CARLSBAD: Children participate in disabilities awareness program

Encinitas school district campuses taking part in activities

By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Monday, November 17, 2008 6:09 PM PST ∞

CARLSBAD ---- A parent volunteer put a gauzy yellow scarf over 6-year-old Emlyn Helmbacher's head on Monday as the kids around her loudly began shaking noisemakers.

A second parent volunteer then pointed a flashlight toward her face and started asking her what her name was and where she lived. Fists clenched and body tense, Emlyn answered as best she could.

She emerged from under the scarf moments later shaking her head and talking about how "weird" it all felt. What she experienced is what some kids with sensory processing disorders deal with every day, the two parent helpers told her.

Monday's lunchtime disabilities awareness session at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School is part of a pilot project that Encinitas Union School District is trying out this year in honor of Disabilities Awareness Month.

La Costa Heights Elementary had its event last week, El Camino Creek Elementary will participate next week.

Paul Ecke Central Elementary is running a series of programs over a four-week period, said Lucile Lynch, one of the parents helping to organize the events in the district.

The events are essentially cost-free for the district, organizers said. Many of the parent volunteers have children with disabilities. They bring devices that their children use and talk about how the equipment helps their kids function.

Melissa Collins-Porter, who has a second-grade son with autism, brought triangular crayons, an alphabet keyboard and a slanted handwriting slate that her son uses to help improve his fine motor skills.

She also showed the flash cards she has created to teach her son how to behave in grocery stores and other public places. Autism is a brain disorder that can severely affects a person's behavior and ability to communicate. Her son uses many tension-release devices, such as squeeze balls, to help him get rid of his nervous energy and focus on schoolwork, she said.

The lunchtime disability-awareness sessions are great because they include a wide range of disabilities that children can have, including ones such as autism that are essentially invisible to a casual observer, she said.

"You don't realize (my son) has a disability because his body (looks) the same as yours or mine," she said.

Organizers said one of their goals is to get children who don't have a disability to reach out to people who do. They put up posters encouraging kids to say hello to children with disabilities. They also showed pictures of famous people who have disabilities, including Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps and Harry Potter movie star Daniel Radcliff. Phelps was diagnosed at age 9 with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); Radcliffe announced this summer that he has Dyspraxia, a disorder that can affect a person's language or motor skills or both.

During the event, children rolled around in wheelchairs, petted a service dog, and tried feeling out letters with their eyes blindfolded among other things.

"This is just to show you that no matter what disability you have, there's always something that can help you," Collins-Porter told several students.