Lecture: The Power of Peers
Overview
- Focus on the importance of inclusive language and perceptions for children with disabilities.
- Emphasizes the impact of positive peer influence and creating a supportive community.
Key Points
Deficit-Based Language
- Children with disabilities are often described using negative, deficit-based language.
- This creates a script that influences perceptions and expectations negatively.
- Professionals often perpetuate these deficit narratives before even meeting the child.
Personal Experience
- Example of Mac, a child with severe cerebral palsy and vision impairment.
- Despite his challenges, Mac is an engaging child with a sense of humor.
Vision Statement
- Importance of having a vision for the child’s life, embracing positive and ordinary goals.
- Happiness, belonging, learning, fun, friends, family, community involvement.
- The vision serves as a framework to guide decisions and actions.
- It is flexible, personal, and can evolve over time.
Community Engagement
- Rejecting deficit dialogue involves engaging with the community to see the child’s value.
- Example of Mac's schooling experience:
- Creating a wheelchair attendant licensing program to involve peers.
- Encouraging natural supports and peer involvement.
Peer Influence
- Positive peer interaction is crucial for children with disabilities.
- Mac’s peers take responsibility for his inclusion and care.
- Examples of school activities and social settings where peers assist Mac.
Changing Perceptions
- Children learn to work as communication partners with Mac, integrating it into the curriculum.
- Positive peer engagement helps challenge and change societal perceptions.
Conclusion
- Encourages everyone to start where they are and involve peers in change.
- The power of peers can transform communities and break down barriers.
- Importance of dreaming, sharing, and troubleshooting collectively.
- Reinforcing the idea that "all really means all" in inclusion.
Inspirational Outcomes
- Examples of peer-driven initiatives showing creativity and commitment.
- Vision of a community where inclusion is the norm, and everyone is valued.
These notes provide a high-level summary of the speech, capturing the key themes and examples used to emphasize the power of peer influence in creating an inclusive community for children with disabilities.