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Running head: ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Overcoming Obstacles: An Orthopedic Impairment in a Kindergarten Classroom

Kelly Stoeckle

St. Mary’s College of Maryland

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ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENTS IN THE CLASSROOM

Overcoming Obstacles: An Orthopedic Impairment in a Kindergarten Classroom

It was the day before school officially started, and parents and their children were invited

in for an open house to see their classrooms and meet their teachers. This was the first day I had

the pleasure of meeting Jimmy, a five year old student in my kindergarten classroom this year.

Right away, I could tell that Jimmy was different than the rest of his peers. Unlike the other

children his age, skipping into the room and running straight for the toys, Jimmy was confined to

his Father’s arms for the entire hour he visited his new classroom. Jimmy was quiet for the

entire visit while his father spoke with the special education teacher about Jimmy’s physical

needs in the classroom. It was clear that his Father wanted Jimmy to be as independent as

possible, and although I also wish Jimmy could be this independent, I could not help but wonder

if he could succeed at these high expectations.

After meeting Jimmy for the first time and hearing his Father’s concerns, I began to

wonder how we would be able to accommodate his special needs. I was immediately concerned

about how we, the general education teacher, the special education teacher, and myself, would be

able to best help Jimmy be as physically active as possible in our classroom. And although the

school and its staff, as a whole, are very well equipped to deal with children with special needs, I

could not help but wonder if attitudes and personal beliefs of the staff would affect Jimmy’s

progress. Like Jimmy’s father, I was also very concerned about how the other children in the

class would react to Jimmy’s special differences and needs. This case study describes Jimmy

and his academic and social experiences in the classroom and gives suggestions for how we can

make him as comfortable and as successful as possible in our classroom and our school.

Basic Information

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Jimmy is a five year old mixed race student with an orthopedic impairment attending a

diverse title one school. His impairment prevents him from walking or sitting up straight without

assistance. Jimmy’s impairment also causes him difficulty with fine motor skills. Jimmy’s

father’s ultimate goal is that he will be able to walk. Surgeries, medication, and therapy have

been used to help accomplish this goal. His father is very vocal about his expectations for his

son and likes to stay well informed about his child’s school experience. Jimmy is one of 18

students in an inclusion classroom with a general education teacher, a special education teacher,

two para-educators, and a student teacher.

Jimmy’s IEP requires him to be in the general education classroom at least 80 percent of

the time with use of assistive technology and special services (i.e., occupational therapist,

physical therapist, special education teacher, and speech and language therapist). Jimmy does

not have any testing or academic accommodations and his father is very adamant that his

disability is only physical. His accommodations, as stated in his IEP, require him to have easy

access to the classroom and its materials, preferential seating, a variety of previously mentioned

services, and adaptive equipment. Jimmy’s adaptive equipment includes a gait trainer, a kay

chair, a cube chair, a special toilet, a special stroller, a slant board, and many more. Jimmy is a

very quiet boy and struggles with initiating social interactions, but is otherwise a very happy

child.

Observations Related to the Literature

Independence in the classroom. Children with special heath needs, including physical

impairments, often have difficulty developing a sense of strong self-determination and autonomy

(Burstein, Bryan & Chao, 2005). Jimmy is unfortunately no exception and often struggles with

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his self determination and confidence in the classroom. He has trouble with his fine motor skills

and therefore needs assistance with almost all of the activities learned in a kindergarten

classroom, which includes writing, coloring, cutting, and gluing. This constant need for

assistance or adaptive materials (e.g., triangle crayons and easy spring scissors) may reduce a

child’s ability to learn certain skills and can therefore affect a child’s confidence and self-

determination (Burstein et al., 2005).

Jimmy sometimes has days where he struggles with his confidence in his abilities, which

makes it difficult for us, as his teachers, to know how hard we can push him before he is at a

point where he actually cannot complete a task. On one particular “bad” day, Jimmy came in

from recess and I asked what he had done and he responded, “I threw the football…but I needed

help doing it.” As he told me this he looked as if he was on the verge of tears. On this particular

day, Jimmy was very discouraged about how much assistance he needed, and was therefore, not

trying as hard as he probably could have on his class work. As his teachers, it is our job to make

sure Jimmy is pushed enough so that he makes progress, but we also have to be careful that we

do not have unrealistic expectations. It is a struggle to find this balance and even the best

intentions can leave a child dependent on help or discouraged from failure (Burstein et al., 2005).

