A long-overdue link re “Invisible Disability” Kids
After reading the delightful news that Devorah Zlochower will now be on the Talmud faculty of Mechon Hadar, one of our favorite places to attend shiurim (roughly translated, classes in, and/or lectures on, Jewish sacred subjects), I did an Internet search for Ms. Zlochower. Boy, was I surprised when I was unable to find a link to “Invisible Disability” Kids are Being Left Out" on my blog. I could have sworn that I posted this. Well, better three years late than never. I strongly recommend that you read this important article.
Labels: Hadar--https://www.hadar.org/
posted by Shira Salamone at 1:11 PM
2 Comments:
I am not a parent of a special needs child, but I am very familiar with the issue in an"up close and personal" way and extremely sympathetic to the plea of the article. Unfortunately, affected families cannot expect communities to address the problem, unless the affected families are personally involved in the solution(s). This not because of a lack of caring on the part of the community. Rather, the various problems posed by these children are so extraordinarily varied that solutions, if they exist, are not easily implemented and there is no "one size fits all" response.
On the other hand, the situation is improving, albeit at a very slow pace. I know, for example, that Camp Ramah in the Berkshires has an inclusion program under the aegis of a very talented and dedicated professional, which works because individual campers in the program have a counselor assigned directly to them (at most, 1 counselor for 2 campers, depending on level of need). As a 2nd year counselor at CRB, one of my children just completed a month on such an assignment. I believe it was a successful engagement, but required an intense level of work and commitment, and this was a young woman who had worked in similar situations before and was very sensitive to the issues and the problems.
Steve, it's certainly true that there's no such thing as a "cookie-cutter" solution that will work for every individual with a disability. I'm happy to hear that some of our Jewish organizations are making good-faith and, I hope, effective efforts to help. A tip of the hat to your kid for being part of the solution.
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