Get Over Yourself ... We're Only Disabled Part 12
Get Over Yourself... We're Only Disabled!
Hey my lovely readers.... Hope you are well.
We’re trying to be as independent as we can
A lot of people with a disability want to get the best out of their lives, and try to become as independent as they can be. Sometimes, this depends on what disability they have and what is limiting them. We all require support at times but with the right assistance, we can slowly become a lot more independent as we learn how to do certain things for ourselves. I love being independent and being able to do things on my own, it gives me a sense of doing daily tasks myself and allows me to learn what I need to do and what I need adapted to be able to be independent.
For some people, this might mean they can put the washing machine on without help or for others it might just mean being able to know the difference between ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and being able to use them correctly. It depends on the individual person and what they can or can’t do. people will have their own level of independence and they can achieve what they want, depending on what they feel comfortable with.
Like anyone, sometimes we might need a nudge to help us realise that there are things that we can do. It is really important that whoever is supporting us knows us well so that they can give support when needed. For example, when I was at college, I was planning to order a takeaway with my friend and we asked staff to place the order for us but to make us feel more independent they encouraged us to phone the restaurant ourselves. This made us work as a team to get our order through clearly.
Independence is important as it allows us to feel happy, proud and confident. It also increases our self-esteem and allows us to learn and realise our full potential so that we can achieve whatever we want. If we know we can do a task on our own, it makes us feel confident to challenge ourselves and achieve the next stage of what we are learning to do. For example, we might be learning to tie our shoe laces, so this could be broken down into stages, like stage one could be making the knot, stage two looping it to start the bow and so on. We may find things easier to take in stage by stage to be able to achieve what we need to do. After learning each stage, this will help us to feel happy, proud and confident to be able to works towards being independent.
When we feel we are becoming independent, this can allow the person caring for us to feel appreciated, as they are the people that supported us to get to that stage of independence; it gives them recognition because they have planned and supported the person to the best of their ability and to be able to see the person succeeding must feel so rewarding.
Independence is not just about being able to get things done for ourselves day-to-day; it is about learning to develop the life skills that we need to be able to flourish. Independence can mean a lot to people with disabilities so if people can do something independently or becoming independent but need some assistance, give them the support but allow them to give something a go themselves. People can be independent more when they have right support at first.
Thank you for reading my blog., I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Abbie xx
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