Saturday, March 18, 2017
Week 3: Pregnancy & Prenatal Development- David Polanski
In 2014 I was working as a delivery driver for a uniform company. I was waking up at 3 am to be at work by 4, loading up a truck then making my deliveries for the day. I took the job because I had just moved into an apartment and needed a steady income. I knew this is not what I was meant to do in life. I started to become anxious, crabby, and just unpleasant, I needed a change. I began applying to any and every job I could have just to get out of my current job. I came across a place that I thought was a nursing home and applied. I felt this would be an ideal position to take since I had experience taking care of my grandfather for 8+ years after he suffered a severe stroke that took the use of his right side of his body as well as his speech. I received a call from this place to set up an interview for hire.
The day of my interview I did not know what to expect. I remember walking into the main building and being asked to have a seat until my interview. As I was sitting I started to see a lot of kids with special needs transitioning around the building; this was not what I expected. As I was waiting I debated on leaving because I had never had experience working with children with special needs. Needless to say, this day I found my purpose.
Chapter 3 revolves around pregnancy and prenatal development and to my surprise this chapter opened with hereditary disorders. As mentioned in the text (pg. 57), "hereditary abnormalities occur at the level of the chromosomes or the genes. Either source of the abnormality affects the entire genetic process." These disorders develop at the early stages of life and most likely stay with the child their entire life. I work with students who have all types of disorders that range from autism, down syndrome, and cerebral palsy. Like many, I was ignorant on how you treat someone with special needs and to my surprise you treat them as anyone else, we are all people and that's the bottom line. There are so many misconceptions of people with special needs and often times are believed to be incapable of developing in a typical fashion. Working with these kids you learn of how much they are capable of doing even if it is not in the same regards of what you can do. The human race cannot fully develop unless we develop together and embrace our differences no matter what they might be.
This section of the text made me reflect back to our last chapter that talked about stages of development. It seems that those theories are structured around the 'typical' person and would be difficult to relate to people with special needs for their developmental timing may differ from what is the 'norm'.
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Pg. 68 brings up an important paragraph regarding nutrition and exercise while pregnant. According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a healthy diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole-grains, and low-fat or skim milk. It also includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts, as well as foods low in saturated fats, sodium, and cholesterol. What is interesting about this is several members who make the decisions that deem what is healthy to eat have major contributions from the egg/dairy industry. Study after study are available that prove the health risk consuming animal products. The dietary guidelines promote a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, then goes on to recommend eating a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol. It contradicts itself since cholesterol and most saturated fats are only found in animal products.
I wanted to bring both of these areas up because I cannot help but feel the two can be related. We know the fetus relies on nourishment from its mother but can poor nutrition contribute to these disorders. We know that alcohol and drug abuse can cause a baby to have a disorder, I cannot help but feel diet can also do this. Money makes the world go around and what we see is rarely what we get. There are so many people chronically ill in this world and countless children being born with disorders that we have to seek truth for ourselves and apply it to our life. Educate and invest in your health. Making small changes can lead to major development to living the best life you can.
http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vegdiets/health-concerns-about-dairy-products
This blog is not regarding whether you should drink milk but rather understand that the choices we make can affect our development as well as our offspring's. One excerpt I wanted to pull from this is the following: "Colic is an additional concern with milk consumption. Up to 28 percent of infants suffer from colic during the first month of life.47Pediatricians learned long ago that cow’s milk was often the reason. We now know that breastfeeding mothers can have colicky babies if the mothers consume cow’s milk. The cow’s antibodies can pass through the mother’s bloodstream, into her breast milk, and to the baby.48,49."
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There is nothing that feels better than feeling like you are right where you should be in life. Hearing your story about how you found your purpose working with special needs children. It is amazing how this class ties in to our lives so much. Learning more about developmental disabilities has to be very interesting to you in your field. It is common knowledge that certain things such as smoking, drinking and doing drugs could cause disabilities and complications. It disgusts me that there are some people out there who do not care about the harm their drug and alcohol abuse could do to their rapidly developing baby. Then there are diseases that are out of our control. Genes could cause hereditary disorders. It is sad that some babies are born with medical issues that are out of their control. I agree with you that people with special needs should be treated just like everybody else. After all, they are human beings just like us. "Life's Greatest Miracles" talked about how we all begin as one tiny cell. Special needs or not, a person is a person. As we read this week, genes play a major roll in development.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a healthy diet is key to a healthy life. A diet is something that can help or hurt development.I agree with you that making small changes in your diet could help with development. A healthy lifestyle has always been essential to myself. I read a quote that said, "Food is the most abused drug. Exercise is the most underutilized antidepressant". I feel that is true. Food and exercise could control many diseases. A pregnant woman should eat in a healthy way for herself and for her growing baby. Breast milk is and always will be the best for a baby. It is what God wants a child to drink. As long as a woman is healthy enough to breastfeed, it will definitely help her baby developmentally. Growth and development is an ongoing process from conception all the way until death. Conception, prenatal and infant development are only the beginning. Some diseases could be controlled with proper prenatal care and nutrition, others cannot be controlled due to genes.
