Increasing empathy and awareness towards children with cognitive disabilities

Years 2023-2024 School

Prepared by Devon Saggers
PADM S688: Program Evaluation
University of Alaska Southeast
Instructor: Dr. Kathlene DiLorenzo
May 30, 2023
running head: INCREASING EMPATHY PADM S688

This program strives to achieve a goal of increasing empathy towards students

with cognitive disabilities of autism, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, and dyslexia so that
students with these disorders can experience social acceptance that critical for social
well-being and academic success. The evaluation team will consist of me the
researcher, two grade three teachers, two teaching assistants, and the parents of child
in the selected classrooms who has been diagnosed with any of the four cognitive
disabilities mentioned above. My role and responsibilities of evaluator would be to
gather and analyze the data from questionnaires given by the teachers, teaching
assistants, and parents at the beginning and end of the school year regarding the
mental health outcomes with the children with these cognitive disabilities and levels of
social acceptance of them that were observed by the teaching staff and their parents.
While the responsibilities of the teachers, teaching assistants, and parents involved
would be to answer the survey questions regarding their observations throughout the
school year. Also, throughout the school year, in the selected class in the study,
awareness programs designed to increased empathy for the non-special needs children
towards the children with cognitive disorders, as well as make the children aware of the
dynamics of autism, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, and dyslexia, so they can recognize
symptoms of those who have yet to be diagnosed would be implemented.

The stakeholders in this program evaluation are children with autism, ADHD,
Tourette’s syndrome, and dyslexia, their parents, their teachers, the school board, and
the unnamed billionaire philanthropist with autism who is funding this experiment
through his foundation called the “Acceptance Foundation for children with cognitive
disabilities”, along with the board of directors for this foundation. The general interest of
all these stakeholders is a classroom environment where children with cognitive
disabilities are socially accepted and not bullied, so that they can thrive academically
and socially. If the goal of this study is successful, the model used in the controlled
classroom to increase awareness and acceptance of children with cognitive disabilities
can be implemented worldwide and to help them become productive adults.