Resource eBlast July 2020
for families of children and youth with special health care needs
Connecting with your Child with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities about
Racism, Police Brutality, and Protests

Many families are searching for resources to talk with their children of all ages about racism. See the last eBlast about talking with young children on this topic , and look for next week's edition about talking with teens on this topic. What about talking about racism, police brutality and protests with children of all abilities ? This eBlast shares a few resources specifically created for all abilities and others offering ideas by age and stage that can be used and/or adapted to meet your child’s unique needs and abilities.
Social Stories
  • If your child has seen images of the death of George Floyd or other police brutality recently, you may be searching for ways to help discussions. Consider this social story.

The We Can’t Breathe: The Deaf & Disabled Margin of Police Brutality Project created this video and toolkit for educational training for disability organizations and agencies. It addresses how state violence affects people with disabilities who are also women, people of color, and LGBTQ+.  
This article from Motherly suggests ways to connect with children about race by age and developmental stage, so it may be useful to gather ideas for your child with I/DD. Each age/stage also includes ideas for media, books and activities to help with discussions.
This Raising Race Conscious Children blog post offers advice that might help you “name race” while reading with your child -- regardless of ability .
This series of articles about Racial and Ethnic Socialization offers ideas on connecting with kids about racial identity in ways they can relate to and understand. It also includes thoughts on how to connect with your partner about having the conversations with your kids.
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