The excerpt below is from our webinar Challenging Behaviors of Children with DMD. Thank you to psychologist Dr. Natalie Truba of Nationwide Children’s Hospital for being our guest speaker. Click here to listen to the podcast episode.
The school setting can be incredibly overwhelming for kids with Duchenne. They’re just asked to do things that are really unrealistic at times…
The impact of the stress associated with socialization and peers is super real and very important.
There are real difficulties with bullying or making friends or experiencing challenges associated with having different mobility demands put on you at school. Sometimes kids with Duchenne are not able to fully participate in activities that would help them find common ground with their peers or they’re not able to do so at the same rate or in the same way, which then limits their ability to connect.
And then, how their muscles are impacted from a functional standpoint also affects peer relationships… So if they’re fatiguing faster, tripping a lot more, or not as coordinated and getting picked on in class because they’re perceived as not being athletic, all of that negatively impacts them and causes stress for them at school…
These things very much “other” them. The things they need as part of their care and the tools they use, it “others” them from other kids. It makes it very clear to themselves and to other kids that they’re different. Unfortunately, society is not structured in a way that differentness is handled very well, and so then they are “othered” because they are different and that is just really unfair to them.
