LEARNING SIGN LANGUAGE BRISEN KNOKEY EDU 11/16/14 TEACHING STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

I worked with a family whom had two children with special needs. The both have diabetes, but the younger child is also deaf. The family lived in Port Orange. INTRODUCTION TO THE HOST SETTING

ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES I decided to work with the deaf, which is highly recognized as a disability, but also to work with children who have diabetes because, though it is well known, not many people consider it a disability. The majority of my time with the family, I worked on word pronunciation with the deaf child, because even with his hearing aids, he has a hard time hearing certain sounds. This issue makes it impossible to him to speak them correctly. The older child was also enrolled in basketball camp. Then, I got to experience first hand how children with diabetes participate in sports. I spent a few hours after school, a couple days a week to fulfill my fifteen hours of engagement with persons with disabilities.

PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS The two students I had the privilege of working with were Caucasians from a middle class family. The older child is eight, and in the second grade. And the younger child is six and in Kindergarten. Sec (c)(4)(i):The following, when used with respect to children who are deaf or hard of hearing: Oral transliteration services, cued language transliteration services, sign language transliteration and interpreting services, and transcription services, such as communication access real-time translation (CART) Sec (c)(9)(i): Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; I served two people with disabilities.

PICTURES

SERVICE IN ACTION Although, I didn’t get any pictures of myself in the action itself, I had the children’s mother send me some pictures of them. I thought I would just take this opportunity to share a few pictures of how adorable and sweet they are.

PERCEPTIONS OF DIFFERENCES After working with children who have disabilities, I realize how difficult it can be to do simple things, that most of us take complete advantage of. I also now realize how stressful it is to a parent of students with disabilities, after talking with their parents. At first, I was a little frustrated because I had no idea what I was going to do for this project. Now, I’m really happy that I got the experience, because I met such an amazing family whom taught me so much about being deaf and living with diabetes.

PERCEPTIONS OF DIFFERENCES There were two experiences that had a huge impact on me during my hours. The first was when the deaf child and I were going over sight words, and he was trying to say the word get. He continued to say it incorrectly, and I was continuously saying, “No, get, /g/- /et/”. Eventually, his mother stopped me to inform me deaf children cannot hear the /g/ sound. The second was when he took my hands and showed me how to sign “letters” when I had my hands backwards.

CONNECTIONS TO YOUR COURSE I’m enrolled in EEX4070 Teaching Students with Exceptional Needs What three course topics do you better understand now? Be sure to name three concepts, explain each briefly (cite text where appropriate), and provide a concrete example from your service activities for each topic. The first course topic I better understand now is assistive technology. Technology was helpful when trying to communicate with sign language, because it is easy to download an app to ones cell phone with hundreds of different signs. The second topic I better understand now is parents and the community. After seeing how involved these students parents, neighbors and schools are, its easy to see how loved and supported they are.

CONNECTIONS TO YOUR COURSE The third topic I better understand now is the Individualized Education Plan. Even though, the deaf student is enrolled in a normal classroom, he has been provided a sign language to English translator to help him in class. This experience may help me in my future career because deafness and diabetes are two very common occurrences in schools. I now know how to work with both, including checking a students glucose levels, and giving them their shots. (Not that that would be necessary in an everyday situation)

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT My perspective on civic engagement and volunteerism hasn’t changed on how important I think it is, but I do feel that I will now make more time for volunteering. I feel that civic engagement serves society by teaching people about how others live their lives. People may not realize how difficult it can be to live with a disability, or they may not realize how much fun a person with disabilities can have.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT I feel that service-learning is the best way for students in my field to learn. The hands on experiences teaches much better, than an instructor lecturing on scenarios that may or may not happen. I do feel that this experience will motivate me to be more engaged in the future, because I learned so much about something that I couldn't’t experience first hand myself. I would definitely encourage everybody, not only education majors, but especially parents to be more involved in service learning so they can have a better glimpse of what goes on in the world.

FINAL THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS Others could volunteer at a local school or in a part of the community they know deals with many people with disabilities, especially assisted living facilities. I could always reach out to some friends and family either in person, or on social media. I believe that teachers do play a huge role in teaching others to be more tolerant towards people with disabilities. However, I do feel that teachers and administration could put a little more effort into making sure students with disabilities aren’t being bullied in or outside of school.