Wednesday, May 23, 2012

An Observation

From reading other pages (mainly the comments) people in the special needs community get all up in arms or a term I like butt hurt over every little thing.  We don't need to add fuel to the fire over everything. I have seen people say their child should not have to wait because they have autism, well yes they do sometimes. All kids special needs or not have to wait at times, especially in the hospital setting.  When you say things like my child should be bumped to the head of the line because they have autism remember you have zero knowledge of what the situation of the other families may be. Did they make their appointment months before you? So they patiently wait for their appointment and because you come in with your kid they should be bumped. Hospitals have this thing called triage and I can promise you that if you are bumped for someone else there is something more pressing than your issue going on. Will you ever know what it is? Nope just be patient, yelling and screaming at nurses will do nothing but piss them off and guess what I was a nurse and I would avoid the jerks like the plague. You want to get somewhere be nice. trust me no one likes bumping someone or making them wait but sometimes it has to be done. If you are nice guess what they will do everything they can to make your stay more comfortable and get you in ASAP. You come off yelling like a crazy person who thinks they are better than everyone else you get nothing. Parents are always saying they want their kids to be accepted and treated the same as other kids, well they can't be treated the same if you are constantly asking for special treatment. Before you all yell at me I know some kids need things done differently, I'm not talking about those requests. I am talking about the no the kid from the ER cannot bump my appointment back because my child has autism and has a hard time waiting. Hello the kid is from the ER, I can 100% guarantee that that child needs whatever test run and needs it run now. Again the triage thing.

Then there was this article. Everyone is up in arms over the wording "Some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal or being mentally retarded." This statement was in the yearbook and the intent was to honor the special needs kids. The yearbook kids probably didn't even think they were singling kids out. I don't think this was done with intent to harm. Read the sentence again: "Some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal or being mentally retarded." it reads as though someone cut and pasted it from the special education departments own materials. Should it have been in the yearbook? No of course not. These are teenagers the failure did not come from them but from whoever the adult was that oversaw the yearbook. They should have caught it and said hey you can't do this. Did this statement call every child in special education mentally retarded? NO it didn't read all the words it says or mentally retarded not and mentally retarded. Mentally retarded is a medical term just as blind, deaf, and non-verbal are. That's where the facilitator should have said hey guys I see what you are doing but this may hurt some feelings and we cannot be putting other kids medical diagnosis in the yearbook.
Now instead of anyone reading the whole article and questioning how did this happen constructively, everyone is in a uproar of being angry at high school students for a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, how about instead of grabbing the pitchforks and attacking we take the opportunity to educate and tell others why this is not right.

These are just two examples where I think people have gone overboard and reacted based on emotion rather than thinking it through. Look I understand as parents we are always on the defensive, lets face it there are some rude people in the world, but not everyone is.

2 comments:

  1. Yay! Someone else thinks so too! I totally agree. When I said I couldn't wait 2 hours I didn't mean that we should be bumped ahead, I just meant I would reschedule. The other area I know you didn't want to touch is school, and IEPs. Parents are out of control. Not only is Autism everywhere now, it's the excuse for everything! Oh sorry my son is a jerk, he has Autism. Sorry he disrupts the whole entire class, he has Autism. The high functioning kids can be trained. And if not, stop fighting it, and let them spend time in special ED. My son isn't in the class all day, and you know what? Who cares!! Other kids need to learn as well.

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    1. Was not directed at you. I understood your comment. I have seen several times on other pages when someone has to wait everyone gets up in arms because the person has to wait. I agree autism is not an excuse for no manners. Temple Grandin constantly says manners are taught so teach them. The child may not have perfect manners but some are better than none.

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