Who-Am-I? : What are my rights? - Week 3
Special Needs

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Art from Iceland

Sometimes all we see in disabled kids is what they cannot do. It is important to remember that every child is unique and deserving of opportunities to grow and develop his or her strengths. Katrin's picture reminds us that kids with disabilities like to play outside, too. Read the messages sent by three deaf students who met Kidlink kids in a discussion of children with disabilities in 1993.

1. Which would you miss the most - your eyes or your ears?
2. How do you think a child in a wheel chair can win a race or play tug-of-war?
3. How do deaf children communicate? Is there one universal "language" that they use or does this vary depending on where they live? Who discovered their language?
4. What do you think are the major challenges facing children with disabilities in your school or in your town?
5. How would you feel if you couldn't go to school with your friends from your street but had to go to another school only with handicapped kids?
6. There is a big difference between being blind at birth and becoming blind later on in life. What do you think those differences are?
7. Can you think of a time when a blind child might have an advantage over a sighted child?
8. Can students in wheelchairs move from class to class at your school? Are light switches in rooms low enough for students in wheelchairs to turn on?
9. Do you think children with disabilities should be included in regular classrooms with all the other students or should they be in classes or schools by themselves?
10. What are the "Special Olympics?" What is the purpose of this competition?
11. Can you name people who have disabilities but are still accomplishing major things in life? What are they doing and why is it amazing?
12. What would you do it for some reason you were suddenly disabled? How do you think your life would be different?
13. What can we learn from disabled people?
14. Do disabled kids have less, equal or more rights than you?

Classroom Activities

1. Get a partner from your class. Use a handkerchief. Have your partner blindfold you. Do this for one hour at school. Reverse the rolls. Write about how you felt being blindfolded and what you missed the most.
2. How do visually impaired children color? Let's try it! Take a coloring sheet with a large design and outline the design with glue. Let the glue harden. Blindfold yourself with a scarf. Take a crayon and color between the raised glue outlines.
3. Make a chart with two columns and list the things you would miss if you didn't have your eyes or your ears.
4. If there is someone in your school that is blind, as a class make up a game that they could enjoy playing without having to see.
5. Look at the English Braille Alphabet and try to read the word written in Braille. What extra letters are needed for your alphabet? What do they look like in Braille?
6. Make your own "Braille alphabet" using small round cereals, rice or beans. Glue the pieces on grid paper to make the alphabet. Make a phrase with your alphabet and ask your classmates to decipher your message.
7. Learn to sign a few phrases or sign parts of a short song and share it with other classes in your school.
8. Design posters to help improve attitudes toward children with disabilities. Display them in your classroom and school.
9. Work in groups to design the "ideal" school for all students including those with disabilities. Would you include anything that your school doesn't have now? Will your ideal school have two floors and elevators or will it be a sprawling one floor school? Draw your school and carefully label all the rooms.

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