As a parent of a 13-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl, I am very careful whenever I use the words special needs in connection with children.
On the one hand I believe that every child is a special needs child, simply because they are all individuals, each with their own special needs. Many of those special needs they have in common with other children – for example the need to be truly loved, cared for and nurtured – while for others their special needs might be more individually specific to them.
On the other hand however, special needs is often a term broadly applied to those either children that are advantaged in some way, while other children are described as being special needs because they are disadvantaged or have difficulties in other ways.
But there is another important reason why I am cautious about using the word special needs. The reason that I am cautious is because virtually every child that I have ever met that does suffer from a difficulty or disadvantage has also been absolutely blessed in another way. It is though they have been provided with something special that the rest of us don’t have, as though to compensate for the areas in which they have problems. And it is simply a matter of taking the time to discover what their special talent or ability is.
Without exception each and every child has their own way in which to receive and process information most effectively, and it is important that we as parents provide for our children a means by which both the child and the parent(s) can discover what that preferred learning style is for each child. From that point we can then take the necessary steps to provide the most effective education for that child by accommodating their preferred and most effective learning style.
And what I find particularly upsetting is that our education system as we know it today – often tries to dictate to a child what that preferred learning style should be. (more…)