Special Needs Our Specialty!
Understanding what a student needs to grow takes a little time and a little patience and sometimes just gaining experience throughout the years. Once you get a hang of inclusivity, it’s relatively smooth sailing from there. If your goal is to bring out the best in your students, we have some great pointers for how to bring out the best in your special needs students specifically!
A great way to engage your children is through different sensory projects. Arguably the most enjoyable way to do that is via arts and crafts. You get to have fun using your brain and also come out with some pretty neat memorabilia items to store away and reminisce over later, or eventually turn into holiday ornaments for years to come.
nonPareil Institute is a nonprofit organization that helps adults with Autism learn hirable skills, such as coding and other digital techniques. Gary Moore is the President and Co-founder of this organization, along with Dan Selec (the CEO and Founder), and Moore agreed to donate some of his time to us for an interview.
The last few decades have yielded a number of scientific advancements in the medical field, ensuring that natural problems that arise within humans can be altered or even completely “fixed”. One of those inventions includes cochlear implants.
The three key components for being successful while searching for jobs and applying for positions you can really learn, grow and excel at is honesty, confidence and positivity. Unfortunately, not all of this is enough to get the actual job, you have to find places that are in need of new employees first and foremost!
With so many new ways of doing things, creating things and getting ideas out into the world it’s no wonder that we have been able to move along this far in regards to technology for the physically disabled. There are conversations popping up that weren’t thought about previously and there are actions being done to help make the world much more accessible and a little less troublesome for people who do have these disabilities. This is something we’re pretty passionate about staying educated on and up-to-date with so why not share that joy?
One of the biggest things I can recall growing up hearing about are stories told about people with disabilities and special needs. Someone always had something to say (or repeated from an older sibling/family member) and it was almost always negative or derogatory. When you get older you start to understand just how wrong that was and how the world is a lot less simple than “this is black” and “this is white.” So here are some common myths that tend to come up in conversations surround people with special needs:
Putting a high-profile actor in a role where they are asked to portray a character with special needs is nothing new and has been taking place for quite some time. What we should be wondering is, why? Why not cast the part to someone who understands every aspect of the role?
Mainstream media influences us in ways we aren’t even conscious of at times; The characters portrayed in television shows, movies and even book characters can help shape not only our minds as individuals but also as social beings. Including characters with special needs in these storylines is something that plays a key role in helping people to understand all the different kinds of people that exist in this world. There have been some powerful and influential characters that have helped familiarize the public with people who have special needs over the years and it’s time to give a few of them some extra attention:
A few weeks ago, an intern here at The Achievement Center of Texas put out a blog discussing special needs representation in film. The discussed the portrayal of those with special needs in the medium, as well as the ethical dilemma of an able-bodied actor playing a disabled character. After its release, we got to thinking about representation in in other forms of entertainment; so here we’ll be talking about television.