Inclusion

Yesterday after school Hanna had lied about something and as usual it was something that she did not need to lie about at all because she knew that I knew the truth anyway. She does this stupid stuff many, many times every day and apparently Mom and Dad and once in a while older siblings are the only ones who seem to catch her at it and then there are consequences for her behavior. At any rate she was having one of her kicking, screaming, destroying anything in her path meltdowns, everyone needed to be fed, and Karre and Lauren had to be at the college by 6:30pm for their holiday choir concert. Karre and Dad helped to get some dinner together, most of us sat down to eat, and the girls got ready to go . The plan had been that Dad would stay home with Hanna, Allen, and Paul and I would go to the concert. We stuck with that plan after much discussion and adjustments. I got Hanna`s pajamas on as much as I could without any cooperation from her.

Dad could have used help in dealing with her but I am sure glad that I did wind up going to that concert instead of sending the girls alone.

Karre is singing in two choirs this year and she did a fine job as expected.

Lauren participates in choir in the classroom. We do not have her sing in the concerts (have you ever heard someone who has a severe speech impairment sing?) so she hands out the programs which is fine and she handled that well. The issue here is that when she looked through the program and she found her choir, her name was not listed in the program. I was pretty sure we were going to have tears right then and there. I told her we could talk about it when we got home. She was able to calm herself down and sit through the rest of the concert. I am so very proud of her, she has grown up enough that she can behave appropriately most of the time and this is one of those times when she really did do a super job.

This leaves me needing to advocate on her behalf and teach some school personal about INCLUSION, what part of that is so difficult to understand, just put yourself in the place of a sixteen year old whose opportunities to participate are limited by her disabilities and then when she can participate on some level that is taken away from her because someone did not stop and consider the outcome of their actions. Putting her name on that program with those of all the other kids was all it was going to take to include her, now is that so complicated!