Great blog!
"Special needs or not, a person is a person". I couldn't say it better myself!!!
DeleteDave, You say "I was ignorant on how you treat someone with special needs and to my surprise you treat them as anyone else, we are all people and that's the bottom line". I could not agree more with you. I work with special needs children. I see their differences when we join the other students in IT, gym, art and other specials. Most children will look and most will help and guide them when needed, But there are some who love to make fun of a couple of my kids. FOURTH GRADE!! As I told those students, I have ZERO tolerance for making fun of my students. I feel that begins at home and sadly they will not be taught to respect others. I feel a lot , good and the bad, starts at home. It's hard to push and teach equality and respect when your taught the opposite or not taught at all at home. You said you found your purpose. What purpose is that? I couldn't find it in your other blogs. My daughter recently saw a video on cows and what they do to them and it has been about 6 months since she has touched cows milk. She will now only drink almond milk. I agree it is very sick how these animals are treated.
ReplyDeleteI had mentioned my 'purpose' but forgot to explain what I meant, my apologies. However, I always wanted to be rich, who doesn't? As I worked more in special education I found that my purpose was to work with children with special needs. I currently work in middle school in a class with 8 students, 6 of which our boys. There are hardly any guys who work at my job so my students really take to me. My purpose is to serve to them as a teacher, role model, and most of all, a friend. These students have had people telling them what to do their whole life and that will most likely continue their entire life. A lot of these kids do not get to experience certain aspects of being a kid and that is something I try to never forget. I hope this made sense because this is still something I am trying to word right, in my head it make sense but putting it into words can be tricky.
DeleteAwesome. It totally makes sense and you are sadly correct, there are not enough male teachers in special education. I have followed along with most of my group since they were in Kindergarten. I hopefully will be with them next year which will be their last year in elementary school. The 6-8 sped class is two females and one male teacher. He is sooo good with the kids. We started doing community based field trips with their classes this year and my group loves him. And sadly some do not have proper male role models so just add that to our overgrowing list of responsibilities ans teachers. But I won't complain. These kids are worth it and I love my job!!
DeleteHi David, I enjoyed reading on how you got your current job. I believe it was God’s calling and I bet you are good with the kids. I am also an aide and currently working in a special education classroom. I can relate to how you felt ignorant and not knowing how to treat someone with special needs. I’ve learned so much working with learning disability students. You’re right; we must treat them just like everyone else. They are people and are capable of doing as much as everyone else. I think that sometimes people underestimate people with special needs. As you quoted, “The human race cannot fully develop unless we develop together and embrace our differences no matter what they might be.” I agree with that statement because in the end we are all the same and created by one God.
ReplyDeleteI have a niece and a nephew both from the same parents. They were both born with cleft lips. My niece’s cleft lip was not as severe as my nephew’s. My nephew’s lip and gums were not fully or properly developed. Cleft lips do not run in our family nor in her family. She spent many years wondering why both of her children were born with cleft’s lip if it’s not heredity. The only theory she could come up with was her job environment. She worked in the casino for many years and was there throughout her pregnancies. Back then, smoking was allowed in the casino area. I believe the environment she worked in had an impact on her children’s’ abnormalities. She inhaled all the cigarette smoke for more than 8 hours a day. In chapter 3, “smoking is probably the most common environmental threat to pregnancy.” P.73 Also, tobacco affects the reproduction process such as: fertility, conception, pregnancy, fetal development, labor, and delivery P.73. My sister-in-law continues to work at the casino because it no longer allows people to smoke inside.
Very powerful words you share. It is refreshing and enlightening to hear these words,"There are so many misconceptions of people with special needs and often times are believed to be incapable of developing in a typical fashion. Working with these kids you learn of how much they are capable of doing even if it is not in the same regards of what you can do. The human race cannot fully develop unless we develop together and embrace our differences no matter what they might be." This course is another agent that gives "guidelines" and rules to development. Piaget says at this age do this and a child should walk at such an such age etc. Your words show that development is different for everybody but the common thread is that development occurs differently for everybody. There is no right way to do it and I completely agree to stay focused on the capacity instead of the current position.
ReplyDeleteI loved how you related to your job to the readings. I also work a special ed school, and even though some days are tough I still love it. What you say about treating kids with special needs the same as other kids is so true, you need to be patient with them just like you need to be patent with any other human being.
ReplyDelete