Roger is the only child of Jennifer and Aaron, and he is nine years old however unlike children of his age he studies in the third standard. Roger has been facing voter challenges since the age of two, and although he is already going through a therapy and appropriate interventions, there are challenges that he faces in his daily life which are difficult to manage. In this paper, we would be looking at one day that Roger spends in his school and the situations which are faced by him due to the motor disability that is present in him.
Unlike other children, Roger’s bus attendant picks him up right from his room and helps him to climb the bus, and also drops him to the school gate. Roger’s day starts with his entry into the school, where before the Morning Prayer children used to assemble. Roger does not have many friends, as most of the children think that Roger is not normal and is not good at studying or playing. Roger stands at the end in the line of students and he's alone at the moment, although all the children repaid the prayers back Roger stands quietly and at times he tries to recall the prayer but he forgets in between and then finally keeps quiet (Nyberg, 2003). The students go back to the class, and the teacher asterisks Roger to climb the stairs as he has faced problems in the past and he finds it difficult to differentiate between the level of normal ground and the stairs. The class starts and the teacher comes, after which he starts taking the subject and write certain things on the blackboard. Although Roger is able to understand what is being taught in the class, he is unable to write down the matter which is written on the blackboard into his copy, he also faces difficulty to recognise few letters which are written on the blackboard. Roger concentrates further, and tries to understand and relate the words of the teacher according to the written text on the blackboard (Michaud, 2004).
After a while, Roger starts getting mentally fatigued and his concentration further gets impacted due to which he is now unable to read the letters written on the blackboard. The teacher starts asking questions based on whatever was being taught in this period, and Roger is much hesitated as he thinks that the question is asked to him he would not be able to give the right answer. Roger tries to now copy the words and the text is written on the blackboard into his copy, however he feels that it is difficult to make those letters and is unable to control his hands in such a manner that he could design the letters properly (Nyberg, 2003). So although, he is able to copy the text from the blackboard into his notebook, the letters do not look as they actually should, and therefore Roger has two take help from his peer to copy the text for him, while the teacher is aware of the situation he has already ensured that Roger states with one of the active students in the class who is able to write the notes for Roger and himself both. While Roger was able to understand everything that was taught in their previous class, his inability to write down the text written on the blackboard, demotivated him and he was not happy with it due to which he had put his head down. The teacher left the class, and the children started talking to each other while the other teacher would enter however Roger kept quiet and did not talk to anyone else (thelearningcenter.net).
The next entry was of the moral science teacher, and Roger seemed quite happy about the fact that in this period there is nothing that he would actually have to write in his notebook. Roger took an active part in the class and also gave answers to a couple of questions which were asked, his replies were appreciated by the teacher. Roger also engaged himself in some talking, with his peers, however he felt neglected in the group and once again he went back to the place where he was sitting and started drawing something with his pen. In the next class, English was being taught and Roger was studying the same with interest however he was facing a challenge to the calling a part of the story which was taught in the last class by the same teacher, although he was able to understand and relate to the current story which was being taught the previous parts seemed a little faded and when you try to recall, he did not seem to connect or remember (Jones, 2005).
Roger wanted to answer the questions which were being asked in the class, but since he could not remember anything which was taught in the previous class, he was unable to answer those questions and once again and once again he felt that if he would give wrong answers to the questions his peers would mock at him later, therefore he decided to keep quiet and just listen to what is being taught. Roger wanted to write down, whatever is being taught so that he could remember it in the next class however neither was he able to interpret the words of the teacher into notes, nor was he able to control his hands properly in order to write and clear writing about the words that the teacher was speaking (Nyberg, 2003).
It was now time for the recess and Roger took his lunch out of his bag and went outside to have the same, although the other children were busy planning to play after eating, Roger stayed aloof from everyone and quietly sat on the ground to have his fourth and then came back to the class and put his head down. He tried to keep his Tiffin box back to his back however he found it very difficult to open the bag using the sliding button which was there, he tried a lot of times however he was not able to understand that have the button has to be pressed and slide it up it right to press a button but the bag did not open so he waited for a while and then asked for one of his classmates to help him with the same, although he got the help but he was mocked at, due to which he felt bad (webaim.org, 2009).
The next class was a mathematics class, and the children were being taught about shapes once again Roger was very disturbed with whatever was being taught in the class. The teacher asked every student to draw the shapes being drawn on that blackboard into their notebook and write appropriate notes about the same. When Roger looked at the shapes which were drawn on the blackboard, he could relate to them and understand the triangle, the circle and the rectangle however many try drawing on the copy he could not figure out that half the shapes have to be made with hand. Moreover when he tried to draw the shapes, he was not able to put enough control with his hands so that he could draw those shapes in his notebook (Nyberg, 2003).
The teacher was aware of the issue, and he came to Roger and held his hand in order to help him draw the figures. Roger was now able to draw the figures however since he was unable to control his hands well the figures looked somewhat distorted. In the next period, which was the library period Roger goes along with his friends to the library however he finds it difficult to decide that which book he has to read, after a lot of thought Roger decides to go ahead with an art activity book and asks for a few colours so that he could utilise this time while colouring the shapes given in the activity book, he's interested in reading storybooks like other children, however since it is difficult for him to read the letters and also remember the entire story in one go she does not choose that option for himself (Michaud, 2004).
While going back, the school bus attendant comes right into the classroom to take Roger from the class to the bus and like the other children; although Roger does not like it but since he is unable to climb the stairs properly he needs assistance to travel back from the classroom to his bus. The children some chirpy and happy in the past however Roger is seen to sit in the corner of the bus quietly, he is not surrounded by children of his age however he feels comfortable interacting with children who are younger than him as they feel that they would not question his abilities in certain areas where he faces the difficulty (thelearningcenter.net).
References
Jones, M. (2005). Effects of power mobility on the development of young children with severe motor disabilities. University of Oklahoma.
Michaud, L. J. (2004). Prescribing Therapy Services for Children with Motor Disabilities. International Journal of Paedriatics Vol. 113 No. 6 , 1836-1838.
Nyberg, N. P. (2003). Driving to learn: A new concept for training children with profound cognitive disabilities. American Journal of Occupational Therapy Vol.57 , 229-233.
thelearningcenter.net. (n.d.). Fine Motor Disabilities. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from thelearningcenter.net: http://www.thelearningcenter.net/attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder
webaim.org. (2009). Motor Disabilities. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://webaim.org: http://webaim.org/articles/motor/motordisabilities
