Mandy's Cool Titled Blog

Teachers vs. Educators

verymuch:

According to a news report, a certain private school in Victoria, BC recently was faced with a unique problem.

A number of year 12 girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

There are teachers, and then there are educators.

(via)

Guardianship for Individuals with Disabilities over 18 is not your only choice!

I want to post this even though it may seem very boring to some.

Something that I have recently become aware of through one of my classes is that an incredibly large number of parents of children/adults with moderate and severe disabilities are unaware that if they want it, they HAVE to go through the court to claim guardianship when their child turns 18 and get the appropriate legal documents. The court will have to rule that your child is incompetent to make their own decisions (money, personal decisions, property, etc.). If the parents do not claim guardianship, the individual with disabilities is seen as a competent adult. Another important thing to note is that these are NOT the only two options!

Another option, if the individual is ruled as incompetent, is to place them in the guardianship of the state. There are also partial guardianship solutions! You could get a durable power of attorney or a medical power of attorney. These will allow for the individual with disabilities to keep most of their rights as a citizen but would leave the specified financial or medical decisions in the hands of an attorney. You could also acquire a temporary guardianship in emergency instances only.

I want to make it clear what the guardianship options entail. If you want to claim guardianship or the state to have guardianship, the individual will lose all of their rights that an adult would have.

If you do decide that your child is incompetent (simply having a disability does not mean that the individual will be ruled incompetent), you must file a Petition for Guardianship through the court of your child’s county of residence.

I want to stress again that guardianship is NOT your only option and that there are other less-imposing ways to care for an individual with disabilities if it is not completely necessary to claim guardianship. I also posted this because I want parents to know that just because you have a child identified as having a disability, you do not automatically continue being your child’s guardian. This is vital information because if something happens after your child reaches 18 and you have not claimed guardianship, they are held responsible for their actions, or they could be asked to make medical decisions for themselves and so on.

Use Visual Strategies-Meeting the Communication Challenges in Autism

This website is SO helpful. Visual strategies are very useful for children who have disabilities especially children who have Autism. This website has an abundance of information (articles, products, newsletters, printable pictures, success stories, etc.) on visual strategies we use to help support communication in children with Autism.