Advocate NOW For Your Special Needs Child
Why do parents of special needs children need to advocate for them? Because we have to. If we don’t, who will? There are those who will help, but nobody understands your child more than you. I see it as my moral responsibility to advocate for my own special needs child when something is wrong. When something doesn’t add up. To say his battle has been long and tough would be an understatement. When the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit neatly together at a school, a church, an extracurricular activity, or anything your child does, you have to look at the whole picture. If those pieces don’t fit or some are missing, get loud. Expose and find out the truth. Because even if you may not get what you wanted for your own child, it could help another child down the road.
I see special needs parents go ballistic when a restaurant or some type of amusement activity discriminates against disabled children. But I don’t see this with a lot of schools or churches. Why? Our child has just as much right to be some place as someone else. If you tell me you don’t want my child somewhere, you better have a damn good reason for it. As well, you better know damn well what you are talking about and be able to back up that talk with cold hard facts. If it is a place that has already given certain promises or expectations, and those suddenly shift, you have every right to find out why AND go public about it.
If you feel your child has been treated harshly without some form of due process or a valid reason, you need to call them out on it. If the institution has not done what they said they would do, you have EVERY RIGHT TO ADVOCATE FOR YOUR CHILD. People hate to get named or called out. They get scared. They don’t like seeing their name in public. Why? Because that could tarnish what Advocate NOW For Your Special Needs Child – Exceptional Delaware: