Over 300 people attended the third annual Dben-Daag-Zid Special Needs Conference, held last week at Bkejwanong Kinomaagewgamig on Walpole Island.
The Special Needs Action Partners (SNAP) group organized the two-day event, which featured a series of workshops and presentations at the school from March 1-2.
Beverly Wrightman, one of the event organizers, told the Sydenham Current the special needs children are well accepted within the Walpole Island community.
“We want that to stay there,” she said.
“The purpose of this (conference) too is to educate, build and open eyes so there is no walls of hesitation. That every child is included, inclusion is a big thing.”
The keynote speaker for the conference was world-renowned autism spokesperson, Temple Grandin.
Grandin, who was the focus of the 2010 TV movie Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes, told the crowd inside the Bkejwanong Kinomaagewgamig gymnasium that people often ask her what motivated her.
“I wanted to prove I wasn’t stupid,” she said.
“When I was a little kid I had all of the symptoms of severe autism. This is the problem, when kids are really little, they start as severe, then you start working with them and some of the kids pull out of that, others don’t.”
Grandin added: “One of the most important things I can tell you… if you’ve got a two-year-old or three-year-old that is not talking, I don’t care about the diagnosis. You’ve already got one, it’s called no speech and messed up behaviour. You need to start working with that kid now, don’t wait. Don’t wait two years, it’s not rocket science.”
Grandin said people shouldn’t get hung up on labels when looking at the autism spectrum.
“I think they made a real mess in 2013, it doesn’t make any sense to put a skilled tradesperson, who would be really good at building specialized equipment or a computer person who is super good at programming in with somebody that can’t dress themselves,” she said.
“That is going on right now because our schools are just going for SAT scores. Some of these kids that got the top SAT scores can’t hold a job. Work skills and academic skills are not the same. It needs to start with little kids with chores.”
Wrightman said the SNAP group has been holding workshops for over 20 years focused on special needs.
She said they are happy to have acquired some funding and community support to hold the conference.
“This was one of the visions I had,” Wrightman said about the conference, which included First Nation participants from all across Ontario.
“The next vision was that we would have workers… we had a 0-18 population that needed services, and I was the only worker. So, my second vision was that we get more workers. We now have Jordan’s Principle, so now we have workers. That’s still new.”
Wrightman added: “The third vision and I’m hoping that in my lifetime we’re going to have a special needs unit within our First Nation, that we encompass occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech, behavioural, psychiatry… every consultant within the need of those children and their families. Counselling, mental health, everything within that unit so we can make a one-stop-shop, so we can provide for the community and educate the rest of the community.”
Marcia Peters, one of the event organizers, said phase one for the SNAP group, who was formed in 2003, was to service the children with special needs from ages 0-18.
“I think we’ve reached that point, but we also said back then that we need phase two to be able to service our adults,” Peters said.
“All the children are growing up.”
Peters said working with Community Living could be an option for them moving forward.
“Six Nations has had a Community Living in their community for about 20 years, that’s for adults only,” she said.
“They have a group home for adults to live in and they have individual housing. We would someday like to have that, plus more services for adults in our community as well.”
Wrightman said their SNAP group spoke with Community Living Wallaceburg over 15 years ago about possibly working together. She said talking with them again could be step in the right direction.
“We look at services or needs for families as on-going,” Writman said.
“Yes, you have a baby with a need… but it continues on to transition into adulthood. It doesn’t just stop. That’s why we’re really pushing some of our topics because it doesn’t stop.”
Peters said during last years conference about 20 families took part, while this year the number grew to 60 something this year.
“Family participants that have a child with special needs in the community… either a parent, grandparent or a caregiver,” she said.
“It’s really expanded the awareness. It’s amazing.”
Photo credit: Aaron Hall
