It is not always easy for children to avoid unsuitable activities at school.
Children with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome who had been told by doctors not to participate in certain activities were still being forced to join in.
“Why didn’t you say something?” parents wanted to know. The children all said they had tried to say no and give their reason, but the teacher just would not listen.
This same theme came up again and again.
Children are not believed.
School notes don’t seem to work because teachers can be different from week to week.
My sister is a teacher. She told me that so many kids try to get out of sport that teachers become deaf to excuses after a while.
In several of the stories the children suffered painful injuries as a result of being forced into unsuitable activity in the classroom as well as on the sports field.
For these parents I was speaking to, an injury to their child had a big impact. It might mean having to take time off work.
It could also mean visits to hospitals, doctors or physiotherapists, medications and watching their kids in extra pain that was avoidable.
It makes me think that this problem could be addressed on several fronts-
- arming rheumatology kids with assertive skills training
- developing letter templates that help parents get their message across
- perhaps a medical alert tag/bracelet could be developed for arthritis kids
I’d be interested to hear whether you have had problems like this and what strategies you have tried.
Netball photo courtesy of tompagenet at Flickr Creative Commons.
I thought all of your suggestions were good, but I wonder how kids would feel about wearing a tag.
I found all your other posts helpful and interesting.
Hi Glenis,
Thanks for your comments. I understand your point that some kids wouldn’t want to wear a tag of any description. That’s true.
It might be that this is only of interest to those children who are very easily injured. I think they could be interested in options that gave them more protection at school.
Maybe this is something that could be discussed at the annual arthritis camp for kids. It might be different if the young people came up with the style themselves. For example it might be an ink stamp like the ones you get on your wrist at concerts.
One of the major problems kids face is that their health issues are usually invisible. Perhaps having an item of proof would make it real. There could be a few options – bracelet, a neck chain, an ankle chain, a key ring, a ring or even a watch band.
As jewelry is not usually permitted at school. Maybe having permission to wear a well designed piece could even be a status symbol.
What is certain is that it would only work if it was an option they could choose for themselves.