Latest / DA CREW Podcast / DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1_ EPISODE #70_HOST MINISTER ALMA THOMAS_(SHOW #10)

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DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1_ EPISODE #70_HOST MINISTER ALMA THOMAS_(SHOW #10) · DA CREW Podcast

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Oh, oh, oh, God will make a where this seems to be
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no way. He works in ways we cannot seem. He will make away
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lovely mine m h m hm. Uned to the all new Live Again podcast
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show with your host Amma Thomas. For God so love the world that it
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gave his only begotten son, that who should ever shall believe, shall not
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perish, but half ever. That's team. Good evening and welcome, Welcome
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to episode part show but the baddest production team in the world HCA Enterprises,
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and you are with Live Again where your host is Minnister Alma Thomas. And
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we're gonna begin like were beginning all things and giving thanks because the Word of
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God said, then all things, give things. Holly, would you bow
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your heads with me for a moment. Hallelujah, Thank you Jesus all we
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thank you for this day. God. We're praying for the bereaved families everywhere.
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And the name of Jesus I continue to give us strength. God,
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you be in this interview. Hallelujah. Led all of me decrease and all
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of you be shown. And everything that we do we have to put you
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first. And the precious name of Jesus. Amen, and amen, and
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once again you know what to do. Hit that like, that share and
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that subscribe button so you can be a part of the crew podcast. Yes,
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hit that like and subscribe and share share on tonight because I have a
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wonderful guest who's gonna be talking about disabilities. So if you have children or
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you want to know more about the disabled community, tune in, tune in
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and share with your friends who might benefit from this episode. So as I
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will instroduce to the audience miss Michelle Steiner, and we will welcome her to
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the show. Oh hello, thank you for having me. Hello, how
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are you doing? I am doing wonderful in yourself. I'm doing a simply
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amazing m This is a wonderful day that the Lord has made. So I'm
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feeling really great and I'm really glad to have you on the show tonight because
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what we are going to be discussing disabilities and the disabled community is very,
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very viable for everyone to understand that people come in all different shapes and sizes
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and learning styles and abilities and disabilities, and it's not it's not taboo to
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understand the disabled community. So this point tell us a little bit about Michelle
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Steiner. Well, My name is Michelle Steiner. I live in Pennsylvania with
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my husband and our two cats, Jack and Sparrow. I work as a
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teacher's aide in a school with students. Last year I work with middle school
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aged students, mainly seventh traders. I'm also a disability writer and photographer.
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I have my own blog called Michelle's Mission, and I just do my best
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to advocate for individuals that have disabilities. Okay, what I know a lot
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of people don't understand disabilities and they have negative stereotype. Well what do you
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wish that people would understand about the disabled community. What I wish people would
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understand is that all disabilities are different. Everybody that has them is going to
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experience them differently, and there's such a wide wide range of them. A
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lot of times people will look at me and they'll say, oh, you
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have a disability. Well I can't see it. So I just wish that
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people understood that disabilities come in all shapes and sizes and are different for everybody.
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Right right, How could we be an allied to the disabled community.
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I think the most important thing with being an ally is listening, I understanding
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what each person needs and just having that listening ear and to see how that
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person would need help and to be able to get that help to them and
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if they're not able, to to be able to point them in resources that
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they can't. But I think listening is the biggest key, right that we
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need to listen and understand that everybody learns in a different way. It's not
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a universal way to teach everybody and for them to understand and it's okay if
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they're not getting what you're teaching. It's up to you as a teacher to
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find out different ways in order to help them to learn and to let their
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parents know that there's nothing wrong with your child having a learning disability. That
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they're not going to be labeled or you want them to get the help that
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they need because if not, then when they're frustrated because they're not learning like
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everyone else, this is gonna be a bigger problem because you're not learning.
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And then we just want to push you. Oh, I put you on
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and each grade builds on what you learn previously. So if you're having a
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problem, but it's you know, it's a task to get a lot of
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parents to understand disability, especially minority parents. How are you Okay, got
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you can go ahead. I agree one hundred percent. It can be parents.
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Getting them on board is really important. I know that my mom and
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dad were on board from the time I was young. They went to my
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individual education playing meetings and they explain my learning disability to me as a child,
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and that started. My parents were my first advocates, and they would
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go to the meetings and they would say, is there anything you want us
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to talk about, and they would bring up my concerns or things that I
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wanted to discuss. And I think that's just so important because as an adult
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I had to learn how to advocate for myself, and I think it was
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my parents showing me that way to do it is what helps me right.
