Children who cannot feed themselves

WhiteHorse

Is there a 'disability industry'? Is there such a thing as a 'professional' disabled person? Really, I'm begining to wonder.

It seems that no comment can be made on any subject without it being seen as some sort of attack on the disabled.

Moneybot

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

I was in the UK for a couple of days for a business trip.

So, I was in a shopping centre, when I decided to buy something to eat from the "food court". After having selected a meal, I sat down - and what do I see? I see someone actually feeding a child of 5-6 years old. The child was having the food not only cut for him, but also given to him - he appeared to be completely incapable of feeding himself. To make matters worse, he was also eating with his mouth OPEN.

Now, before anyone suggests that there was something wrong with the child - he was perfectly capable of drinking some awful sugar-laden drink from the bottle without spilling any.

My question is this - is this normal for British children? In Poland, you would never see a 5 year old being fed by his parents in such a way!

This reminds me of a joke - there was an engineer, a scientist and a Mathematician on a train travelling to Scotland. When they crossed the boarder the Engineer looked out of the window and saw a cow "look" he said "the cows in Scotland are black!".
"No" said the scientist "In Scotland there is one black cow"
"Rubbish" said the Mathematician "In one field in Scotland there is at least one cow of which one side is black".

In one food court in England there is at least one child who hasn't got the hang of eating food properly by themselves yet. I'm sure I could find one in Poland too.

jellyhead

If the parents/child were lazy then surely the child would have been eating chicken nuggets and chips with his fingers, rather than eating proper food which requires cutlery?

As has been said, some kids wear uniform for school nursery, at just 36 months old. Some kids are enormous, my youngest started school aged 49 months wearing age 7-8 uniform.

jellyhead

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

He seemed perfectly capable of blowing bubbles, of drinking from a bottle, reading a comic and other basic things. I've never heard of a disorder that prevents someone from using a knife and fork, yet doesn't hinder them in other activities. Have you?

It's not as if the dexterity required to blow bubbles using one of those little pots of bubble mixture is vastly different from utilising a fork.

He was blowing bubbles in a food area? :eek: Yes it was his lack of cutlery skills you picked up on ... who on earth blows bubbles when people are eating? ick!

jellyhead

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

I can tell you for a fact that there was nothing "special needs" about this child except laziness. It looked like he didn't know how to use a fork and knife - which is shocking!

Did you see the Jamie Oliver series about school meals in America? Primary schools didn't provide cutlery for the children, and they demanded proof that English primary children have cutlery in schools.

onlyroz

nottslass wrote: »

Really ? I've never ever seen a 10 year old in a push chair !!!!

Have you ever been to Disney Land (Florida)? There were some *huge* kids being pushed around in push-chairs, so tall that they had their knees tucked under their chin. I appreciate that it's a long day for the poor dears, but my son managed and he was 4 at the time...

Owain_Moneysaver

Becles wrote: »

I saw a Polish man playing bagpipes really badly today.

Does that mean all Polish people really bad at playing the bagpipes? Are there any lessons in Poland for learning bagpipes? Is it normal in Poland for people to play bagpipes really badly in the street?

It's normal in Scotland, I can tell you that for nothing!!!

Owain_Moneysaver

jellyhead wrote: »

Did you see the Jamie Oliver series about school meals in America? Primary schools didn't provide cutlery for the children, and they demanded proof that English primary children have cutlery in schools.

At my primary school we each had to bring a napkin ring!!

tiamai_d

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

At my primary school we each had to bring a napkin ring!!

In my primary school we had to prepare our own Coq au vin!

Hand reared of course.

Imp

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Is there a 'disability industry'? Is there such a thing as a 'professional' disabled person? Really, I'm begining to wonder.

It seems that no comment can be made on any subject without it being seen as some sort of attack on the disabled.

There are plenty of "conditions" which can be used to describe people, many of which are a scale rather than discrete. With these scalar conditions, such as dyslexia, ADHD, aspergers etc. we all sit somewhere on the scale. Some of us have more of the condition than others.

These conditions only become disabilities when they affect the lives of the person and those around them adversely. Unfortunately, I think there is a tendancy for people to be labelled with a condition, and the actual labelling of the condition has more detrimental affect on the person's life than the condition itself. In these situations I think you get the "professional " disabled people.