Through this blogging experience I have really began to value the support of my fellow colleagues. I have begun further investigation, by viewing other classmates blogs. Another student in my class has posed similar questions about how stress affects families who have a child with a disability. Her post from Sunday, April 22nd really narrows down the issue and identifies the causes of stress and how parents react to this stress, coping strategies. I have reposted information from this blog to better serve and deepen my investigation:
No parent wants to think about their child as being a burden, that the child is to blame for the stress. What are these causes? What do parents do deal with the stress? How do they ever have time for themselves if they are constantly worrying about their child?
I found two videos, part 1 and part 2, of Caring for Children with Disabilities in Ohio: The Impact on Families. This video discusses the various stressors that come with having a child with a disability. Research has shown that parents that have children with disabilities experience higher levels of stress, lower employment opportunities, and the diminished rates of well being compared to other families. The video explores the impact in terms of financial, emotional, and social well being. I found these videos to be of much more interest due to its focus on just Ohio families. To truly understand where parents are coming from, one will not learn from reading in a textbook. These videos include actual parents who are speaking about their experiences. As a future educator, I found this video to be very intriguing, giving me a better understanding of what parents are going through. One father in this video quit his job so he could take care of his child to take him to and from school. Another mother speaks about how when her child was being diagnosed the doctor told her there was no cure for her child and don't worry about it. This mother felt as if she was on her own to research what her child was being diagnosed with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZa9tlH7Mw0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqjmmUaAPXg&feature=relmfu
I am very pleased that my blog could assist you to further investigate your inquiry. I agree completely with you when you say you have began to value the support of your fellow colleagues. I feel that is one of the important aspects of this course when beginning to blog and the requirement of commenting on others blogs, so we as future educators, can gain insight from other fellow pre service teachers. This is something I as well as you will take with us as we begin our internship and future careers. We must use our resources, in which, fellow teachers is one of them.
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