"No Body's Perfect, Everybody's Special".

"No Body's Perfect, Everybody's Special" The Attainment Co., 1998 Running Time: 20:30 Available through the EP Library: [phone]; Code: AC019GN Cost: $89.99 plus shipping and handling

This video is designed to teach children to understand what it means to have a disability. The tape, along with accompanying lessons and activities, lets children know it is okay to be different. It shows children with disabilities adapting to their lives and doing the things that typical kids do.

This live-action video program features three real-life young people, Tristan, Olivia, and Emily who have disabilities. Tristan is a 6-year-old who has a hearing impairment. He attends public school and has teachers who are helping him learn sign language, lip reading, and speech. He loves doing all the things other six-year-olds do: biking, swimming, playing sports, reading, and watching television. Olivia is an inquisitive, energetic first-grader. She has a visual impairment, but she does not let that slow her down. With the help of some vision aids, she attends school, reads, watches TV, and plays with her friends. Emily lost her right leg below the knee in a farming accident when she was 22-months-old. Now in fifth grade, Emily uses a prosthesis and participates in basketball, soccer, swimming, and has fun with her friends.

The three friends, along with a character named Jack, a "Mechanic of Misconceptions," try to educate people and correct any misunderstandings that others may have about people with disabilities. In the video, Tristan, Olivia, and Emily talk candidly about health conditions that make them special, and yet in many ways, very normal. Through interviews and day-in-the-life video footage, the three youngsters communicate a mixture of health facts and demonstrate how they live with a hearing impairment, a visual impairment, and a prosthesis. In their own words they send the message that "No Body's Perfect, but Everybody's Special."

The video may be viewed in its entirety, or each segment may be shown separately and time may be taken for discussion and activities. The educational objectives of this video are to:

* identify and acknowledge special health conditions;

* increase awareness and acceptance of people with disabilities;

* understand differences as well as similarities in others.

This program, comes with a 54 page teacher's manual that lists objectives for each lesson, dispels common myths about disabilities, has a glossary of terms, and contains activities for children to engage in to reinforce each lesson. The activities are meant to help the children understand what it is like to have a disability. One activity involves students playing charades to understand what it is like to communicate without speaking. The children work in pairs and try to communicate an idea silently, using only hand gestures. To simulate a physical disability students tie their arm to their side and must keep it that way for the entire morning. The students are asked to write about what it felt like and any difficulties they encountered using only one arm, as well as what adaptations they made. Another activity involves researching and writing on famous people with vision impairments such as Helen Keller, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder.

The manual also includes fun hand-out sheets such as a word search puzzle, a braille chart, and an American Sign Language chart.

Thins program is appropriate for children in grades 1-8.