If a child becomes dependent on a teacher’s assistance, then learned helplessness or a

“self-fulfilling prophecy” might occur (Aronson, 2002, pp. 281). When this occurs, a child is

subject to stereotype threat, meaning that he will worry about being an example of his own

stereotype (Aronson, 2002). As a student with a disability, Jimmy deals with stereotypes

everyday. The stereotypes about disabled people include the idea that physically disabled people

are a threat to the safety of others, aggressive and disruptive, and intellectually disabled

(Thomas, Curtis & Shipppen, 2011). Because Jimmy will certainly have to face some of these

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stereotypes during his educational career, he might become overwhelmingly stressed about the

idea of fulfilling this stereotype (Aronson, 2002). Hopefully, Jimmy will see these threats as a

challenge and will learn how to complete his work successfully and independently.

Another issue for Jimmy relating to his classroom, and daily, independence is his use of

the bathroom. Jimmy is just recently potty trained and up until this year had worn pull-ups

everyday to school. Although his Father has informed us that Jimmy never has accidents at

home, Jimmy has had quite a few accidents in school. As previously mentioned, Jimmy

struggles with instigating conversation; this includes making his teachers aware that he needs to

use the bathroom. Because of his difficulty with verbalizing his needs, Jimmy is taken to the

bathroom at least four times a day. On one particular morning, Jimmy had four accidents before

lunch, and had multiple breakdowns where he cried uncontrollably. Later I found out that he

was crying because he thought he was going to get in trouble with his Father at home. These

accidents negatively affecting Jimmy’s whole day and he ended up missing lunch, recess, and

afternoon instruction to be in the special education room all day.

Being able to participate in “normal” activities is the goal of many disabled people and

not being able to do so independently is a huge problem for a person’s self-confidence (Burstein

et al., 2005). In Jimmy’s case, he is not able to use the bathroom, eat lunch, or maneuver the

classroom on his own like his typically developing classmates. Jimmy’s lack of confidence

could be due to the fact that he is constantly aware of his peers completing tasks independently

and he really does not have any peers in the classroom with a similar disability to compare

himself to or talk with (Burstein et al., 2005). Having a group of peers similar to him could be

useful for Jimmy as he gets older and will need to express his frustrations comfortably with other

children who understand (Burstein et al., 2005).

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Teacher’s attitudes. There are some obvious barriers that prevent physically disabled

students from succeeding, such as a lack of adaptive equipment, but there are also less noticeable

barriers like lack of funding, lack of staff training, and a lack of positive attitudes (Gal, Schreur

& Engel-Yeger, 2010). Unfortunately, there are some teachers that do not have positive attitudes

about teaching special education or having an inclusion classroom. There are a few personal

characteristics that positively correlate with a teacher’s negative attitude towards having an

inclusion classroom including the following, age, class, education level, and years of experience

(Gal et al., 2010). The factors with the strongest correlations are amount of teaching experience

and amount of experience with people with special needs (Gal et al., 2010). Taking this into

consideration, it is no surprise that veteran special education teachers have the most positive

views on inclusion and opinions of those with special needs (Thomas et al., 2011).

Jimmy is lucky in our classroom because he has support from a wonderful special

education teacher and a general education teacher with a few very successful years of experience

in an inclusion classroom. Some studies have shown that compared to special education teachers

and counselors, general education teachers have the least positive attitudes towards students with

physical disabilities, but this could not be further from the truth in our classroom (Thomas et al.,

2011). The general education teacher in Jimmy’s classroom, always carefully plans out how it

would be best for Jimmy to participate and gives him just as much attention as every other

student. The teachers in our classroom are also all relatively young, which correlates with

having positive attitudes towards inclusion (Gal et al., 2010). The teachers in Jimmy’s

classroom are always discussing new ways to help him and seek support from the different

physical and occupational therapists that are in and out of the school. In Jimmy’s case, he is

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lucky, at least for this year, that he has teachers who care so greatly for his academic success and

general well being.

