education
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO
RAISE
A Child
or children with additional needs and the ONE WOMAN’S PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF RAISING “It is a fair question for specialist educational facilities provide much needed schools for the A CHILD WITH DOWN SYNDROME. BY: MELISSA WALSH Have you thought about special school?’ is not the question you are expecting when you first visit a local mainstream primary school for your child to attend. However, as Sarah Munn discovered, if you have a child with Trisomy 21, also known as down syndrome, it is a question that you get used to. Sarah, who is an Occupational Therapist and the mother of two beautiful boys, runs Barefoot OT, an occupational therapy service for children based in Rosebud, offering OT across the peninsula. “I have 2 children, Ike who is 6 and started grade one this year - he has down syndrome, and Gus who is 5 and started prep. He is gifted with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD,” says Sarah, who started her OT practice over two years ago when she discovered there were insufficient services available for her children. “At that time all the OT’s had waiting lists. I now employ two other local OTs and we have recently opened a clinic in Rosebud. We are a bit different from other OT practices as we offer a community based service in homes, kinders and schools,” says Sarah. Sarah says it is important to understand that it is your choice as parents if you want your child to attend mainstream schools. 82
Peninsula Kids – Autumn 2016
community. However, it is the choice of the parents if they want to attend mainstream schools and these schools should accept any child in their local area without the family feeling like they aren’t really wanted, so the question ‘have you thought of special school?’ is not really helpful when a family is looking around a local primary school,” she says. “There are usually a team of people who have been asking that question for years already. These children have been involved in services all their life. Of course families have thought about it. T21 is diagnosed in utero or in our case not long after birth –so it would not be possible to get to 5 and not have thought about if a special school might be needed.” For Sarah and many other families, visiting special developmental schools and mainstream schools are part of the course when making the difficult decision.
“Words like inclusion and supportive are used freely, and yet not many educators know how to offer informed choice to families about what we are choosing and why, or how to establish inclusive environments which need to be both experiential and backed up by therapy,” says Sarah. “Many schools will tell us they have therapists at school, they will rarely confirm that your child will receive a significant amount of therapy while at school. Most families still source it privately.” Sarah says that last year Ike started prep at Boneo Primary School which does understand inclusion, therapy and community.