SEAL BEACH – On Friday, able-bodied students at McGaugh Elementary grappled with challenges disabled children experience every day.
Seven-year-old Connor Colman tackled an obstacle course with a walker, while other children used wheelchairs and canes. He said after he finished that it was fun, adding later that it would make playtime much harder.
“I can’t really run that fast and it could get stuck on something and then I would have to shake it a little bit,” Connor said.
Founded in 1997 by two mothers of McGaugh special education students, the Come Walk in My Shoes event is designed to teach lessons like that. Thirty parent volunteers led 850 students from kindergarten to fifth grade through six exercises in the disabilities awareness program.
Come Walk in My Shoes is spreading to other schools, such as Rossmoor Elementary in Los Alamitos, giving more students an idea of challenges that special needs children face, such as buttoning a shirt with reduced sensation or struggling to communicate.
At the target toss station, students threw beanbags while wearing blurred glasses or hopping on one foot to challenge vision and coordination.
When a volunteer asked kindergartners how it felt to wear the glasses for just a couple minutes, they described it as “uncomfortable.” One student said she wouldn’t be able to see her parents if she had that vision all the time.
The McGaugh gym was decorated with images of well-known people with disabilities, including Ray Charles and Walt Disney, who was dyslexic. It showed special needs and general education students what people can accomplish despite impairments.
“Some people, you might need patience to understand them and help them move a little better,” Connor said after the event. “It takes them a little more time to do it.”
Los Alamitos Unified School District accommodates 950 special-education students – nearly 20 percent of them at McGaugh, said Michael Keller, director of special education. Students with disabilities are mostly integrated into regular classes in the district, with 27 special-education teachers to assist them. Eleven of those teachers are at McGaugh.
“That’s just our culture,” said Jennifer Gaw, a fifth-grade teacher who has been at McGaugh for 20 years. “We’re so proud that we’re a special ed school.”
One of McGaugh’s occupational therapists, Jenna Bastain, who has been in the district for about 12 years, said she has noticed that general education students are more interested in aiding special-education students.
“You get more comfortable as you have more exposure to things that are different,” Bastain said.
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