Overcoming Disabilities

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Well, I was correct in my assumption that I would sleep the day away! After waking up early to watch the girls while my mom made a bus stop run, I barely stayed awake long enough to say good-bye to the younger kids. Then I crawled back to bed and slept for what felt like forever.

Even though I slept away the morning, I felt like I accomplished something today because I held not one, but two sign language classes this evening. With just forty-five minutes to unwind and reset between classes, I was able to teach two different groups for the start of my second week of teaching ASL. I'm very happy with how these classes are going, and they're giving me an opportunity to use my knowledge of sign language.

So yesterday, in addition to my assumption about how unproductive I would be today, I also talked about the fact that my siblings have some struggles that the new schools didn't know about. In the past, I think that I've discussed the fact that my littlest sisters have been behind developmentally, since they were born very prematurely at twenty-six weeks. They've been maturing more and more in recent weeks, especially Twin A who was further behind, but they're still very small for their age. Still, they are catching up very nicely in all other areas of development, which is really amazing.

My sister is sixteen, but she has an intellectual disability that leaves her at the intellectual level of about a seven- or eight-year-old. Her biological mother also had a mental disability, which means that it was probably passed down genetically. I believe that my sister was also exposed to high levels of lead before being placed with my family, so lead poisoning affected her as well. My sister doesn't look like she has a disability when you look at her, but if you try to have a conversation with her like you would with another sixteen-year-old, you quickly realize that something is different about her. She can't tell time or work with money, which means that she needs to be in a modified math class at school. However, my mom and I were just talking yesterday about the fact that my sister seems to be maturing a lot in recent weeks. We're wondering if the fact that she's been spending so much time with me one-on-one has anything to do with that. I think she's being more independent here and hopefully it will do a lot of good for her.

My brother has something called Oppositional Defiance Disorder, or ODD. It basically means that he disagrees with everything (example: it could be raining, but he'll get angry and argue that you can't say that because who says that it's rain, because maybe it's acid rain, or who said that it's called rain, and maybe you're just seeing things... yeah, it turns into a big argument over nothing). Add his high anxiety to the ODD, plus his ADHD, and things can get crazy. His high anxiety levels made me the most concerned for his first day of school over my other siblings, because I knew that he would be freaking out all day.

My brother and sister know that they have these disabilities, and we've all had multiple conversations about them. They own their disabilities and they work hard to overcome any obstacles in their way. I'm so proud of the way they push themselves in all area of life, and the way that they try to help each other out. I think it's important to discuss disabilities with kids because they should know what they're up against in life and how to get help when they need it.

Thank you so much for your continued support! I look forward to sharing more stories about my experience with foster care, and hopefully hearing from readers who have questions or similar stories to share. I'm always willing to answer questions and hear about other experiences! Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor

Previous Post

Next Post