Beyond the Classroom

By Roxane B. Salonen

As he walks across the playground with one of his students, Kevin Anderson smiles at the chorus of young voices ahead. The student indicates he’d like to join the circle of playing children. Anderson obliges, pushing the child’s wheelchair forward. But it stops at a stretch of rocky ground and they’re forced to turn back.

It’s a scene with which he’s all too familiar: getting close but not quite close enough.

For 24 years, Kevin Anderson has been working as an educator and occupational therapist for children with special needs, traveling to various schools throughout Western Minnesota. In that time, he’s seen many significant laws come into being—laws meant to make the lives of his students better.

Opportunities have opened up, lives have been improved, but Anderson dreams of more. “The state medical assistance is there to provide basic needs like wheelchairs and hospital beds,” he says, “but making communities accessible, that’s a whole
different need.”

He and other educators are working hard to narrow the gap between able-bodied persons and those with disabilities even further so that someday, those who cannot be assimilated into the community will have
equal access.

Untapped Potential

Anderson says the children in his care have an unfathomable amount of untapped potential. That’s why, for his dissertation, he’s researching innovative ways to better involve special-needs children in their communities. “We’re meeting the basic needs educationally, but we won’t address the full need if we only look at the school connection.”

Adair Grommesh, director of Hope Incorporated, Moorhead, MN, says schools are doing the best they can within their confines, but concurs that inequities remain, especially in the areas of socialization and recreation.

“Schools do have adaptive physical education but it doesn’t really help kids form a bond for teamwork and feel that sense of belonging that increases self esteem and self-confidence,” she says. “That’s where the nonprofits like us come in.”

Zeroing in on the social-growth component, Hope Inc. provides a variety of recreational opportunities for special-needs children, including baseball, hockey, downhill skiing, track, drama, swimming, roller-skating and a mobility camp.

“A lot of these kids are isolated, but when they can get together with other kids with similar disabilities…they feel that sense of normalcy,” she says.

‘Come Into Our World’

Grommesh refers to Hope Inc.’s approach as backward inclusion. Children in wheelchairs are joined by their parents, siblings and able-bodied friends who also participate from “chairs.” “Everyone has to come into our world,” she says. “That way they can grow with us.”

For example, Hope Inc. children competed in a hockey game against a stand-up team, all of whom used sleds. “It opened up a wonderful dialogue because the stand-up team could only use their arms, not their legs,” Grommesh recalls. “We do it this way so others can understand that people in wheelchairs have the same hopes and dreams everyone else does. A kid is a kid is a kid.”
Although about 60 percent of children who participate in Hope Inc.’s programs cannot speak or push themselves in their wheelchairs, Grommesh says they deserve the same opportunities for growth as anyone. “Their smiles say it all. They’re no less of human beings because they have extreme disabilities.”

Not Always Visible

The disabilities that hold children back from fully participating in school and life aren’t always visible to the eye, as Shannon Grave well knows through her work for The Village Family Service Center.

“The Village” is an organization that’s been helping families through its counseling and mentoring programs throughout North Dakota since 1891, and parts of Minnesota in the last decade.

Grave works as a counselor specializing in early childhood therapeutic support. She’s also the mother of Carsen, 9, who’s been receiving services for his Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) diagnosis since he was a toddler.

According to the Center for Disease control, about 1 in 110 American children fall within the ASDs continuum, and Graves says that those who do are more likely to lag in social and communications skills than academics.

As soon as her son’s diagnosis was known, Grave began looking for support, but quickly found that services lacked in the small Minnesota town where her family resided at the time. So she sought further education on her own to help him.

Now in North Dakota, the family has pulled together a solid team of professionals to help Carsen succeed—so much so that Grave calls him “the poster child of early intervention.”

“He used to have incredible meltdowns over relatively inane things. He was so poorly regulated, he would cry at everything,” Grave says, noting that the tantrums involved screaming, drooling and even vomiting.

