Guest Blog from Steel Bones UK Trustee Stephen Morley
I’m currently doing work in Primary schools promoting inclusion and working with the children to help them to learn about and respect diversity.
Part of this work involves bringing people with a disability, specifically people with limb loss, into schools to speak with the children. After giving a talk, the amputees join me and my coaches to deliver inclusive and adapted sports to the little ones. I’ve been doing this a while now and I still find it interesting to observe the reaction of some of the younger children when they meet someone with a disability for the first time. In my experience, the children often have several different reactions.
On occasion, some of these reactions are in sharp contrast. There are little ones, like a young girl called Saffron (not her real name) that I met at a local school recently. Children like Saffron are generally beautifully accepting, sometimes to the point of nonchalance. This is sometimes due to the child having a member of the family, close friend or relative who has a disability. Then there are those who are inquiring. They readily approach us and are full of questions, along the lines of “does it hurt”, “will it grow back” and, one of my favourites, “what’s it like having a robot leg.”
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