Importance of IEPs and Becoming Blind

This week for class I learned more in-depth about IEP's and what they are. This was really great for me because I haven't ever learned about how the meeting actually works and what they do until this class, but in my other classes it has been mentioned a lot. I love how IEP's are so child focused and I also love that the parents get to be involved, not just the teachers. I also thought it was really neat that in most cases doctors or nurses are included in this decision making process. After watching a video to show how one works I really think that IEp's are great for all children that might have a harder time learning and need some individualized help.
This week for class we also read a case study about a young boy who needed to get certain help at school but the school district wasn't allowing it anymore. We got to act out different parts of this case and I was the parents. As all the members of my group were voicing their legal sides about why or why not this is fair it was really interesting to watch and learn from. I learned a lot from my part as the pretend parent of this child though. I was able to express to them the concern I can imagine a parent must have for their child and their education and testify that these children go through enough stress in their life that our job really should be to help them out in any way possible. This experience really opened me up to the stress that many parents go through in fighting for their children.
The last experience I want to talk about this week is one of my simulation activities. We have a list of activities to do that are similar to a disability a child might have. This week, for example, I did the visual impairment simulation. This was really challenging as I felt completely useless and out of control. I was trying to eat and I kept missing my mouth, it was a struggle to even get food onto my fork. I also tried to do the dishes but it was so hard to focus on any objects. My husband was watching me and started feeling bad for me so he tried to get me to just sit down. This made me realize I can see how easy it is to get discouraged with a disability because it really is a lot of work trying to accommodate for it. I have trouble seeing in real life without my contacts or glasses and so I figured I would be pretty good at this one but it was completely different then what I thought it would be. I am really more thankful for my vision after doing this and I am definitely more sensitive to visual impairments in others.