Action education or how a parent with a disability copes with a situation that is new to them

Action education or how a parent with a disability copes with a situation that is new to them

As you may remember, on the occasion of Mother's Day, I wrote a text about motherhood from the point of view of a visually impaired mother. Today I will touch on a related topic. I would like to focus more on my collaboration as a disabled mother with my daughter's educational environment. In the text I will describe the stages of Zosia's education so far (now 9 years old - author's reminder), i.e. nursery, kindergarten and primary school.

Nursery

My daughter started going to the nursery when she was only 12 months old as I immediately returned to work after maternity leave. Even at the moment of enrolling her in the centre I felt looked after. The director, when she saw that I was a person with a disability, offered me a solution.

I chose a local authority nursery for my daughter where it is very difficult to get a place because there are many applicants. The director said she encouraged me to apply stating that I was a person with a disability. In practice this meant guaranteeing a place for Zosia in the facility. Apart from that the caregivers were very empathetic and helped me, both with weaning from the dummy and with weaning. I didn't feel inferior as a mother with a disability and at my request the ladies showed and described to me all the rooms and their layout in the building.

Kindergarten

It was very similar at the kindergarten. The formalities for my daughter's enrolment weren’t a problem for me because I dealt with most of them online in a special system. I have no trouble using the computer as I use a narrator and a magnifying glass on a daily basis.

Similarly, as in the nursery, the building and the layout of the rooms were described to me. I had no problem recognising the teachers as there were only two in my daughter's group. In the crèche I had a bit of difficulty with this because there were more caregivers and they often changed groups at different times of the day. I needed a lot of time before I started to recognise them. I am not able to see people's faces in detail so I recognise people mainly by their voice. It always made me uncomfortable to confuse people, hence my mentioning it.

Primary school

To be honest I was very scared of the stage when my daughter would go to school. In fact, most of all whether her peers would make fun of her for having a disabled mum. Because of her severe nystagmus, it is immediately apparent that I have some kind of visual problem. I always explain to Zosia's friends that I can't look in their eyes. I think they understand that.

I also take part in class three, which gives me a lot of satisfaction. I also used to go, whenever I had a day off work, with Zosia's class to the swimming pool. I simply helped dry the girls' hair. Despite my limitations, I try to get involved in the life of the class, which also helps me to overcome my fear of being judged by my daughter's classmates.

In September I plan to hold an awareness-raising meeting in my parenting lesson. I will also invite a blind person to speak about her life. I will also talk about myself. My colleague and I will also tell the children how to help blind and partially sighted people. Making the younger generation aware of these topics seems to me to be insanely important. Anyway, at the Womai Center we do it every day. I have a very good relationship with Zosia's tutor. In this field the cooperation goes smoothly.

Summary

In my opinion, it’s a big challenge for parents with disabilities to get their children into school. We often have to “fight” for our own. For example, I always ask for enlarged print and print out of important announcements that are on the boards in the school corridor. At first, I was a bit embarrassed to ask for this because I was afraid I would be seen as a claimant. However, as time went on, I recognised that I had as much right as sighted people to access information. Fortunately, we have Librus; so most of the important things can also be read there.

Author: Sylwia Ziarnik

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