Disability education, Disability writing

When child’s play is just not appropriate

by Iva and Julie

We were frustrated – but, sadly, not surprised – to read that Abigail Talbot, a 15-year-old girl who lives with Down syndrome, had her enrolment at a Launceston Catholic school “cancelled”.

This decision happened because her parents refused to sign off on the learning plan created by the school.

Abigail, the 15-year-old girl whose enrolment was cancelled because her parents did not agree with the learning plan imposed on her.

Reading the article (https://ab.co/3jzcQDz) , we thought about so many things that went wrong.

For example, a student’s learning plan NEEDS to be created in collaboration between the student, their parents and the teacher. It was never meant to be a document created by a school and forced on a student and their parents. It just does not work that way.

There were other things that went wrong in the story. In this blog, we will focus only on one issue out of many – age-appropriateness. Including a picture of the Very Hungry Caterpillar into the learning plan of a 15-year- old student is simply not on. The Australian legislation Disability Standards for Education highlights the importance of reasonable adjustments. To us, the word “reasonable” also means that it should be relevant to the student and their age.

Being age-appropriate is important regardless of age. Adults need to be treated like adults. Yet, adults with intellectual disability get so often treated as children. This is demonstrated in Julie’s very recent experience below:

JULIE’S STORY

“As an adult with Intellectual Disability and Hearing Impairment it’s important in my life that Education and Learning is treated in the same way as people who do not have a disability.

“I want to be treated fairly and equal.

“Everyone with an Intellectual Disability wants to learn with age appropriate activities within education learning including being part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

“Within COVID-19, between March and June this year, I had support from NDIS under social activities at home from a service provider for three hours on a weekend.

“I had one-on-one support because you could not get together in a group for social activities.

I was given a bag by the staff member and activities included:

  • Who am I? game for children age 6 year +
  • Large print colour in book with small colour pencils
  • Building –a-tool box for a child age three upwards
  • Play dough for children three years and older
  • Making pom poms kit
  • Instructions on how to make a paper airplane
  • 20 game activity sheets on scavenger hunts – kid’s stuff
  • How to make bake clay in oven
  • Having a sheet to draw myself
  • Making an activity jar with adding water and pictures – three year old
  • Blob tree to colour in how you feel today
  • Hop Scotch drawing on path – kid’s stuff
  • Template to create a plane
  • And the list goes on.
Examples from Julie’s kit

“My point is, I would rather play adult games and have fun with seeing how many games I could win and lose.

“Many people with Intellectual Disability like to have fun, be challenged to learn new things as adults do.

“Services for people with a disability need to review the following:

  • How things are done so that people can learn in way that suits their needs
  • Activities and event they offer are age appropriate
  • All they do need to be based in person centred planning.”

Do you have similar experiences that you would like to share with us? Please let us know.