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Children and Art: Helping Kids With Disabilities Discover Their Creative Passions

By Gloria Martinez from Womenled.org

Gloria Martinez loves sharing her business expertise and hopes to inspire other women to start their own businesses and seek promotions in the workplace. She created WomenLed.org to spotlight and celebrate women’s achievements.

From watching their favorite shows to singing their favorite songs, children are almost always engaging with the arts — and this includes children with disabilities. Here are ways you can involve children with disabilities in the arts to help them discover themselves and their interests. 

Create Artwork

Handmade art is an excellent way for kids with disabilities to express their creativity. The possibilities are endless, and all they need to get started are some basic supplies and a blank canvas. Whether they’re into painting, drawing, or sculpting, your kid can find a medium that engages their creative and physical skills. Also, plenty of applications and programs are available for children who prefer to create digital art.

For children who use wheelchairs, wheelchair painting may be a fun way for them to create art. Sometimes called “wheelchair action art,” this method involves covering the wheels in washable paint and maneuvering over a canvas to create a unique piece of art. If your child has other friends who use wheelchairs, you can get the kids together to do a larger, collaborative piece of artwork.

Try Dance

With so many styles of dance, children with disabilities have numerous options for discovering the one that’s best for them. Introduce your child to different types of dance, such as ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and tap. YouTube is a great place to get ideas and show your child videos of performances to get them interested in dance. Develop choreography with your child’s unique abilities in mind, and assure them that steps can be modified to fit their comfort level or preferences.

Additionally, consider enrolling them in a dance class specially designed for children with disabilities. This way, your child can learn new skills and also interact with other children with disabilities. New York City Ballet hosts workshops for children with a range of physical disabilities to expose them to dance in a safe, supportive environment.

Learn an Instrument

Let your kids make a joyful noise with musical instruments. Music can be an especially great outlet for children with intellectual disabilities. Use online marketplaces to find gently used or refurbished instruments, and look for free digital sheet music. Start by having your child learn simple songs, and let them work their way up to more advanced material. In addition to the sense of accomplishment, learning an instrument gives kids the opportunity to perform and work on overcoming their anxiety.

Turn Teaching Into a Business

If you’ve got a real knack for teaching your own kids about the arts, you may consider starting a business to help more children with disabilities explore their artistic talents. Register your business as an LLC to take advantage of the tax benefits and legal protections this type of corporation offers. Check New York LLC registration laws and use a formation service to save on startup costs.

Art for All

When given the proper tools and encouragement, children with disabilities can thrive in creative endeavors. The key is helping them find their niche and giving them the space to freely discover their passions and interests. For more information on how you can support your child with disabilities, visit Our Special Village.

Image via Pexels

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Unconditional Love

My list of angels and superheroes could never be complete without the special place that Omar, Daniela, and Martin, as well as their mom and dad, my uncle Pedro and my aunt Pierangela had in my life.  They are my cousins, but in reality they are so much more than that.  Truth is, I tried to write this piece so many times, but words are not enough to express my immense gratitude to them.

Daniela and me

My childhood and my life in general were simply made better because of them.  Around them, we were just a family.  We were not special, different, and didn’t need to be “accommodated.”  Life was simply life.  Love was simply love.  And my youngest brother with disabilities was their cousin too. They saw him for who he was.

Daniela and Martin

They presented a micro social experiment of what could be possible.  They presented an alternative. I felt safe.  I felt understood.  I felt heard.  And what’s more important, I felt that my little brother was a person first.  When I was growing up, it was not uncommon for people to see disability first, then, perhaps, the person behind it.

Omar and Daniela

At my cousins’ house this was not the case.

Daniela with my brother Fernando

To Omar, Daniela, Martin, and my late uncle Pedro and late aunt Pierangela, THANK YOU.

Daniela and Martin
Thank You!
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Cafe Argentino Restaurant

There isn’t enough positive feedback that could be said about Café Argentino Restaurant, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.  I have had the opportunity to bring my very own special family to dinner many times, and the owners, Cristian and Valerie Herrera, make us feel like family every single one of those times.  The food is amazing, and the ambiance, warmth, and welcoming environment are absolutely fantastic.

Dr. Klimek with Cristian and Valerie Herrera

Special families are put in a tough spot at times, when the need to go out to dinner or engage in any type of social activity arises.  Children, youth, or even adults with disabilities don’t always react in very social-appropriate ways when confronted with situations that make them uncomfortable, and many social situations tend to make them uncomfortable.  This leads to isolation for their families, which in turn produces a feeling of being disengaged from society.  Cristian, Valerie, and the staff at Café Argentino have the tact, loving-kindness, and life experience that can put families at ease.  My mother often asks me to bring her and my brother there as she feels absolutely “at home.”

Dr. Klimek with her family at Cafe Argentino

Café Argentino has recently partnered with a non-profit organization, The Bocha Project ( http://www.thebochaproject.org )to help them raise funds for various programs that promote inclusion and inclusive practices around the world.  Cristian and Valerie have expressed their desire to make their own workplace more inclusive, as they would like to employ adults with disabilities that are interested in working in the restaurant industry in any capacity.  For their progressive and inclusive practices, Our Special Village would like to say Thank You Café Argentino!  Keep up the good work!

The Bocha Project at a fundraising event at Cafe Argentino

You can visit them at:

Café Argentino

499 Grand Street

Brooklyn, NY 11211

718-782-9477

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Integration vs. Inclusion

I was recently talking to a group of people from work, a group of counselors and former educators, about the Department of Education’s policy* and efforts on integration and policy change based on this premise.  The integration that the department is targeting relates to efforts in ensuring that students from all socioeconomic backgrounds, housing status, and disability status are represented in all schools, and districts without zoning rules are encouraged and programmed to participate in these efforts more fully, as they are not bound by address rules (zoning implies that a family’s address determines where the child/children go to school).

My contention with the term “integration” stems from my perception on what the term means.  I’m a much bigger proponent of the term “inclusion” as “integration,” in my view, implies that a group of people (namely students of color, students of low socioeconomic status, students in shelters or students with disabilities) have a lesser standing in society and need to be brought into the mainstream, need to be assimilated by the mainstream, and need to be educated so that they are up to par, hence, they need to be “integrated.”  The term “inclusion” on the other hand, implies, in my view, that regardless of the student’s status, the mainstream needs to make the effort to accept and incorporate those students in all areas of life.  Inclusion implies a general character and pertains to an effort from all involved.

Of course, I have colleagues that work in this arena as well, who prefer other terminology.  Even the term “inclusion,” for some of them, is not enough to capture the spirit behind what we are trying to accomplish.  Inclusion, they contend, implies that there is a group of people (people in temporary housing, people with disabilities, you name it), who have a lower standing and therefore need to be included.  They prefer terms such as “coexisting” because terms like do not presuppose any particular standing (higher or lower) within society.  I can clearly see why they take this approach and why they practice using this terminology. 

Do you have any thoughts about these terms?  What do they mean to you?  What kinds of feelings do they provoke? 

Share your thoughts below!

Love & Hugs,

Dr. Klimek

*location to be disclosed at a future date

Coexisting together as an inclusive family!

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Inclusion

What is Inclusion? The online dictionary Merriam Webster lists the fourth definition of this word as “the act or practice of including students with disabilities in regular school classes.” This is a valid definition and a good start. However, the definition of Inclusion has expanded dramatically in the last few years thanks in part to the activism of families of people with disabilities, and people with disabilities themselves. Under the slogan “nothing about us without us,” people with disabilities and their families have started to create change and expand the meaning of Inclusion to different areas of society.
In New York City, families have organized a march for Disability Pride for the last four years, and one of the main reasons for this march is to bring awareness to the issue of Inclusion. Inclusion ensures that curbs allow for all of us to cross the streets, for traffic lights to announce when it’s time to cross, for signs that include Braille, for menus that include large print, pictures, Braille. This list is by no means exhaustive and continues to grow and we become a more and more inclusive society.
Our responsibility as families is to make sure that we are always on the look-out, that we are agents of change, that we promote Inclusion and inclusive practices and become open-minded to what this means. This may be as simple as letting our child, who has been attending a self-contained class in school, play in the school yard with general education peers and as ground breaking as being a group organizer demanding accessible curbs.
As families, we are uniquely positioned to be agents of change. We are our voices and our children’s voices. Let’s use every possible opportunity to be heard!