This is a quick post. There are few resources as useful as Technology in Special Education. Here in one location parents, teachers, therapists, and students can find a wide variety of apps for iOS. Spend a few minutes here, and the possibilities for education and development appear limitless.
Technology in Special Education was recently featured on HLNtv, because of their incredible work making apps accesible to those with special needs.
You can now find the link under my exceptional education section. Please spread the word about this incredible resource.
Somehow in some way we need to address the lose lose of Autism and Law Enforcement.
Recently, Wood TV reported the story of a 19 year old with autism being restrained, handcuffed, and placed in custody.
John Bessinger took his son, Johnathan, to the courthouse downtown Grand Rapids for a guardianship hearing Wednesday. Before they could make it past the metal detectors, Johnathan began to have a panic attack, his father said.
My first question is why do we insist those with special needs children bring their kids to courthouses? Shouldn’t they be offered exceptions similar to the education system, which has the IDEA Act (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).
Special education and related services should be designed to meet the unique learning needs of eligible children with disabilities, preschool through age 21.
Laws like this exist, because conventional classrooms are not equipped to meet the needs of special needs children. Why do we think conventional law enforcement can handle these situations, when conventional classrooms cannot? This may not be a fair comparison, but it makes a simple point–accommodations should be made to insure autism familie, and law enforcement experience success when they meet.
Without accommodations here is what we get…
As the 19-year-old went in, a deputy felt threatened and reacted, according to Kent County Undersheriff Jon Hess. Hess said a gesture from Johnathan made the deputy fear for his safety.
How can we expect law enforcement officers under the stress of difficult security challenges to manage people with autism? How can we expect those with autism to navigate the fear and conflict laden environment of the courthouse?
Given the circumstances, it would be easy to blame, but the real solution is understanding these are lose lose situations for everyone. In this case, the lose lose situation lead to…
“The one sheriff put his arm against him and threw him down,” Bessinger said. “The other two got on and piled on top of him — knee to the back, put his arms to his back and handcuffed him.”
Who knows if the father and son will ever recover from this traumatic moment? Who knows if the officers will ever be able to overcome the emotional burden of restraining a special needs kid?
If cities don’t address serious situations like these, the conflict will become more pronounced. In London an autistic teenager was awarded almost 50,000 dollars for a similar situation. While I am confident the award was just, this would appear to complicate rather than improve the relationships between law enforcement and autism families.
These are painful stories, which I do not want to see repeated. Each of us should become advocates for accommodations, which will make the interaction between law enforcement and autism more successful. This is exactly what Bill Burke of Ventura County did for his community, when he organized a training presentation for law enforcement and autism families. He could see the potential for tragedy as described by this quote…
Law enforcement officers might respond to calls that involve a person with autism who others might think is unresponsive, intoxicated or aggressive, Burke said. Officers might also have to deal with people with variations of the disability who are victims or who witnessed a crime.
We can and must bring an end to these lose lose circumstances, in which autism families and law enforcement experience sad or tragic conflicts. We need to make the relationship between autism families and law enforcement happy meetings with happy endings.
“A typical middle class child enters first grade with approximately 1,000 hours of being read to, while the corresponding child from a low-income family averages just 25 of those hours, such differences in the availability of book resources may have unintended and pernicious consequences for low-income children’ long term success in schooling.
This quote comes from a tremendous article by by Theresa Walsh Giarrusso, which you can find here. Her article provides inspirational information about reading, but the most compelling fact is her information came from a librarian.
Equally compelling is an opinion piece in he New York Times by Jessamyn West, in which she makes the case for the changing role of librarians. Here is how she describes the change…
“In older models, the librarian was more of a selector, protector and a preserver of resources. Now a librarian, or school media specialist, is more of a discerning cultivator and a matchmaker between people and the widely varied resources that meet their information needs.”
Before reading these articles I was unconcerned about librarians. After all, I am a believer in the power of personal technology. What enlightened me on this subject was the twitter feed of the New Leaf Learning Conference.
I am convinced teachers need as much support as possible in teaching our children, and librarians, especially those of the 21st century variety can be difference makers.
“Let’s take just one stakeholder example: students with disabilities, as well as their teachers and parents. Autism advocate and software developer Russ Ewell from the Hope Technology Group is excited. “Apple could unlock another door for autism with this breakthrough,” Ewell said. “Parents could create social story books.” So could special education teachers or therapists, tailored for each student.”
I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t admit we were excited to be quoted on Wired.com last month. We were a bit player in a significant article about education, text books, and digital publishing. You can read the entire article here.
What I consider most important about this story is in my quote. Properly developed and leveraged iBooks Author could become a powerhouse publishing platform for Social Stories.
Whether iBooks Author realizes this potential is difficult to predict, but one thing is certain, Social Stories are a vital tool for children and adults with special needs. In fact, we have begun looking into the development of a Social Stories app by Digital Scribbler. Please give us your feedback on this potential project.
