Who is kathie snow

Kathie Snow is the mother of Benjamin, a young man with disabilities. Snow has learned from Benjamin and other with disabilities, and now shares these extraordinary lessons. Kathis believes we can generate better outcomes for children and adults with disabilities when we change our attitudes, words, and actions.

But he still had one foot in Disability World, going to therapy two times a week after school. He began resisting therapy, and after six weeks of balking, he broke down in tears, saying, "I just want to go home after school like the other kids. Going to therapy doesn't make me feel like a regular person! He felt like a regular person at home and in school and Cub Scouts and T-ball, but not at therapy. He was telling me, in his 6-year-old way, what adults had told me years before in the Partners class.

That was the day we got out of Disability World. Benj never went to therapy again. We took what we had learned from therapists and simply incorporated beneficial activities throughout his day. Taking karate lessons enabled Benj to have better "range of motion" than years of occupational therapy; having fun in the hot tub was as beneficial as "water therapy;" and so on.

We began focusing on Benjamin's strengths and abilities and built on those. I told the kindergarten teacher he wasn't going to grow up to be a calligrapher, so forget the handwriting stuff; he was doing all his work on the computer. We've made sure Benj has always been included and we've continued to focus on what he can do, instead of what he can't.

He earned his Master's degree recently and is on the job hunt! Read more about him in his story. In , we moved from Colorado back to our native Texas to be closer to extended family and for better job opportunities for Benj. In , I was a stay-at-home mom when the Texas Partners coordinator asked me to do a presentation to the next Partners class about the project I chose: an article I wrote about People First Language. It wasn't on many people's radar back in , but I was very concerned about the words used to describe my son and others with disabilities.

I was a Nervous Nellie about doing a presentation, having to learn about creating overhead transparencies and the like, but I guess I did okay, as the coordinator recommended me to Partners programs in other states.

Invitations to conferences large and small followed. The rest, as they say, is history. I accidentally became a public speaker. I've been doing it now for about 25 years, at hundreds of events, and have enjoyed every minute of meeting thousands of parents, people with disabilities, educators, service providers, and others from coast-to-coast.

In , I wrote the first edition of Disability is Natural: Revolutionary Common Sense for Raising Successful Children with Disabilities now in its third edition , and launched our website at the same time.

What's followed? Hundreds of articles, an email newsletter, a line of products that promote new ways of thinking, and other books. A variety of universities, as well as public schools and agencies use my books, articles, and products, as do parents, families, and people with disabilities. While I've been called a trainer, presenter, author, etc.

I continue to learn and, as I do, will continue to share what I've learned with others. Thanks for visiting our site and enjoy! He was a nice, respectful man who always talked to me about me, and talked to my mother about everything else.

Over time, he learned what I liked to do by just asking me. I told him about having fun in our plastic wading pool and how I liked going barefoot outside. You cannot function if you assume everyone around you is a threat to you. Putting your trust in someone now makes them reliable to you and now you have given that person the right to do what was asked. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Words really do matter. A change in our attitudes leads to changes in our actions.

I completely agree with Kathie Snow in this regard because this is more than just language; it is the attitudes we have towards …show more content… 2. Some people may not be able to do things that others can, but that does not mean they are unable to accomplish those things that others can. We seem to live in a world where the able-bodied among us are considered normal, and everyone else must work harder to be considered normal.

This way of thinking distracts the way we see and talk to others, and the words we choose to use. Nobody is broken. I remember a friend casually describing my cousin Michael as broken because he was in a wheel chair and could not move his legs. I do not think of Michael as disabled or broken, he just cannot walk. Michael is tall, funny, and always has a joke to tell me. For instance, instead of saying a person who suffers from cerebral palsy, we should say, a person with cerebral palsy.

Also, rather than calling someone mentally retarded, we can say, someone with an intellectual disability. It is degrading when we label people. We must focus on the individuals first. She didn't want a "special" life anymore for her family; she just wanted an ordinary life. When Benjamin was six, he decided he didn't want his life consumed with therapies anymore and called it quits.

Inclusion I Was Born Included.