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Unfortunately, kids also pick up on what they hear from their friends. If you hear your child using a
derogatory term for a person with a disability, for instance, “Retard,” firmly correct your child, explaining
that the term is hurtful. You might say, “How would you feel if you had an intellectual disability and
someone called you a retard?”
This is exactly what teaching empathy is all about: getting your child to wear someone else’s shoes to
imagine how that person feels.
You might, for instance, point out that a child with Down syndrome loves her puppy, loves to wear
purple, and loves to listen to music, “Just like you!”
The idea here is to show your child that the person with a disability is not the disability, but a person
much like other people, with feelings, likes, and dislikes.
4. EMPHASIZE STRENGTHS
Children notice differences. It’s up to a parent to direct the child to look for strengths instead of
weaknesses. For example, if your child goes to school with a child who wears leg braces, he might point
out that, “Gregory can’t walk well.”
When your child says something like this, it’s a chance for you to educate your child in emphasizing
strengths, not weakness. You might say, “What is Gregory good at?” and discover that Gregory is an
absolute wiz at math. It’s important that your child learn to see Gregory’s worth and what he can do,
which is so much more important than what Gregory cannot do.
You might also use the opportunity to encourage your child to be helpful to others, in a respectful way,
with the things that are difficult for them. It can be helpful to remind your child that when she has
difficulties with certain things, it makes her feel good when others lend her a helping hand. By the same
token, helping others makes them feel good, too.
Make sure your child understands that no bullying is an absolute rule—that even if her friends are doing
it, she must not join in.
Now that you’ve got all this mental preparation under your belt, you should be up to the challenge of
talking to kids about disabilities. The main things to remember? Children don’t start out cruel or kind. It’s
up to parents to teach them how to empathize by imagining others’ feelings. It’s our job to show children
how to be respectful and to focus on others’ strengths instead of their weaknesses.