Before I had my children I worked as a Special Education Teacher under an intern credential in the State of California. I worked off and on over the course of 4 years as a teacher working with a wide range of disabilities. That presented new challenges to me and taught me a wider range of the people that are on this planet.
When I entered the world of Special Education as a teacher, I typically felt like a person who got thrown into a swimming pool, having now idea how to swim, but loving the water. I was constantly affected and guided by my students' disabilities, having a very limited knowledge of how to assist them, but gained a lot of knowledge as the year went on. I attempted to gain more education and knowledge, but found out that for a lot of Special Education Teachers that you really have to do a lot of additional study, beyond a teaching credential, to really become well versed in certain disabilities. What kept me afloat was that my older sister had instilled in me a desire to respect, value and help persons' with disabilities, and that led to a desire within me to care for them.
I was not as well versed as I am now in researching things online, but as I improved in those areas, I discovered that there are a lot of resources online for people to learn more about disabilities.
Some of the websites that I found were:
*http://www.ldonline.org/
*http://www.autismspeaks.org/
*http://www.ncld.org/
Other times I have just performed random searches for topics I need to be better versed on, and one of my favorite discoveries was a link that discusses different tools that can be used in the classroom and at home to help children with special needs. That link is:
*http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/05/11/six-great-special-education-resources-for-parents-and-teachers/
Having those experiences where I had to jump in and learn so much on the spot in order to be a good teacher, really refined and prepared me to be a better mother to my son. Originally I felt unbelievably overwhelmed by the task set before me, but as I grew to understand Autism better, I discovered that the skills I had gained as a Special Education Teacher really helped me grow as a mother of someone with special needs, so that I can better accept his "exceptionalities".
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