Reply to If I was asked to train professionals to be more sensitive to PARENTS of kids with SN, I would say..

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Reply to "If I was asked to train professionals to be more sensitive to PARENTS of kids with SN, I would say.."

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[quote=Anonymous]

+++First a disclaimer. Many of the professionals we have encountered are great and they already do this. This is just some food for thought for those who don't. Also, i know many professionals, especially those in hospitals, are over worked and over booked and they would like to be able to do all these things, but they are only human.

***Collaborate. You are not as much of an expert as you think. The parent knows the child better than you do. Treat the parent as a colleague and don't talk down to the parent. You both have vital knowledge to share in order to figure out the optimal care for the child.

***Try to show empathy, this is different from pity.

***When you catch yourself thinking "She's one of THOSE moms" and you start rolling your eyes, stop and think. Why is she acting like that? What has she been through? Am I stereotyping? Am I jumping to conclusions?

***Read the file. I repeat, read the file or at least skim it right before you see us. I go out of my way to xerox everything for professionals and to make sure professionals communicate with eachother. Please don't spend our time together asking me about stuff that is in the file especially since we have so little time together.

***Know that we read, we read a lot. Many of us have read every article and book on the topic of our child's special needs that we can get our hands on. We go from expert to expert. Get a sense of what we know before you throw something at us which is so basic it's insulting. Really, kids with autism sometimes have some obsessive-compulsive features? Gosh, I've lived with my kid for 7 years and read every article out there and you think I don't know this????? What, kids with autism can be anxious? Really? You think this is news to me? Kids with autism potty train late? You don't say. Oh wait excuse me while I go change my kid's pull up which I spent a fortune on and had to order from a special company because most stores don't sell pull ups for a kid this size. I had a professional use a hoity toity voice to tell me a bunch of basic things even a person who took psych 101 would know and she talked down to us to boot. Did she offer viable solutions and support? No, because she seemed to know much less than we did. I think she must have learned about autism decades ago. I felt like saying, give me $150 back you thief and fraud!

***Admit when you don't know. We can smell bullshit.

Anyone else have suggestions to add?[/quote]

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