I worked with children with impairment several times.

The biggest problem I faced was that the parents

refused to accept that their children were different in some ways and need help from professionals
instead of just teachers. As I taught at preschool and kindergarten levels, a lot of behaviors in children
were categorized as explorations, and the parents would just use this reason to defend their children's
unusual behavior. The thing was, dealing with children with impairment (autism, ADHD, etc.) could be
very stressful, so when the parents denied the fact that their children needed to be examined or needed
extra help, it made the stress level double because it felt like us, the teachers didn’t get the
help/support we needed to work with the children with impairment.

According to Logsdon (2022), even after suspecting the disabilities for a long time, parents could still
deny it. Denial is refusing to acknowledge that your child has a disability. Parents make excuses for their
child's academic setbacks because they don't want to accept a disability. They may blame their child's
struggles on teachers or a spouse instead. Or, they may accuse the child of being lazy and refuse to
allow special education services to be provided. Within that moment, research has shown that some
parents cannot distinguish between the unconscious wish for an idealized normal child from an
unthinkable, sudden reality of one who is not (Healey. n.d)

For example, I had a 3 years old student that teacher in the school agreed that he is autistic, but his
mom said he is not, and the teachers needed to understand the way he communicates better. The
problem was he did not even speak to other people besides his parents and his nanny and only could
mention their names. He could not make eye contact and did not respond to his name if the teachers
called him. He only responded to his parents and nanny. I remember being so frustrated working with
him, he needed to be shadowed all the time and I missed most of the time working with other students.
We even asked his nanny to stay around the school just in case we could not ‘control’ him. Yet, his
parents still refused to get him checked by a professional.

For comparison, another student was diagnosed with speech delay and light autism, his parents were
very open with his conditions and put him in therapy sessions to improve his speech ability. His parents
would let the teachers know every progress he made and would let us know his mood every morning so
the teachers could adapt and prepare better for his comfort. It was a lot easier to work with this student
and his parents because the teachers were informed and his parents even put him in therapy to help his
condition.

I would appreciate any parent that acknowledges their children's disabilities/impairment and work
together with them. Working with students with impairment is a hard job and can be very frustrating,
not having information from the parents about what to do and getting the blame makes it even harder
for us.

References
Healey, B. (n.d). Helping Parents Deal with the Fact That Their Child Has a Disability.
https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/teaching-instruction/helping-parents-deal-fact-their-child-has-
disability

Logsdon, A. (2022). Common Reactions to a Child's Learning Disability.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/parent-reactions-childs-disability-2162643