When I was given options as to the types of assignments I wanted, I purposely volunteered to work with special needs children, though I had never done so in my entire life. But then I've felt for a while now that this phase of my life is ALL about new people and new experiences, especially those that involve working with people (and especially kids).
Of course, I knew taking on such assignments would mean reliving my own "experience" with the idea of raising a special needs kid, when 4 weeks and 21 days into my pregnancy, I was told that my now freshman Engineering major daughter, was going to be born with Down's Syndrome. My doctor also told me that I had less than 2 weeks to consider terminating the pregnancy.
Now obviously my regular readers know that I do not have a special needs kid, she actually tested to be gifted and talented at ~ age 6. However that week while my husband, sister/cousin, and I talked about what we would do, I knew my life would never be the same, and all these years later, I still get emotional everytime I tell the story to someone.
And that was what I did again recently when I met the teacher I will be working with once/week for the next 4 weeks, when she asked me my experience with special needs kids, I emotionally told her my own story. Then I proceeded to have one of the best days I've ever had working with people!!!
After just one day, I'm beyond throughly impressed with how far we've come as a society when it comes to educating those with mental development issues. Not only are these kids allowed to have similar educational experiences to kids without development issues, those with higher level skills are also trained for jobs after high school graduation. Absolutely amazing!!
So of course, this experience has me thinking more about Peds and practice that deals specifically with special needs kids. Again, all VERY premature conjecture, but fun just the same!!
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