Peer relationships. The first time I met Jimmy, his father said that Jimmy was nervous

that his friends at school would make fun of him and the way he had to move. I was

immediately concerned that Jimmy would have a hard time making friends in the classroom.

Research shows that students with disabilities are more likely to be bullied than others, and when

that disability is easily visible, the bullying becomes that much easier (Bourke and Burgman,

2010). Unfortunately, with this frequent bullying comes low self esteem and social isolation

(Bourke and Burgman, 2010). In order to reduce these harmful side effects it is necessary to

start interventions with the bullied and the bullies early on in the children’s education. In

kindergarten, I was less concerned about Jimmy being bullied and was more concerned about if

the other students would react appropriately to Jimmy’s physical appearance and use of adaptive

equipment. I was also concerned about what his social interactions would be like and if he

would be able to make friends that would carry him through his elementary career where bullies

would surely appear.

As previously mentioned, Jimmy does struggle with initiating social interactions and he

is a very quite child. After observing him for a few days, I was concerned that his only

interactions were with adults, but after a few days of school the other students in the class began

starting conversations with him. Of course, the children were curious about Jimmy’s adaptive

equipment and soon realized that he was not able to maneuver the classroom typically, but not

one child teased him about it. Instead of bullying Jimmy for these differences, the children

supported him both mentally and physically. On many occasions, students seated next to Jimmy

would see his trouble raising his hand and would reach over and help him hold it up. Similarly,

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students noticed the teachers praising Jimmy for doing things on his own and would also become

excited when Jimmy would do something himself, such as opening his backpack. It gives me

great hope that Jimmy’s classmates are so accepting of his disability and I hope that their

positive attitudes towards him carry through his entire educational career. With a strong group

of friends, Jimmy will be better able to overcome much of the bullying that he will, sadly,

eventually have to endure (Bourke and Burgman, 2010).

Implications for the Classroom

During his year in kindergarten, Jimmy’s main goals will be to learn how to work as

independently as possible in the classroom as well as to become more comfortable with his peers

and starting conversations. To help make these goals happen for Jimmy we, as his teachers, will

have to be supportive both physically and emotionally and push Jimmy to accomplish things that

we know he is capable of doing. This will require a great deal of collaboration with the special

education teacher, the general education teacher, and the occupational and physical therapists.

An effective inclusion classroom requires this collaboration because a student’s academic life at

school should be consistent throughout the whole day, no matter which teacher he is working

with (Karten, 2010).

As for his social skill development, we will have to do our best to model appropriate

social behavior, as well as positively encourage Jimmy as he develops better social skills

(Karten, 2010). It is clear that Jimmy’s father also wants him to have more peer interactions, so

it is also imperative that this behavior is rewarded and discussed at home (Karten, 2010). With

this help from home and the support from all of the staff members at his school, we can only

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hope that Jimmy will come out of kindergarten as a more independent and socially well-rounded

student.

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References

Aronson, Joshua (2002). Stereotype threat: Contending and coping with unnerving expectations.

Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological Factors on Education.

NewYork: Academic Press, 279-301.

Bourke, S., & Burgman, I. (2010). Coping with bullying in australian schools: How children with

disabilities experience support from friends, parents and teachers. Disability & Society,

25(3), 359-371.

Burstein, K., Bryan, T., & Chao, P. (2005). Promoting self-determination skills among youth

with special health needs using participatory action research. Journal of Developmental

and Physical Disabilities, 17(2), 185-201.

Gal, E., Schreur, N., & Engel-Yeger, B. (2010). Inclusion of children with disabilities: Teachers'

attitudes and requirements for environmental accommodations. International Journal of

Special Education, 25(2), 89-99.

Karten, Toby (2010). Inclusion strategies that work! Thousand Oaks, California, Corwin. 130-

140.

Thomas, C. M., Curtis, R. S., & Shippen, M. E. (2011). Counselors', rehabilitation providers',

and teachers' perceptions of mental and physical disabilities. Journal of Counseling &

Development, 89(2), 182-189.