Leading the Blind

If you have made it this far and followed my blog series on teaching your kids about people with differences, THANK YOU! I am honored that you have trusted me to walk you along this journey in helping your kids learn about differences! This is a topic that's near and dear to my heart because I believe raising caring and compassionate kids means a more caring and compassionate future, a future that children and their children will have to live in! So, thank you! If you have missed any of my posts in this series, you can start with part one here!  Part Two is here! Part Three is here! Part Four is here! Now, on to the final post of this series, Part 5! Make a Connection When children ask questions about differences, it's because they don't know or understand. They ask to get an answer, not to be cruel. I always assume kids are curious, not mean. That being said, sometimes, when you take the time to explain about a difference and give them a chance to as...

Part Four - Five Ways To Teach Your Child About People With Differences - Differently Abled Etiquette Thanks for joining me again for part four of my five part series! I can't believe we've almost made it through already! If you are new to this series, you might want to go back and start with PART ONE . <---click here to read it. If you have been following along, THANK YOU! I hope you are enjoying it! People first Language is important. I cringe whenever I hear someone say "I know a Downs kid." I don't know why that one gets to me so much, but it does. "A person with Down's Syndrome" would be much more appropriate. In general, let's all teach our kids to just see the person before the disability. That's really the whole premise of People First Language. Put the person first. Not autistic child, rather, child with autism. If they get wrong, it's not the end of the world,  but like reminded them to say please and thank you, l...

3. Speak Matter-of-Factly and Honestly About Differences Thanks for joining me once again for my five part series on teaching your kids about people with differences! I am so enjoying sharing my heart with you all!! If you have missed any parts of the series, you can start with part two here:  Creating A Safe Space to Get It Wrong. Part two includes a link to Part 1, so it should be easy to navigate to where you want to go. So, Part 3 of my series is Called "Be Honest." I think it's so important to be open and candid with kids about differences, without, of course, divulging so much information that the child gets scared or put off. Sometimes disabilities can result from traumatic accidents, and while it's the truth, some kids might be too young to understand and process the fact that it could happen to any of us. So, I will preface this post with a disclaimer. Please use discretion when being open honest with children about disabilities. Age, development leve...

He's a SuperHero! I am so thrilled that you have hoped back on my blog to follow the series I am sharing right now! Last week I introduced this blog series about teaching your child about people with differences. We all want our kids to be decent humans who include and accept people despite their differences,  but sometimes it's hard to know exactly how to teach kids about differences. I started this blog series to give my advice on helping teach your kids about people with difference. I get asked all the time how I would want people to approach us, or how I would recommend handling a question or situation that a child is dealing with. I am honored to be asked these questions and so I wanted to share my heart with you all about acceptance, inclusion, and just some practical ways you can teach your kids to apply those things in the area of people with disabilities. I have so much to say on this topic that I needed to break it up into five parts to make something you coul...