SOWK 322 Week 05 Stages of Acceptance of a Learning Disability Heritage University Spring 2024 Jacob Campbell, Ph.D. LICSW at Heritage University
Plan for Week Five Lecture A Short Video Week 5 t sks a Le rning Dis bility a a a a a St ges of Accept nce of
Tasks You Ar Aree Not Alone For Parents When They Learn Their Child Has a Disability by Patricia McGill Smith For Week Five the child’s problem. Anger can also color communication between husband and wife or with grandparents or significant others in the family. Early on, it seems that the anger is so intense that it touches almost anyone, because it is triggered by the feelings of grief and inexplicable loss that one does not know how to explain or deal with. During this period of time… so many different feelings can flood the mind and the heart… If you have recently learned that your child is developmentally delayed or has a disability (which may or may not be completely defined), this message may be for you. It is written from the personal perspective of a parent who has shared this experience and all that goes with it. When parents learn about any difficulty or problem in their child’s development, this information comes as a tremendous blow. The day my child was diagnosed as having a disability, I was devastated—and so confused that I recall little else about those first days other than the heartbreak. Another parent described this event as a “black sack” being pulled down over her head, blocking her ability to hear, see, and think in normal ways. Another parent described the trauma as “having a knife stuck” in her heart. Perhaps these descriptions seem a bit dramatic, yet it has been my experience that they may not sufficiently describe the many emotions that flood parents’ minds and hearts when they receive any bad news about their child. Many things can be done to help yourself through this period of trauma. That is what this paper is all about. In order to talk about some of the good things that can happen to alleviate the anxiety, let us first take a look at some of the reactions that occur. Common Reactions On learning that their child may have a disability, most parents react in ways that have been shared by all parents before them who have also been faced with this disappointment and this enormous challenge. One of the first reactions is denial—“This cannot be happening to me, to my child, to our family.” Denial rapidly merges with anger, which may be directed toward the medical personnel who were involved in providing the information about Fear is another immediate response. People often fear the unknown more than they fear the known. Having the complete diagnosis and some knowledge of the child’s future prospects can be easier than uncertainty. In either case, however, fear of the future is a common emotion: “What is going to happen to this child when he is five years old, when he is twelve, when he is twenty-one? What is going to happen to this child when I am gone?” Then other questions arise: “Will he ever learn? Will he ever go to college? Will he or she have the capability of loving and living and laughing and doing all the things that we had planned?” Watch Epler (2018) Other unknowns also inspire fear. Parents fear that the child’s condition will be the very worst it possibly could be. Over the years, I have spoken with so many parents who said that their first thoughts were totally bleak. One expects the worst. Memories return of persons with disabilities one has known. Sometimes there is guilt over some McGill Smith (n.d.) 2 Reply You Are Not Alon 1 of 6 • • • • • Ch pter 8 Re ding Discussion Topics Re lecting on Articles bout Supports Onset of Dis bility During the Course of Dis bility Developing Accept nce Rel ted to Outcome
Stages of Acceptance of a Learning Disability Higgins et al. (2002) • St ge One: Aw reness of Di erence • St ge Two: The L beling Event • St ge Three: Underst nding/Negoti ting the L bel • St ge Four: Comp rtment liz tion • St ge Five: Tr nsform tion
$$$$ Student Example Him learning to understand his needs and prepare for life
Reference Epler, M. B. (2018). 3 w ys to be better lly in the workpl ce [Video]. TED. https:// www.ted.com/t lks/melind _bri n epler_3_w ys_to_be better lly_in_the_workpl ce Higgins, E. L., R skind, M. H., Goldberg, R. J., & Herm n, K. L. (2002). St ges of ccept nce of le rning dis bility: The imp ct of l beling. Le rning Dis bility Qu rterly, 25(1), 3-18. https:// doi.org/10.2307/1511187 McGill Smith, P. (n.d.). You re not lone: For p rents when they le rn th t their child h s dis bility. Center for P rent Inform tion & Resources. https://www.p rentcenterhub.org/ not lone/ Rothm n, J. (2018). Soci l work pr ctice cross dis bility (2nd ed.). Routledge Smith, M. (2023, October 17). Illness nd dis bility: Living well with dis bility. HelpGuide. https://www.helpguide.org/ rticles/he lthy-living/living-well-with- -dis bility.htm