Labels

I was reminded this morning, when reading Kari's blog, about something that came up at Thomas' last IEP meeting.

After I said that we wanted T's teacher, and other staff that will have daily contact with him, to have some training about FASD, one of the specialists asked "Are you sure you want that? Some people might label him." (Or something very close to that)

Thanks goodness we had just come from a super conference for families with children with disabilities. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have been able to answer her with something along the line of:

You know, I've thought about that, and I appreciate your concern. Tell me something. Do staff label kids with diabetes? Do they label kids who need glasses to see? People NEED to try to understand what makes Thomas tick so we can try to figure out what he needs. We aren't keeping this a secret. That wouldn't help anyone. So, yes. We DO want people to get the training. T isn't the only one. You just don't KNOW of the others.

Kari had such a great way of writing what I'm thinking.

What it comes down for me is that this is only a PART of who Thomas is. It explains some of who he is. One thing I won't let him be is the "Elephant in the Living Room" (or classroom).