Personal Narrative: Working With Special Needs Children

Working with Special Needs Children

During second grade, my brother absolutely hated school. We would arrive at school every morning, and as I exited the car to go to my classes, he refused to move. Almost every day, he had to be carried out of the car kicking and screaming and dragged to class. His grades were slowly slipping and he wouldn’t talk to anyone about his meltdowns. The whole family became worried. Eventually, my parents took him to get tested, and the doctors diagnosed him with ADHD. Throughout that whole ordeal, I was just on the sidelines. It made me feel so powerless that I was unable to help my brother when he needed it most. I was unable to help my brother, but I decided I was going to help other children with special needs.

In an interview with Ms. Wang, a worker at FCSN, I learned that “Most of all that the relationship between volunteers and students give a very positive influence to our students' community experience.” (Wang) That is why I decided to volunteer at the organization, Friends of Children With Special Needs.
It had been after school on a Tuesday. I was tired from school that day and was actually pretty nervous about my service. In the car on the way, I thought about who I was going to work with. Would it be someone with a learning disorder, someone with a behavioral disorder? So many thoughts rushed through my head, I hadn’t even notice we’d arrive. I opened the door to be met with a tall boy dancing around a table saying hi to me. The woman at the table told me to call her Aunt Lisa. She pointed me to the sign in table and paired me up with a girl Kristine. She informed me that “she can be really shy, but you will have tons of fun with her.” I joined them at the table until we moved to the chapel to stretch.
The chapel was a large room taken up by theater type chairs and a stage. The stage took up a large portion of the room, and was covered in green carpet. All of the students and volunteers stood in front of the stage, and we began to stretch. Our stretches consisted of basic arm and leg movements, and I helped Kristine when she was unsure which arm or leg was right and left. We stretched for ten minutes and went back into the main area. After seeing all of the students together, I realized how diverse the special needs were. This reminded me of an Abut Parenting article I read talking about special needs, “‘Special Needs’ is an umbrella underneath which a staggering array of diagnoses can be wedged.” (Mauro)
Kristine kept touching my hand with her hand clenched, and I was confused as to what she was trying to do.

Then I realized she was trying to fist bump me. You know how in the movies, whenever you fist bump someone, both of the people pull their hands back and make an explosion sound and hand movement. That's what we did. Whenever she did a good job stretching, I would fist bump her, and she would smile really happily at me.

Because Tuesday is music day, our next task was to dance. We played freeze dance, and she modeled her dance moves after mine. Kristine really liked to dance, and we had tons of fun. Then we did the Cha Cha slide, and she really enjoyed the clapping parts. After that, a girl named Anne performed a routine to a Justin Beiber song. Kristine and I had no idea what was happening, and tried, but failed to follow along. We fist bumped at the end though, because we both tried our best. We then sang and danced along to Uptown Funk, before having a quick water break, and grabbing a few chairs to join circle

time.
During circle time, a guy named Josh played songs on his guitar and we relaxed and sang along.

He played one of my favorite songs, Time of your Life by Green Day. I’ve listened to that song, since I was a kid, and I knew all of the words. I sang along to that song during circle time and Kristine kept looking at me with a smile whenever I sang. I’m not sure if she liked my singing or not, but it seemed to make her happy, and she fist bumped me once again after the song ended. After circle time, we had to clean up and leave. I couldn’t believe that the time had gone by so fast and I already had to say goodbye to Kristine and my new friends.

FCSN is trying to combat special education problems, and they are doing a pretty good ob with it. Towards the end, Kristine, a teacher, and I worked with flashcards, and she had progressed so much in just 10 minutes. This reminds me of something I read in an article about schools for special needs children, The goal should be giving special-needs children opportunity at school, so they can be as successful as possible (Chiapelas A.11). I feel like this place is trying to give these students the opportunity that they

need.
This organization really helps the students, and I learned from Ms. Wang that “we provide service to people with different disabilities. Our programs provide them to develop their talents, social opportunities, motor skills, pre job skills, and recreation opportunities. They all benefit from attending our programs” (Wang). While I was there I noticed there were only a few kids there, 10 max. I learned that “An estimated 1 out of 42 boys and 1 in 189 girls are diagnosed with autism in the United States” (“What is Autism?”), but with so little people attending this organization, how are the others getting help? All of the people I worked with cared a lot about the children, and were professionals in working with special needs children. Even though FCSN could be helping so many more people, the kids they are helping now benefit so much from their help.
Special needs are such a taboo topic, not much is said about it, and not many people realize it is as big of an issue as it is. "There's not a lot of research around spending in special education, because I think it's a topic that makes lots of people uncomfortable," Levenson said (qtd. in Layton A.4). It’s places like this that help the special needs children that need help. This organization helps educate them and helps acclimate them to people and the world around them. It helps make them more aware of their surroundings, and that really makes a difference.
This organization upholds a few of the catholic school teachings such as option for the poor and vulnerable. These children are vulnerable, and without this organization to help them, I can’t even imagine how they’d survive in this cruel world. The world is a swift moving place, and it doesn’t slow down for anyone or anything. FCSN helps these kids keep up with our fast paced world. It allows gives these people a chance to reach their potential even though they have been held back by their special needs.
Looking back at my service, I don’t even know why I had any concerns on the drive there. My service was so much fun for me, and Kristine enjoyed herself as well. It makes me feel so good to make a difference in this girl’s life even though it was a small impact. If more people do service like I did, so many special needs children can be helped, and that makes a big impact.