We had the pleasure of attending a Teach Your Parents Night at Franklin Elementary in Burlingame. It was a district-wide event created to educate and bring acceptance for people of all abilities and backgrounds.
Students and their parents toured 10 learning stations, which were created or manned by school district parents or staff or a staffer from Family Resource Center.
Each of the 10 stations discussed a different disability or something they wanted attendees to better understand.
10 Learning Stations:
- Family Resource Center
- Occupational Therapy – allowed participants to use tools that occupational therapists use when working with their students and clients
- Adaptive Physical Education – activities that adaptive PE teachers use with their students
- Mobility Tools – try out using things like wheelchairs:
- Juvenile Diabetes – informative station on diabetes and how it affects those with the disease
- ADHD – learn about ADHD and its symptoms
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder – Activities to experience what it’s like to have autism
- Severe Allergy
- Experience Stations demo
- Dyslexia
A Special Olympics Athlete’s Perspective:
In addition to the learning stations, Special Olympics athlete and our veteran speaker Stephanie spoke about her experience with Special Olympics over the years and how it has helped her in so many areas of life.
One of the most salient of her speech is that she encouraged all those participants to go out and make friends with those that may seem be different. She told the audience that we are all more alike than different, and I thought that was pretty powerful for students and parents alike.
Parents Go Back to School:
There was a lot of positive feedback from the event! Parents approached us after the event, and let us know that they were very impressed with what we are doing. They also appreciated Stephanie sharing her story about how she came to get involved with Special Olympics.
We also showed the r-word video that Lowell High School created, and it seemed to really move the parents. Some of the parents shared their appreciation for what we do and creating an awareness of abilities versus disabilities. The event was a great way to experience a snippet of what others do and really bring people together.