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And that's one of the things that as a headstar teacher, I tried to
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quit my parents with that. You are your child's first teacher. You are
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your child's advocate. And even though the teachers might look at you as being
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a pain or you know, just take what we tell you and get on
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with it, but you are your child first advocate. If you're not happy
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with something, you have to speak out against it and teach your child to
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say, I'm not getting it or I need help. And speaking of which
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you just said a lot of people look at you and say you don't look
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disabled. How and how would you get a non disabled person to accept the
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fact that disability he comes in oils, shape, sizes, informs, and
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you may not look You don't have to have a physical disability to be disabled,
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right. I think a lot of that that I try to do is
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I do a lot of advocacy work with my blog where I'll explain what learning
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disabilities are, and I think that helps sometimes because I'll put a lot of
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metaphors to make it simple that somebody can understand what life with a learning disability
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is like. And I also think it's learning how to advocate and just sometimes
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if someone tells me they can't see it, I sometimes have to be patient
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with that person and say, well, not every disability is visible, and
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it's just about we're trying to educate people about disabilities. And I think it's
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just that listening and having that communication and awareness and acceptances just very important.
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Yes, that's true, and you have to teach your chow children that people
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come in all different ways and it's not okay to teach someone or left at
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someone because you don't understand what they're going through, and in actuality, you
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could be borne perfectly healthy and something can happen to you and you'll be in
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the days like I told you, like I was working and everything I had
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a stroke and now things that I was used to doing now they're challenging because
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I need help or I need adaptation. So what is the term that is
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politically correct now for someone who is disabled? What do you prefer? I
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always use person first language, so I will say a person with a disability,
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a person with a learning disability. I'm not afraid to use the word
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disability. That's my preference. I don't view having a disability is necessarily a
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bad thing or it's not a dirty word. Other people might have some different
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views on that, and that's okay too, but myself, personally, I
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prefer to use people first language. Okay, yeah, it's because a lot
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of people, I'm not sure what to say, because we know then and
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before people really understood disability, they would label children as being retarded or something,
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and it had a negative connotation because who wants to be called something negative
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and to think that you've done something wrong or your life is over because you
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have a disability, like with having a stroke, you have to accept the
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things that you can do and now the things that you can't do, and
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find a way to live a productive life to live again. Like the whole
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message of this podcast is that no matter what circumstances or situations that you are
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going through in life, you can learn to live through it, to live
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with it, not to just coral up in a shell and die and feel
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like you can't do anything. You can't speak out. So you have to
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accept that you have a disability, don't look at it as being something negative,
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which is something that I always had to explain to my parents that I'm
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not trying to label your child. I'm not trying to put your child on
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medication, but at an early age it's best to get a diagnosis, find
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out what it is, and work on that level. Because I often tell
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my parents, like, did you before your child came to head thought,
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did you try to teach them the ABC's And they just wasn't getting it.
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And I said, I'm not trying to judge you as a parent, but
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it's a different way that you've been teaching all this time. I've been teaching
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all this time, and little Johnny is still not grasping the concept. But
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if you tell me, oh, this is the first time in his life
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he ever seen a letter, then I will understand delay and him learning.
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But at this time, we're gonna go to a brief commercial break and we're
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gonna come right back with shell Steiner, and we're talking about disabilities today.
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Disability is not a dirty word, all right, See you soon. Authors,
15:18
here's your chance to get to your work seen across the world. Be
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a part about fifties United Authors of aspiring authors. Next, here's your chance
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to have your book, you and your work the broadcast through Alex the World.
15:37
Yeah, hello, and welcome back to Live Again podcast with my co
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hosts and guests Michelle Steiner. And we're talking about um disabilities. Okay,
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so now we talked about what you prefer to be called. But what kind
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of problems do you see for the disabled community in this country. I think
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some of the problems is when someone is an adult and they're out of school,
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it's a lot harder for someone with a disability. I can there's not
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as many services in programs, especially for people that might have an intellectual their
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child has an intellectual disability. But even for me with having a learning disability,
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some of the services that they had they were not really customized for every
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person. They wanted to put you in a box and they wanted this little
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cookie cutter and if he didn't fit that that type, then they didn't know
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what to do with you know, they didn't know what to do with me
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because I didn't fit that one. They're a little box. So I think
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it's a society we have to figure out getting that individualized approach to every person
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that comes through with having a disability, right because we try to put all
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children with disabilities and the same box, and when we find out that formula
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is not working on that child, then we don't have any resources. And
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like I said that as a headstart teacher that our first job was to teach
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the child and get the child and have a positive attitude about having a learning
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disability, not to think of this so as slow or retarded. You just
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learn differently and we don't all learn the same way. And I think that
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that's in this country with lumping children together, when if you have a disability,
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then they put you in the class and lump you together, and think
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that you're all gonna benefit from that. But they need to have, you
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know, individualized teaching for a student to be able to be productive. That's
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all that we want is them to be productive. What are some of the
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misunderstanding of disabled people have you come acrosss Well, from my own experience,
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a lot of people will say, you've had so much success, you can't
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possibly have a learning disability. You have a bachelor's degree, or you have
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a job. And I have to tell people that, yes, I do
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have a bachelor's degree, Yes I do. I'm able to have a job,
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but I still have my learning disability and I have to find a way
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to look up to where be able to work with that, and that I
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think that's important that people understand that. I think it's also a misconception that
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I can't learn. A lot of people hear that term learning disability and they
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think, oh, that means you can't learn at all. And it does
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mean that I'm going to have difficulty with certain things, like anything math or
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science related is going to be a challenge for me. But there's things that
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I can learn, there's things that I that I am able to do.
