hope the world can figure this out sooner rather than later.
Yes, sincerely hope so too.
Thank you so much for sharing! Getting a gift for one of my children would probably bother me too. Thank you for including the statistics of people with disabilities and how people can be more inclusive. I’m sure some of it is ignorance but some of it is not. And not only should adults focus on being inclusive but also teaching this to our kids from a very young age. One of my sons has been incredible empathetic since he was very young especially with those with special needs. Our other son, however, we have really had to go over a lot of what you discuss. Thank you again for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your experience! Well written! Everyone needs to be more inclusive especially when it comes to kids who don’t understand why they are being singled out!
Kids are innocent and they learn from adults. So adults need to be taught and bring in more awareness that any kid with special needs is still a kid and deserves opportunities and love, like every individual. Heartfelt post mommy. Hugs.
[…] Hello everyone and thanks for reading along as I write. Today I want to talk about a topic close to my heart – the importance of inclusion. As an individual I am a fairly inclusive person, but after becoming a special needs parent, I value the importance of raising inclusive children even more. So on day 9 of the #blogchatterA2Z challenge – I is for Inclusive. Being inclusive is basically recognizing that people are different, respecting those differences and going a step further by appreciating being different. I wrote about disability and inclusion at length in an earlier blog. […]
I was so touched by your account of the discrimination that children with Cerebral palsy experience.I feel it is because people are not aware about how to include children with special needs.We need to create more awareness #WorldCerebralpalsyday
Thank you so much. Yes a lot of awareness is required and would be grateful if you can share the message ahead.
First of all, you deserve a pat on your back Sakshi. Talking about Special need kids then I see it as – Special need kids are “Special”. God has gifted them with something special which we cannot see. They are gifted to see the world from a different angle.
When my daughter was in Elementary, she had two special need kids in her class and she used to tell me how much talented they are. Her words were – they take time to understand a few things but they have a different way of looking at things. It gives us a new perspective.
People should try to educate themselves before passing any kind of comments. And if they don’t have anything positive to say, better they should be quiet.
Thanks so much Alpana!
This post deserve a big round of applause and hats off to you for tackling this sensitive subject with so much maturity. this is really sad that on our society people forget basic manners and behave with insensitivity. your post needed to be share more and more. I am sure your pointers will help people understand their insensitive behavior and help them to be empathetic towards other’s problems.
As you have rightly pointed out it is all about intent. People need to be more empathetic as opposed to being sympathetic and downright callous in their remarks. It just takes a smile or two to connect heart to heart.
You’ve expressed your feelings very well, and don’t think it is a vent out. It’s something we need to talk about a lot to make things better for everyone. The community at large is often unaware of the potential of children with special needs. I hope the world realizes this sooner rather than later. Hats off to you and love to both the kids 💞
You have expressed tour thought and feelings really well through this post . This will be helpful for parents whose kid is suffering from this issue .
This was such an emotional post. As a mother I cannot even imagine if my child gets treated like this. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to for such parents to witness such behaviour towards their kids. Inclusion I believe is very very important and the society at large should understand this that every child has right to happiness and normal childhood.
My heart goes out to every parent and child who faces this. We need more awareness and normalization of different needs and inclusion.
[…] Examine your biases: I guess the first thing any one of us can and should do is to examine our own biases – unconscious or not. Do we believe that people with disabilities cannot perform at par? Do we patronize them? Do we feel sympathetic towards them (and not empathetic) and feel they got unlucky in life? Think again. It is not too difficult to become inclusive as I observed in this post of mine. […]