But now, he’s a “delightful little guy who has a unique way of looking at the world.” He’s learned to hug and kiss and show love to the special people in his life. Most wouldn’t know he’s autistic by looking at him.

Unlike limitations of the school setting, at work, Grave can leave her office and go out into the community with her older child-clients to teach them life skills. Outings might include a trip to the grocery store or laundromat to teach them the “hidden rules of society” that many of us take for granted; for example, learning to sort laundry to avoid pink socks.

Trends and Innovations

The Anne Carlsen Center (ACC) in Jamestown has its own innovative ideas about how best to educate its children. Mary Lewis, a special education teacher and horticultural therapist for ACC, says much of the work accomplished at the center wouldn’t be possible without the private sector’s help.

Lewis uses plants and plant materials and gardening to meet both therapeutic and educational-cognitive goals of students at the center. “We have a large school garden and several classrooms work together on it. In the fall we sell a lot of our produce,” Lewis says. “The kids make lots of salsa, which we sell—we have our own farmer’s market. And the kids also eat quite a bit of what they grow. We’ve seen a lot of impact with this on our students.”

The program goes year round, thanks to a solarium/greenhouse which allows for wintertime gardening.  It’s also fairly unique to the Center in that it does not draw money from the general fund. “If people are interested in donating supplies, seeds, pots and soil, it’s all very welcomed.”

The horticultural program isn’t the only one at the ACC that falls on the innovative side. Visual support, especially with children on the autism spectrum, is quickly becoming more widely used. “Not only do we give directions verbally but in picture sequences,” Lewis says. “So behaviorally, a new trend now is not to just react to someone’s behavior with a consequence but to help prepare that child so the behavior won’t happen to begin with.”

An example might be teaching children to stay calm during a fire drill. By creating a book in which the child is in the story exhibiting appropriate behavior, the child can more easily learn the desired behavior. “It’s powerful, and actually, all children respond to this method,” she says.

Lewis says the center also has taken advantage of the computer age, using everything from computer-activated voice output that helps students communicate, to incorporating devices such as the iPod Touch and Apple’s iPad with special applications to
aid students.

Directing Resources toward Programs

Technology also helps donors more easily share financial resources. At the ACC, online giving is gaining momentum. Honor or memorial donations also can be given, as well as planned giving. With generous tax credits in place, everyone benefits. On the ACC site at www.annecenter.org, donors can simply hit the “foundation” tab key to make their donation.

Ellen Dunn, work experience educator for students with disabilities at both Fargo North and South high schools, says funding for special-needs education within the public schools system is generally in good shape in North Dakota, but there’s always a need for additional support since traditional funding covers only the basics.

Dunn adds that volunteering in schools can be difficult due to confidentiality issues, though there are many other ways to give. Contact your school-district office, foundation or private school to learn how you can help with specific needs. Many other non-profits heartily welcome volunteers.

Anderson names TNT Fitness in Fargo and Riding on Angels Wings, a therapeutic horse-riding program in Felton, Minnesota, as other worthy regional organizations that help children with special needs. He also suggests the Dakota Medical Foundation as a channel for giving because it commonly matches public donations toward specific local organizations.

Grave named United Way as being particularly helpful because donors can designate where they want their money to go, including providing supplemental financial help for The Village clients without insurance.

It’s all about dedicating ourselves to what Grommesh calls “those positive bursts of energy,” the children among us. “We owe it to them to make a better life for them,” she says.

And being actively involved in the special-needs arena teaches others about being human. “We all need to be more aware that it’s not just about the disability,” Anderson says. “We’re all part of this world and we all deserve to be fully involved in it.”

Find Out More!

The Village Family Service Center: www.thevillagefamily.org/index.html
Hope Incorporated: www.hopeinconline.org/2010/
The United Way: www.liveunited.org/myuw/local.cfm
Riding on Angels’ Wings: www.ridingonangelswings.org/
TNT Kids Fitness: www.tntkidsfitness.com/specialneeds.html
The Anne Carlsen Center: www.annecenter.org