Topic One

Interactive Activity

There are different ways to understand disability. In research, we look at the documents that are created to identify how institutions “construct” disability. In a medical or pathological approach, we look for the diagnosis, and use that information to make decisions about intervention. In a social model approach, we look for a range of human characteristics (including pathology) and we look at the environmental barriers to full participation. In a social relational approach, we recognize that disability is context specific and embedded in our social relationships. Having information about a diagnosis only, cannot tell us how to support a child. We must also look at the program, relationships (including peers, teachings, family, community and clinical or professional relationships) to understand the concept of disability.

Instructor Information

Divide your class into small groups and give each group a set of scenarios (these will be in the attached presentation). Each short scenario should be discussed one at a time. For each scenario discuss the following questions:

  • Is this information important for your practice in educational settings? Why or why not?
  • How might this information impact your work? Would you change anything if you met this child/family?
Notes for online instruction: The instructor would have separate discussion boards for each group to discuss their portion of the case study with the discussion points, then come together in one large discussion board with all the sections to disclose that everyone only had a small piece of the case study and share all the pieces with the whole group.
Download the (PowerPoint Document) Construction of Disability in Childhood Slideshow

  1. A child/student in your program/class has had two combined visits with a speech therapist and an occupational therapist from a child treatment center. The mother was referred to this agency by her family doctor. After a lengthy time on a waitlist, the child/student got a spot in a childcare centre, and the therapeutic interventions stopped.
    • Note for instructor: This situation could arise for multiple reasons. It could be because the child/student no longer qualifies for these services when they enter childcare, it could be because the services were private and they can no longer afford to go, or it could be that the family does not have time to do both services.
  2. A mother and child/student attended an Ontario Early Years Centre (OEYC) where the child/student was referred for a language assessment. The child/student was put on a waitlist for speech and language services. After several months, the child/student with his mother, attended 5 sessions of speech therapy services in a group with 5 other children/students.
    • Note for instructor: This service has ended. What might be relevant about past services for your practice now? Why might this service have ended?
  3. A mother has concerns about her son’s dental health. She has a referral for a specialist paediatric dentist because the son will not go to a regular dentist. She is not sure what is happening with this referral because her doctor said she would call the dentist. The mother has not heard anything for 3 months.
    • Note for instructor: Students may not think that this is their responsibility. You can probe how you might support the family to get better services outside of your own program. You could also talk about responsibility to help with making phone calls to other professionals. You can ask whether dental care is important for educational contexts.
  4. The child/student has been waiting for about 8 months to get autism services. The mother has been told that the waitlist is usually 1.5 years to get ABA services, and 2 years for IBI.
    • Note for instructor: Discuss what behavioural services are, and how they are integrated into early years and school programs. If a child/student is not getting this service, is there anything you should do while they are on a waitlist?
  5. A family is getting a Special Services at Home grant. They get $300 per month to pay for a caregiver to come into their home, or to send their son to a specialized program such as a camp, or recreational activity.
    • Note for instructor: You can talk about other grants that are available for children/students with disabilities. You can also probe the possibility that the family might want to use the funding for supports while they are in your program, and supporting this choice.
  6. Two parents of a child/student in your program/class are both unemployed and collecting Ontario Works. They have been on a waitlist for subsidized housing for over two years.
    • Note for instructor: Students may say that this does not change anything about their practice. Probe how poverty or differences in economic circumstances can impact a child’s experience in educational settings.
  7. A family of a child/student in your class/program is Ukrainian and the parents have lived in Canada since just before their son was born. They speak Russian at home, but they feel they should speak English with their son because of his speech delays.
    • Note for instructor: You can talk about family choice, as well as reasons why parents might make this decision, and the implications of this decision.

Case Study Follow Up

Instructor information: Come back together as a whole group and have each group share their main ideas from their smaller group discussions.

Following the discussion, disclose that all of the information in the case study comes from a single family story. Dividing the information up, as is done in many case study activities, simplifies the experience of families, but we know that in reality, as human beings, the family is quite complex. In each of the scenarios described in the activity, the single piece of information can explain a situation. However, all of the information is interconnected. The child/student has autism, but in many cases, this will not be diagnosed until age 3 or later. As a result, educators may assume that the child/student has “behaviour” problems. In this case, not going to the dentist, and developmental delays are partly explained by autism, but it is also common for bilingual or plurilingual children/students to seem to have language delay. There are a wide range of developmental differences amongst all children/students, so these concerns may also be the temperament of the child, or environmental conditions. In addition, in the case study we can examine all of the information compiled together, but in reality educators often only learn about small pieces of a child’s story over time. Even in our case study, we do not have all information about the child/student or his family. This is true about all children/students you will work with. While trusting relationships can help to support families and children/students to share information, it is important not to expect or to feel entitled to information, particularly about medical or personal experiences.

Additional Information

There is additional information about this child and their family story. Ask your students the following question about the new information:

Do these pieces of information re-shape how you think about the child?

  1. The mother says that she has no friends. This is because she is not working and she is spending most of her time taking her son to different programs.
  2. The child/student is 3.9 years old. He has one younger brother who is 22 months younger.
  3. The mother says she has found all of the services by herself. She has had some referrals from her family doctor, but she has also used social media, the internet, and asking professionals to find different supports.
  4. Outside of the home, the child/student does not eat. The child/student does not use a knife or fork; only their hands. The mother picks the child/student up early because they are so hungry and usually very upset. This may in fact be because the child/student has dental decay, and is causing pain, and may also have sensory sensitivities to foods, and utensils.
  5. A resource consultant visits once or twice per week in the classroom.  The mother says that the resource consultant is there to help the teacher. She does not know what she does, or how the teacher has responded to the recommendations from the resource consultant.
  6. The mother spends 3 hours per day in the evening working with her son. She cannot afford private speech services, and the publicly funded services have ended. She paid for some private services where they allowed her to attend with her son (the public services did not). She watched carefully and is now trying to conduct speech therapy with her son at home. She uses the goals that are set by the private therapist and she works on these goals every day.
Instructor information: These additional pieces of information help us to see a bigger picture. While there are many concerns on the part of the mother, she is also doing a lot to support her son’s development. Some of the points that were raised in the first set of scenarios, may have led you to think that the family were part of the “problem”. We can see with additional information that there are many environmental factors contributing to the “needs” of the child/student and the “needs” of the mother. The mother is doing a lot of the early intervention work.

Additional Resources

Previous Section: Warm-up Activity
Next Section: Topic 2: Resource Consultation