It’s been a challenging month so far, for different reasons. And I don’t mean it’s been a hard month, I mean I have been challenged in it.
The biggest challenge that I want to share though is about my general approach to the work here.
I don’t know if you’ve had much experience of special needs kids, but prior to being here my experience had been pretty minimal. I had seen special needs kids around, seen other people take care of them, but it wasn’t something I had done. I mean I’d played with other kids, looked after them, fed them, etc. but I hadn’t with special needs kids. And if I’m honest it wasn’t something I had much drive to pursue. The girl I dated from ages 16-18 has a brother who has Down’s Syndrome and he was a delight to play with, but that was as far as my interaction had gone and I guess I thought that was enough for me. I think I thought that those who did that kind of work were a certain kind of person, that it was something I couldn’t really do because it’s not what I was made for.
I’m pretty sure I’d even been places where I’d heard people say “Oh I thought like that but once I started helping out here with these kids I learned it was something anyone could do”. And if I continue being honest then that was probably something I figured someone from the category of ‘able to work with special needs kids’ would say. That wasn’t me. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against special needs kids at all, I think they’re as valuable as all kids, I just didn’t think that that kind of work was something I had the capacity for.
Now, of course, I need to set straight that kind of thinking. Because I learned something so important in the first week of being here and am reminded of it all the time: These are not special needs kids; They are kids with special needs.
If you have ever thought in a way similar to what I had described above then please take this in and fully process it. It is not that there is a category for a type of child that is distinct from all other children, the so called “special needs children”. Rather, there are just children, and some of them have requirements that are different from others. I have learned pretty quickly that these children are no different from the other children I have played with before – they laugh and cry about the same things, they play the same games, enjoy the same TV shows, eat the same food, the list goes on.
So don’t make my mistake in thinking that there is a category of person who can do this work, because I thought that and I was very wrong. And even if there is, then you could be in a different category, the category of ‘thinks they’re not in the category that can work with these kids but they actually are’. These kids are so much fun, and I’m so glad to have been able to come here and be a part of this.
