ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702260001
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
Most grown-ups, if they're lucky, can remember someone who made a big difference in their lives when they were kids. Usually, that person is a teacher or a relative or some other adult.
But sometimes, kids can help each other better than grown-ups can.
At Grandin Court Elementary School in Roanoke, the fifth-graders are learning this first-hand by helping out with the preschool classes.
The preschool program, called "Reach," is for children ages 2-5 who have disabilities. Kids with disabilities may be a little slower to talk or to learn than other kids their age. They may have trouble hearing or seeing, or maybe they use a walker or a wheelchair to get around. Sometimes, they just need a little help learning to do things for themselves, or to get along with others.
For many years, children with disabilities were sent away to special schools. Some never went to school at all. But doctors and teachers have discovered that if kids with disabilities start school when they're really young, and if they spend time around kids without disabilities, they are happier, healthier and quicker to catch up with everybody else.
The program helps the kids without disabilities, too, said Phyllis Cundiff, Grandin Court's principal.
"It helps them to better understand others," she said. "They are more accepting of people with disabilities" than their parents or grandparents might have been.
In January, fifth-graders Holly Elliott, Nic Hall, Genny Labrecque, Robby Atkins and Jamie Carter helped out with the classes.
Like a lot of people, Jamie said he didn't know anyone with a disability before he got involved with Reach, and was "a little bit afraid." But he got over it pretty quickly, he said.
"Sometimes, you can't even see their problems," Genny said.
"It doesn't change the way they react to you," Nic said. "They're still really nice kids."
Nobody at Grandin Court makes fun of kids with disabilities, the fifth-graders said.
"Everybody respects them ... " Nic started.
" ... for what they are," Holly finished.
The fifth-graders like the program, Cundiff said. "Some of them really seem to get a charge out of it." Some of them have even learned to take better care of their own little brothers and sisters at home, she said.
There are six Reach classes at Grandin Court, one at Greenvale Nursery School, five at the Roanoke Academy for Math and Science and one at Preston Park Elementary.
At Grandin Court, only the fifth-graders are allowed to help with the preschoolers. Their teacher, Jeff Hollandsworth, chooses a new group each month.
"We don't mind going," said Nic. "It's fun to help out the kids."
"It reminds you of when you were a little kid, and all the fun you had playing," said Genny.
"It's a good experience for when you get older and have kids," Holly said.
If your grades are bad, you can't participate, and "some kids get taken out because they just play with the toys themselves," Nic said. "That's not what you're there for."
The fifth-graders' job is to read to the preschoolers, play with them, help them with their coats, and to get them on and off the school bus each day. They also give hugs, and let the little ones sit in their laps during story time.
If this sounds like more fun than work, picture yourself in a room full of wiggly little kids running around in all directions, and you'll get an idea of what the fifth-graders have to do.
And the teachers really appreciate the help.
"It would be a struggle" to put all of the kids' coats on and take them to the bus without the fifth-graders, said teacher Ann Miller.
"It's a lot of responsibility," she said.
Sometimes, Jamie said, it's harder not to help. When a little kid is trying to zip his own coat, "you want to do it for them, but they have to learn," he said.
Helping with the preschoolers isn't all hard work, though.
"They want to act like you," Holly said, and that's fun.
On a day in January, when a reporter and a photographer visited, Jamie put on a puppet show he made up himself, and - even more fun - he and the others helped the kids eat their morning snack.
It's good for the big kids to help the little kids, Jamie said "because we have more imagination than some grown-ups."
Adults let little kids win all the time, too, Holly said, so other kids are better at teaching them how to share.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA STAFF. Fifth-grader Jamie Carter puts on aby CNBpuppet show, "The Imaginary Adventures of Mr. Turtle and Mr.
Rabbit," for Trudy Wohlford's class. Jamie and some fellow
fifth-graders routinely help out with the pupils in a class for
disabled preschoolers at Grandin Court Elementary School in Roanoke.
color. 2. JANAL RHODA STAFF Grandin Court fifth-graders Robby Atkins
(left) and Jamie Carter play with (from left) Stephanie Drummond,
Justin Thorton and Chris Divers during recess. Type first letter of feature OR type help for list of commands FIND S-DB DB OPT SS WRD QUIT QUIT Save options? YES NO GROUP YOU'VE SELECTED: QUIT YES login: c