resources
School year chronicles
Sarah Allen, a disabled parent from Spain, reviews School year chronicles: a personal collection of your child’s school year memories, including tips and resources for parents with disabilities published by the Parenting with a Disability Network, in association with the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT), Canada. 2009. Available from CILT. Price: $20.00 ($15.00 without binder). www.cilt.ca
This publication is a mixture of many possible separate publications about parenting issues – some general and others geared towards disabled parents.
The title refers to the opening section, designed to collect photos, information and memories throughout your child’s school life, making it easier to organise keepsakes.
Although the publication seems to have little coherence as a whole, it is a gold mine of information, experience and advice both general and pertinent to disabled parenting, which you can dip in and out of. It’s a valuable read, not only for disabled parents but for schools and midwives too. Although this publication is very much centred on Canada, and the resources mainly local, the experiences within it are universal, and the publication could be a useful template for groups concerned with disabled parenting elsewhere.
Section 3 on breastfeeding for mothers with disabilities seems a bit rushed, in that it is disjointed without an introduction or conclusion. Good advice is offered on practical issues with breastfeeding with some physical disabilities. It would also have been useful to refer to the emotional support offered if breastfeeding does not work. The inclusion of some personal experience would also have helped here.
Section 4, ‘How to talk to your child about disability’, is encouraging and informative, rather than patronising, and doesn’t assume that we know how to approach disability with our children just because we have a disability. It includes research and personal experiences, and could be adapted to be a general parenting resource for libraries, schools and general parenting organisations.
There is excellent general advice contained in section 6, ‘10 tips for new parents’, which exhibits a sense of humour. The ‘documentary chaos’ tells us the thinking behind the school year chronicles booklet in helping to keep track of milestone moments. This could also have been a good opportunity to gear some advice towards disabled parents – physical preparedness with the emphasis on equipment to make life easier, care package recommendations as in adapting your care package to accommodate your new child or children, and so on.
Section 8 is a wonderful section dealing with the relationship between school and parent, especially disabled parents, which could serve as a reference for schools when dealing with disabled parents and guardians. The appalling access problems raised in the publication and the positive effect of school co-operation with and inclusion of disabled parents, are powerful arguments for policy change in schools.
Vaccination and ‘street proofing your child’ are also covered in a general way. There is a comprehensive resource section at the back which covers online resources, books, papers and reports. I think that there is so much information in every section, that it may have been more user-friendly to have listed relevant resources to each section at the end of it.
School year chronicles is packed with support and information for new parents, especially disabled parents. There are, of course, many specific references to Canada and the Canadian education system but it could also be useful for others. I feel a little disappointed that it doesn’t take advantage of being able to cater specifically for disabled parents throughout, but saying that, it is still a useful and informative publication.