The blog I choose followed the life of a boy named Max and stories about him as seen through his mother’s eyes. Max Grant Seidman is a thirteen year old boy who is living with Cerebral palsy (Angelman syndrome). Angelman syndrome is commonly misdiagnosed as autism or cerebral palsy because of the commonalities they share. Angelman syndrome in Max’s case makes him orally and skin sensitive to some things. Max’s cerebral palsy allows him to walk, but his mouth muscles are the weakest. Due to the lack of muscles in his mouth Max drools, has trouble eating certain foods, and has difficulty with speech. Max is the oldest of three children. Max has a younger sister Sabrina who is currently eleven years old and a younger brother Ben who is six months
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So, to me it didn’t make sense until I looked up the definition for the syndrome as to why Max was displaying signs of autistic behavior with his cerebral palsy. This was definitely helpful information this mom provided throughout the blog because Max wasn’t an only child so it was interesting to see how the parents balanced the time they spent with their children. Ellen showed me that you don’t need to coddle a special needs child because, they are a child first and foremost. When Ellen stepped back she was able to see that she didn’t need to help Max so much on some things like cleaning himself up after meals because, he was doing it by himself when left alone to be independent. As a teacher of special needs children I think that the hardest part is seeing a child that has special needs as being capable of doing some tasks independently. One of my biggest goals is not to view these children like helpless infants who can’t do anything for themselves. By following Max through this blog I realize it is the simple things like, putting a sticky matt down on a table that makes all the difference on being dependent on someone to feed you and being able to feed yourself. It is that sort of teaching principle I would like to take away from this blog and use in my future teaching
So, to me it didn’t make sense until I looked up the definition for the syndrome as to why Max was displaying signs of autistic behavior with his cerebral palsy. This was definitely helpful information this mom provided throughout the blog because Max wasn’t an only child so it was interesting to see how the parents balanced the time they spent with their children. Ellen showed me that you don’t need to coddle a special needs child because, they are a child first and foremost. When Ellen stepped back she was able to see that she didn’t need to help Max so much on some things like cleaning himself up after meals because, he was doing it by himself when left alone to be independent. As a teacher of special needs children I think that the hardest part is seeing a child that has special needs as being capable of doing some tasks independently. One of my biggest goals is not to view these children like helpless infants who can’t do anything for themselves. By following Max through this blog I realize it is the simple things like, putting a sticky matt down on a table that makes all the difference on being dependent on someone to feed you and being able to feed yourself. It is that sort of teaching principle I would like to take away from this blog and use in my future teaching