How to Respond to Disability Curiosity from Kids: DEI Parent Guidebooks

By Trish Allison

The purpose of this guidebook (and all of our guidebooks) is to enrich your child's education with DEI morals (empathy, kindness, and respect for everyone). Specifically here, and using our typically succinct writing style, this guidebook focuses on disability (both physical and mental) by providing instructions for teaching kids how to treat people with disablilities. 

 

You'll find step-by-step guidance and practical ideas for: 

 

- Learning what your child already knows about people with disabilities.
- Teaching etiquette for special needs adaptive tools (service dogs, wheelchairs, etc).
- Discussing mental difference behaviors (stimming, hyperactivity, etc) and how to react.

- Making household adjustments to create an inclusive attitude at home.

- Answering common questions from kids about people with disabilities.

 

Please note: Instead of general advice like 'be a good role model' or 'talk about feelings,' our guidebooks provide age-appropriate examples and step-by-step instructions for integrating specific diversity and inclusion values into daily life at home. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: DEI for Parents
• Release date: Apr 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9781393437680

Trish Allison

Raising two children in a non-traditional family gives Trish a unique perspective on the importance of teaching kids that everyone deserves kindness and respect.  She combined her experience as a parent, her career as a technical writer, countless hours of child psychology research, a degree in English from U.C. Berkeley, and a long-ignored passion to write something meaningful -- into a collection of DEI parenting guidebooks.  The goal of the guidebooks is not to brainwash children into a 'socialist' way of thinking, but to simply, honestly, and at an appropriate age-level, discuss and respond to children's curiosity about contemporary cultural issues.

Book preview

Copyright

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

HOW TO RESPOND TO DISABILITY CURIOSITY FROM KIDS

First edition. April 2024

Copyright © 2024 Trish Allison.

ISBN: 9781393437680

Written by Trish Allison.

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s (and publisher’s) exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

Introduction

Whether it's because of a family member, a new friend, or a stranger, at some point your child will need to be taught moral values for engaging properly with someone who has a disability. As a parent, you have a golden opportunity to teach your child the words and actions needed to treat people with disabilities respectfully.

The purpose of this guidebook is to provide step-by-step suggestions for helping you guide your child. You’ll find tips for explaining disability basics (both mental and physical), cultivating a disability-inclusive environment at home, and responding appropriately to common questions from kids.

Disability awareness starts from home. A place where positive attitudes, values and customs are reinforced on a regular basis. Teaching your children about disability will help in breaking social barriers and allow a better, wholesome approach to inclusion of people with disabilities.¹

Most important, your child needs to understand that disability equality, just like racial equality and gender equality, is about treating everyone with kindness and respect.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for raising kind kids, this guidebook provides suggestions for scenarios that you can tailor to fit your own situation. The ultimate goal is to help you raise compassionate, non-biased, successful humans.

About this Guidebook

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Chapter 1

Learn What Your Child Already Knows

First things first. It's important to find out what your child already knows about people with disabilities before you start guiding them.

Since the rest