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Raising Inclusive Children

Getting a call from your child’s school about your child’s bullying behavior is perhaps the worst nightmare of many parents. Hearing that your child has used abusive words or discriminatory words towards people with different abilities can’t be far behind.

 

Even if you are not getting such calls, or your child is not bullying anyone or name-calling, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are growing up while developing compassion and kindness, which is a big part of being a well-rounded adult.

 

What should be your strategies to consciously incorporate inclusiveness of those with different abilities and inculcate compassion towards anyone different than them.

 

As with every significant learning for them, it begins with you.

 

Acceptance

 

Start with accepting people with different abilities and backgrounds and show that acceptance in your speech, attitude and behavior. If we don’t want our children to create a slur out of people’s situations in life, then we should ourselves not do so. We should act in ways which demonstrate that people with different abilities / backgrounds and circumstances have just as much right to be included in society as those with typical abilities / backgrounds and circumstances.

 

Make inclusion a practice rather than a concept. Talk about people with differences as people first and act in a way that takes them into account.

 

Empathy

 

We must intentionally build empathy in our children by talking to them about people with different abilities, backgrounds and circumstances. This will improve not only your child’s experience with other people but will also improve others’ experience with your child. Talk with your child and encourage them to befriend, defend or assist (if needed or asked) other children with differences, especially if they are being teased or bullied or even talked about behind their backs.

 

Inclusion

 

Find different ways to include those with special needs in your own and your children’s lives. Are you asking differently abled people over? Are you inviting differently abled children to your child’s birthday party? Are your children asking them over to play? Could you frequent institutions where you could get to know differently abled people and invest in their lives as they could in yours?

 

Be supportive in words and actions of inclusion in your child’s school so that inclusion can become a way of life for them.

 

Creating Opportunities

 

Create opportunities for your children to participate and to be involved in the lives and activities of people with differences. Opportunities are to be found throughout the entire continuum of a child’s development. Right from enrolling them in inclusive schools and preschools, to serving as buddies for projects and games.

 

Universal design

 

UD, or Universal Design is an idea that refers to equipment designed for people of all abilities such as a playground with ramps and special swings. Take this idea forward to everything in life. Consider not only how equipment is designed, but also to how systems work, and how environments facilitate or impede inclusion. For example, could a differently abled person access your home or your child’s school? It is easy to do so once you have started including people with different abilities in your life. You will automatically start including them when thinking of systems and environments.

 

As you and your children open your eyes to the lives of people with different abilities / backgrounds and circumstances, it will become less about me and more about an ‘us’. And that, is where inclusiveness starts.