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| Becky Trapnell holds her son’s favorite item from his toy doctor’s kit, the small white coat, as she relates her experiences raising a child with special needs to deepen students’ understanding of the challenges her family faced. Her teaching helps her students become empathetic health care providers. |
Having a child with special needs is life-changing, emotionally wrenching, isolating and at times overwhelming. Who better than the parents of these children to help teach students about the challenges and opportunities in caring for them?
Nothing beats real-life experience of people who have “been there” to broaden understanding and deepen empathy of those who will provide care for children with disabilities and their families.
That idea is the cornerstone of a UND program that enlists family members to help educate students who, after graduation, will provide “family-centered” services to families with children who have developmental delays, autism, musculoskeletal abnormalities, autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Down’s syndrome, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, among other maladies.
The Parents as Co-Instructors in Personnel Preparation program aims to incorporate the family’s experience and expertise into the education of health professionals, and to integrate the family as a team player and informant into teaching physical and occupational therapists, social workers, nurses, speech pathologists, special education teachers and recreational rehabilitation therapists.
