Louise Kinross: My Child's Dream: To Have Friends
Now this isn't nessarily Deaf specific......it shows that the friend issue is very much universal among disabilty. The problem however, is that the attitude with dealing with disabilty is that parents need to assimulate their kids in the "normal" world with little to no "disabilty" stuff like schools/camps etc. Sound familair? The theory of inclusion/mainstreaming is that kids with disabilties will receive all the benifits from the mainstream normal world, so they won't need special schools or "special stuff" But the thing is.....a lot of times they don't receive the benifits of the mainstream....Especially socially!
This is a phenonomon that is seen from mild to severe disabilty.
If the kids went to specialized schools/programs they would have REAL friends....This is why we advocate for things like ASL and Deaf community stuff, including deaf schooling.....so that dhh kids can have the advantage of a COMMUNITY and real friends, rather then existing on the edge of the social scene in the hearign world.....and trust me, it's a rare dhh kid who thrives totally socially in the hearing world.....I remember back when the parent of a kid who attended CID posted here, he said that a lot of parents were concerned about their kid's social abilty.
Now this isn't nessarily Deaf specific......it shows that the friend issue is very much universal among disabilty. The problem however, is that the attitude with dealing with disabilty is that parents need to assimulate their kids in the "normal" world with little to no "disabilty" stuff like schools/camps etc. Sound familair? The theory of inclusion/mainstreaming is that kids with disabilties will receive all the benifits from the mainstream normal world, so they won't need special schools or "special stuff" But the thing is.....a lot of times they don't receive the benifits of the mainstream....Especially socially!
This is a phenonomon that is seen from mild to severe disabilty.
If the kids went to specialized schools/programs they would have REAL friends....This is why we advocate for things like ASL and Deaf community stuff, including deaf schooling.....so that dhh kids can have the advantage of a COMMUNITY and real friends, rather then existing on the edge of the social scene in the hearign world.....and trust me, it's a rare dhh kid who thrives totally socially in the hearing world.....I remember back when the parent of a kid who attended CID posted here, he said that a lot of parents were concerned about their kid's social abilty.
