WHAT ARE DISABILITIES?

Hello everyone and welcome back to our blog! I am going to be talking about disabilities. The google definition of “disabilities” is “a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities”. What does “disabilities” stand for? It stands for not being able to do certain things that most people know how to do.

Different types of disabilities

There are many different types of disabilities. For example, there are physical disabilities (cerebral palsy, amputations, spinal cord injury, epilepsy, etc...), intellectual disabilities (fragile X syndrome, down syndrome, developmental delay, etc...), and people who have both physical and intellectual disabilities. Within each type of disability there is a spectrum, meaning some people's autism condition is more severe than others. Some of them are non verbal, while others have very strong verbal abilities.

Luca

I have a brother named Luca. He is 10 years older than me, and he has autism and mosaic down syndrome. Luca’s favorite things are milk, his iPad, and pizza. When he likes something he gets obsessive over it to the point where we rarely buy milk because he always drinks all of it, and when we do buy it we have to hide it where he won’t find it. Luca has very little speech abilities which makes it hard for people who don’t know him to understand what he wants or what he needs.

Luca has a very hard time caring for himself. He doesn’t know how to use the bathroom on his own, he doesn't know how to shower on his own, get dressed on his own, etc. He needs assistance with all of these things. He also can’t be home alone because he doesn't have a sense of danger. Someone needs to be with him at all times.

When Luca was 10 years old he began attending a school for people with autism. There he learned how to do simple chores (that he can only do with help) around the house. For example, he kind of knows how to set the table for meals, they practiced doing laundry, going grocery shopping, getting a haircut, and more. The staff at his school helped teach him how to do things that might come easy to us, but are very difficult for him. Every day after school a therapist would come to our house and work with him. They would make him practice doing the laundry, playing matching games, saying “come in” when someone knocks at the door, and more. Luca did therapy and attended Crossroads until he was 21 years old, which was when he was too old to attend. After that we had to find a day center for him to go to. He currently goes to a new program where he is continuing to learn skills.

It is great being Luca’s sister but at the same time it can be hard. Luca has an iPad which is his prized possession. If he gets it taken away, or if it dies, he will have a fit. We can’t go anywhere without it. He needs to be listening to his music on repeat or else he will get very agitated and he will sometimes start hitting himself very hard on either his head or his teeth. One time he started bleeding because he was so upset. If he is in his room he needs to have his iPad plugged in at all times. So if he goes downstairs and my mom is trying to make dinner and he is bugging her, my mom will ask me to go plug in his iPad. If it dies I need to be there waiting for it to recharge and unlock it so he can listen to his music peacefully.

Luca doesn’t understand social rules. It is hard for me to have my friends come to my house because I am always worrying that he will walk out of his room without his clothes on since he doesn't understand that being naked in front of people is unacceptable. Us as a family are very worried because he is very vulnerable. If people were mean to him or hurt him he wouldn't have a way to let us know and that is very scary for all people with disabilities. There are also good things about being Luca’s sister like the fact that he loves giving hugs and dancing with me.

So when you meet a person with disabilities, be respectful because remember that they are very vulnerable. Even if they act differently from us they deserve the same respect that everybody else does.