When I first started out in the disability sector I entered into the Post School Options (PSO) Program. Which is designed to bridge the gap from school life to adult independent life for people with disabilities. All of the clients I worked with were over 18 years old. I worked in PSO for about 2.5 years in different levels of management and this is where my passion for the industry truly began.

At the beginning of this year (2010) I was interviewed and offered the position of Area Coordinator of Flexible Respite. I was stoked, as I wanted to move up the management ladder, but also because this area of respite was generally directed at families with children with disabilities. This was also an area I had not had much experience in.

In this post I’m going to discuss a few of the issues, challenges and highlights of my journey so far working with children.

One of the most difficult things I find, about working with children with disabilities as opposed to adults, is that it is quite hard to tell the difference between a behaviour due to disabilities (eg, over stimulation, frustration with communication, too much noise, etc) and a 'normal' child behaviour.

I have read over case files that have information such as “Child may throw a tantrum when they are hungry – this could result in biting, hitting and verbal abuse”. I’m pretty sure that when I was a small kid I chucked a few tanties over not getting my icecream too, but that is not necessarily due to any form of disability, it is simply an average child’s behaviour.

Being able to understand that children, disabled or not, are still children who are learning and growing is essential for success in this area of disability work.

In the disability sector it can be quite difficult to ensure effective communication with clients. When I was working with adults, most of them were able to communicate their needs in some way. However, when working with a child, most of the time they do not yet understand what they want or how they are feeling and in turn, it proves very difficult to comfort and support them.

In saying that, I have had some of the most fun days of my career working with various children in our holiday programs. During these programs we have had groups of up to 15 children participating in different activities - my inner child has especially enjoyed the jumping castle and ball pit!

Being able to have fun and connect with each child is an experience that moves you. And seeing someone that usually just sits in the corner and doesn’t interact, jumping around with other kids and playing ring-a-round-the-rosie is incredibly rewarding and makes all the morning tantrums forgivable.