Diasabled Childeren

[KenpoSterre]

What if a student came in who was mentally disabled but the parents wanted to stimulate the child's mind. How would you deal?

What if the child is physiclly disabled or socially disabled. How would you teach them or react. Would you charge the parents more for the more attention needed or not teach them at all? Have you faced this dilema in the past?

I am interested in hearing the answers. Thanks in advance,

KenpoSterre

 

[Swordlady]

I am not an instructor (yet), but I have worked with mentally disabled adults in a previous job. Personally, I think that it is beneficial for a mentally disabled child to be able to interact with "normal" (relatively speaking - lol) children in a recreational setting. Socializing - especially at a younger age - is key in helping mentally disabled children to better adapt socially and emotionally. The overall progress is going to vary, since there are varying levels of mental disability, and every person is going to act/react differently. Some may benefit from the MA training. Others...time will tell.

I think that everyone deserves a chance to train. It may work out or not, but at least the opportunity was given.

 

[Carol]

My old school had a student that had some sort of impairment. I'm not sure if it was social, or mental, or both. She was very difficult to communicate with, and I found her to be a big challenge to be partnered with...in the beginning.

However, she ended up being one of the best training partners I had. I went through a stretch of time where I was passing out on the mat. On a warm day we were doing a long endurance drill with a kickshield. Even though I hadn't said a word to her about feeling woozy, she caught that I was stumbling and then dropped the kick shield down low so I could expend less effort. I couldn't communicate with her well enough to describe my gratitude in her preventing me from going face-first in to the mat, so I gave her a smile and a hug. I think she understood.

Students with differences shouldn't be underestimated. Someone that learns, performs, or processes information differently can still be a martial artist that makes a difference in their own life, or even another person's life.

 

[Kacey]

First, as a special education teacher, let me point out that the majority of children who are defined legally as "disabled" do not differ in any major way from their peers except in their ability to learn, especially in terms of reading, writing, and mathematics, and these students can be very successful in any physical activity - often more successful than they are in academic tasks. The incidence of students with physical and/or cognitive handicaps sufficient to make them stand out in such settings is very low; mental retardation is about 0.1%, and orthopedic and other physical disabilities run about 2.0% in children in the general population (statistics here).

I have two adult students who have disabilities who fall into both categories above. As a special education teacher, I have, perhaps, a better background the many instructors in helping them to succeed in class. Both of these students (adults) have cognitive delays (in their cases, IQs in the mid-60s, compared to an average of 100); one has cerebral palsy and one has Down's Syndrome. Will they ever meet the same standards as other students? I don't think so... but the one with cerebral palsy has been in the class for 5 years and is halfway between 8th and 7th gup in a system that starts at 10th gup and goes up to 1st gup, then to black belt (ranks have been modified for both of them so they can see their progress). Now, non-disabled students generally get to black belt in 3-5 years, and he is still a yellow belt - and he's still there. That's perseverance, of a type I've seen in very few people. He's not a perfect student (his social skills are about equal with the average 6 year-old), and he will never perform at the same standard as others his rank - but he doesn't quit. The other student, the one with Down's Syndrome, has been in class about 1 1/2 years, and is the same rank; his coordination, while not great, is better than the other student's, and his social skills and ability to pay attention is better.

On the flip side, they slow the class down. They require more repetition than anyone else, and there are certain things that I only do on days that they are absent. They are frustrated, frustrating, and, in the case of the student with cerebral palsy, disruptive. They have, I have no doubt, caused other students to not join. On occasion, they drive me nuts. What my other students and I have learned from them is probably far more than these two men will ever learn from me, and even when they make me crazy, I appreciate them and the lessons they have taught me and all of my other students, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Andrew Green]

Ideal would be integrate them into the class. With a "assistant" if needed. If the structure of the class or the nature of tha dissability does not allow it other options, such as private lessons should be considered. But the more integrated the better.

Dissabled people need stimulus too, perhaps more so because chances are they are already not getting as much. It can be great for them, and also beneficial to everyone else.

Martial arts should be adabtable and anyone is capable of doing it. (Did you see that video of the guy with no arms and no legs doing submission grappling?)

Of course the world is not ideal, and often the realities of schools still being a business set in and sometimes a person can be detrimental to the class, in which case the person in charge has to make a decission. But I think in just about any situation something can be worked out. Perhaps a parent can join as a partner and aid? Perhaps aproach a few senior students in private and ask if they are willing to rotate in as assistants. It's good coach training for them, as someone that can teach a person with a dissability is required to think a lot more about how to communicate and adapt things.