Personal Narrative: My Interview With Nathalie

For this assignment, the person I decided to interview is Nathalie, the mother of my best friend. I interviewed her when I went back home in Canada for spring break. She has two sons, Yannick and Alex, and one daughter, Roxanne (my best friend). Her two sons were both diagnosed with different disabilities at an early age, but for this interview I will mainly talk about her first born son, Yannick. Yannick is twenty four years old as of today and was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysphasia at the age of four by a doctor and a pediatrician. Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes it hard for the individual to concentrate to learn at school and dysphasia affects the communication process. He started taking medicine at the age of
When he got older, he took karate classes because he didn’t like to play any sports. I then asked her about what was some of his needs when he was younger and she answered that it would definitely be for the people surrounding him to repeat a lot, talk slowly, and repeat a sentence a different way so it would be easier for him to understand. Basically, to just be patient when being around him. Since he would get distracted easily, he would need to sit somewhere where nothing would distract him so away from windows or away from his friends. When asked about how her family and his surroundings found out about his disabilities, she said that everybody took it very well, and that just like her, they already had a doubt about what he might have so it didn’t surprise them and they knew that the physician would give them the resources they would need to help with Yannick’s disabilities. His siblings were younger so they just grew up with him being this way so it was normal to them. When asked about how was her experience with the school system and to talk to me a little bit more about Yannick’s’ IEP, she said that she was very grateful because it went very well. She always had
I knew he had a disability but I didn’t understand the true meaning of it. After taking this class and doing this interview, I definitely have more knowledge on different disabilities I never knew about before or was just uneducated about it. I got some advices, some feedback on her experience as a mother of a child with a disability, and definitely got some tips on the dos and don’ts when being the teacher of those kids. From what she has told me in this interview, I think that it is important to have an IEP for each of the student to record their progress. She definitely motivated me for the future of my classroom and I will carry her advices and her experiences with me