Personal Narrative: Working With Children With Special Needs

For my eighteenth birthday, my father sat me down and gave me a journey necklace. The goal of this gift was to commemorate the many milestones (i.e. entering into “adulthood” and going to college) that were coming up for me. With this gift, he also reminded me that life is a journey full of twists and turns. As a young adult, I could not fully grasp the symbolism of this gift or the life lesson that my father was trying to teach me. Now almost six years later, my life journey has been full of joyous moments and times of tragedy. One of the stages of my journey has been making the decision to obtain a Master’s Degree of Social Work. After considering many other professions and degrees, I found that a Master’s of Social Work was the perfect combination

My whole life I felt love, but never like the love I experienced three years when I walked in the Lawrence County Developmental Center. The LCDC is the special needs program for the student of East Lawrence and I was chosen to be an aide my sophomore year. Most of the kids could not speak, if they could speak they still had problems communicating. I felt like I had walked into a totally different world, and that made me want to spend every free moment in the LCDC. My three years with those kids taught me the most incredible lesson: your life is what you make it.

I am committed to working with all persons of diverse backgrounds, disabilities and other special needs. Every student should have the experience and ability of working with quality and caring teachers who care enough to take the time to make sure that they are given the tools they need to succeed. My life experiences have shown me how to be a better person and teacher for my students.

By the way of introduction, I am Aleem Punja's cousin and he suggested I reach out to you to explore possible opportunities at the Children's Aid Society of Toronto.

To be able to work with so many children every day, each with a different disability has to take a lot of creativity and problem solving. I remember going to her office when I was younger, and wanting to be just like her. Now I have the opportunity to do something very similar. I haven’t yet decided what age group of people I would want to work with in the future, but I have a feeling it would be children from birth to three. My mom has even helped me build some connections, helping me set up a day to shadow one of the few speech therapists that worked in her office in Temple. After following Morgan, the speech therapist, for the day I realized how much patience and time her and my mom put into their jobs. I had forgotten about all of the nights my mom had come home from work still typing reports on her computer. Working with children and their families can take up time in your personal life, not just your professional

I have always loved working with children. My first job was at Ellison Youth Inc. summer camp and I was a counselor. I interacted with campers between the ages of six through ten. Based on the managers observed she offered me a position during the school year with the after school program. Any environment I’m in I always seem to gravitate towards children and this is when I learned that working with children was my passion. Prior to this time I had no idea this was my passion I knew I just knew I enjoyed working with kids. There was always a sense of self-gratification. So when I found out I was pregnant I was in for a treat.

I applied to different schools around Auckland but the one job I didn't think I would've benefited from replied first. This job was at a special need school. I've never worked in special education before but I wouldn't change it any other way today. I connected instantly with these children, because to me they were unique in my eyes and it made me look at teaching in a whole new perspective I came to understand that special needs students have a huge an effect from outside of school, just similar to Bowlby's experience with maladjusted children he explained, first, he found that he could communicate with the disturbed children at the school, and found, moreover, that their psychological problems seemed to be linked to their unhappy and disrupted childhood (Fear,

Maybe I was too little, or maybe I was too short, but either way I did not make the jump. In the second grade I was your average eight year old, who always wore her hair in ponytails, and enjoyed playing tag at recess. One day I saw the fifth graders on the monkey bars at recess doing something I had never seen before, they were jumping to the fourth bar. I waited untill Kids Inc. that day to try the jump, but it was no use I was acting like a scared baby.

I was diagnosed with Autism when I was 2 years old and it has affected my entire life more than anything else I have experienced. It has impacted the way I socialize and communicate with people, the way I think and understand the world,and it also affected my speech and development when I was younger. Autism also affects the way other people see me and I’m often misunderstood. I don’t remember everything about my life at that time, but I do know that I struggled a lot to get to where I am today. I’m also aware that it will impact my future and force me to work harder than my peers. Even though I have Autism, I will always know that it doesn’t define who I am and that I will improve no matter what.

The history of mental health in the United States show a robust movement towards the mental healthcare system we have today. Prior to the 19th century, individuals with mental health issues were widely considered to be demonically possessed, thus contributing to the stigmatization of mental illness and the proliferation of poor treatment conditions. However, in the 1800s, there was a dramatic change in mental healthcare in the U.S. The government took a proactive role in treating the mentally ill, leading to the dawn of state psychiatric facilities.

I spent 18 years helping families and advocating for children and their families in my jobs as a Special Ed Coordinator and a Resource Teacher.

After struggling with the department of education and guiding my son through the right path, I decided to become a paraprofessional for children with special needs. I absolutely love my job. Being able to help other children by accommodating their needs is a true blessing. Providing children with the tools necessary so they can accomplish given goals and expectations according to their specific needs makes me feel like a successful assistance. I have learned to be patient, understandable and resourceful for both children and families in my classroom.

Being someone with a physical disability, I had to face many obstacles from the day I was born until now. Every situation I have been through only made me stronger and stronger. I am the type of person who believes that not even the sky is the limit, that I can do anything I set my mind to, no matter my disability. At a very young age my parents would tell me that I came to this world for a reason, this phrase has been stuck with me forever. My family are my strength and my motivation to keep going and never give up. I came from two immigrant parents, whom they had to make their most difficult decision which was leaving my sisters behind. Both of my parents migrated from El Salvador to California seeking for a better future. When my parents

Growing up, I was always the first person to volunteer my babysitting services and help the younger members in my family. As I got older I continued to have a large interest in looking after others and got a part time job as a babysitter. Once old enough I started working in a special needs school as a midday supervisory assistant, this job involved being responsible for many different children from ages four to eighteen, some of which needing one to one care and medical treatment. I have seen first-hand the difference a strong medical team of nurses, physiotherapist and speech and language therapists that allow the children to progress and

For everyone who wants to know what it is like to wake up every day with a disability which cannot change it sucks. But hey, I’m alive. I still have two arms, two legs and a proudly ticking heart that isn’t giving up. One which isn’t letting the bullies get to me, one which will stand tall above it all.