A Struggle to Educate the Severely Disabled

This article discussed an opposing view to “I Can Identify Saturn but I Can’t Brush My Teeth: What Happens When the Curricular Focus for Students with Severe Disabilities Shifts”. Donovan is a 20 year old young man with a severe traumatic brain injury from 6months old. He does not walk, has no verbal skills, he can recognize familiar voices, yet he cannot feed himself. He has had difficulty mastering infant leveled tasks ie: opening and closing his eyes on command. While his mother like his teachers, she wishes that would focus on his self injurious behavior and self stimulatory behavior.  She feels he needs more than 30 minutes of PT twice a week, more speech and more OT. She feels more functional skills should be the focus, not money. Rebecca Bravo, the principal, believes in integrating the state mandated curriculum into Donovan’s day and having an 1:1 aide assist him throughout the day helping him switch classes every 50 minutes will keep him stimulated and engaged. She is striving for students with severe disabilities to add a twist into their education by modifying state standards for the students. Donovan might not know to call 911 in an emergency but he might be able to recognize the sound of the fire truck when it drives by. Incorporating the life skills into the state academic is a wonderful way to help educate students with severe disabilities. Some educators struggle with the academic focused classroom when teaching students with disabilities. My opinion on this is somewhere in the middle based on the students severity. I believe that teaching functional skills is imperative, but if teaching certain areas of academic subjects will enlighten students and keep them stimulated than i believe that it should be done. I feel parents should also have a large say as to what they feel the student should learn when dealing with severe disabilities.