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I find it funny when I work with my students. They all know do
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not ask me for help out with math, but I can help them with
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their reading, I can help them with their spelling, and I can help
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them with other things. And I'm really blessed because I work with the team
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where a lot of the teachers I work with they're great at mass So I'm
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like, all right, it works out really good, right whatever you whatever
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you're feel of expertise is you can excel and that feel and it's one Another
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thing is really great is that you work with middle school children, so you
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show them by example that they can make it. Like some people look at
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oh wow, you did this and you did that, but you're an inspiration
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for the children that you work with that if they work hard and different,
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that they can achieve the same thing that you have achieved. So while somebody
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might tell them they're not college material, they can't work, you show them
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that with a learning disability, that you can do anything that you put your
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mind to. You just have to have adjustments. So that's really great for
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the children to see someone who is just like them but made it. So
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that's really important that they have you as a role model and somebody to look
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up to that, even though they may feel like they can't do it,
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when they see somebody who've done it, that is great. So you said
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that you do blogs, and I've noticed on your Facebook page that there's lots
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of pictures of flowers and stuff, So tell me about that. Nature is
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a big part of my life. I love to take pictures of flowers and
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I don't have My friends have told me that you bring out details and a
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flower that other people will miss. And I love to take pictures of things.
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And sometimes with the disability, that's one of the things that just started
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coming was I was able to pick up on other details. And I'm not
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able to drive because of my learning disability. I have visual perception issues with
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my brain, not my eyes. So I'm my husband's great for taking me
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places. I have family and friends who are able to do that, and
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I also live in a central location. But sometimes we'll be in the car
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and I'll see something. Well, I'm in the passenger's seat. I'll say
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to my husband, did you see that? And he said, no,
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I'm driving as you should and be paying attention to the road. But later
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on I'll get that chance sometimes to go back and take a picture. Of
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that flower that I saw in a neighborhood on a walk and people will say,
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wow, you know that's really good. Or I could see a lot
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of those details and if I drove, those would be some opportunities that I
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would miss by sitting in the driver's seat, right. So, and everything
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you see the positive. And that's just like like I told you two years
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ago, I had a stroke and everything became different from me. But the
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whole concept behind this podcast was you can live again, that you can do
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what you will call to do. You can fulfill your purpose. You might
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have to make adaptations, but you still have a purpose. God self has
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a purpose of a plan for your life. And like you said, then
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you look at not being able to drive as a negative thing, but that
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you can look around you and see all the beauty and nature and I can
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inspire people that look at me laying in this bed and still meeting people and
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interviewing people and getting to know people and an inspiring them that no matter what
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circumstances you're giving in life, you don't have to give up. You don't
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have to give in to that circumstance. So, yeah, some of your
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fly I was a really, really beautiful. I was looking at them and
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now, how can we read your blogs and reach you the audience if they
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wanted to reach out to you, how could they find you. I'm a
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I have a new blog now. It's called Michelle's Mission dot net. I
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can put I can give you the link that people can put that and be
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able to find me. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram And yeah, okay,
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so you heard that that if you want to reach Masselle Steiner that you
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can reach her on how blog page or her Facebook page. If you have
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any questions that you want to ask about disabilities. If you're advocating for your
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child and you need resources, you can reach out to her and she will
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give you the resources that you need and in order to better advocate for your
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child. If you was to give the parent of three year old headstar child,
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they're just starting out and they have been diagnosed as having a disability,
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what would you tell that parent and what would you tell that child about their
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future? I would first tell the parents not to give up on their child,
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because my parents never gave up on me, and that made all the
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difference for me in my life, and they advocated for me and I would
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also tell that child that they are very smart. They just have a different
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way of learning or a different way of moving, or just whatever the difference
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is. It's not it's just different, but it's not less, and that
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things get better and just to hang in there because I mean, there will
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be a success in life. Yes, that's what I'd tell each and whatever,
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everyone of my children that you are special, you are unique, You
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all love, and you can be anything that you want to be. Just
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visualize yourself doing those things and being those things, and you can succeed in
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life. So once again, I'm very very honored to have met you and
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to have shared your story with my listening audience. You are free to come
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back at any time and talk about disabilities, because that is something that I'm
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very passionate about that knowing that each child has their own unique set of abilities
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and things that they can do, and not to give up or nobody.
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Don't say that there's no hope for no one, because each child is unique
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and special in their own way. So I would really like to once again
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thank you for accepting this invitation, not knowing what to expect, and I
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met you on Facebook, but I was so inspired by your story and looking
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at the pictures that you take that I wanted to reach out to you and
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invite you to share that story with by audience. So once again, thank
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you, thank you, thank you. I really appreciate you being on a
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show. And like I said, anytime you want to be on the show
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again, reach out and let me know because this is a topic that everyone
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needs to discuss, disability. So thank you, thank you for being on
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my podcast and I will see you or in two weeks for the Living In
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podcast with your host. The one and only profit is tea known as Minnies
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down on Thomas. Goodnight and God blessed, have a prosperous and blessed night
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and I will see you real soon.