My Journey Towards Self-Determination
Making Friends
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The dolls we use in the presentation

This is a presentation I give to children.

I do a presentation to young children which we call Making Friends. Our presentation is geared to children ages 5 to 7 years old.



There is a group of us from the Self Advocacy office who go to schools and summer camps to share stories of our disabilities. We hope our visits will spark the children's curiosity and help them realize that our disabilities are not something to be afraid of.

I have written a childrens story about a little boy in a wheelchair. I had an artist add some illustrations and turned it into a coloring book. I hand the book out at my presentations. This book is called Best Friends . Below you will see a picture of the cover art and two of the pages.

(c) 2005 by Kim Henchen.  The information contained on this page, including Best Friends may not be reproduced without permission from the author.

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Cover of my book

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One page of the story

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One of the drawings. The artist was Tom Proctor

March 9, 2006
The Making Friends team was very busy this school year. We did presentations all over the Rochester area. We even went to a school in Brockport. We also were invited to a school in Honeoye Falls, NY to speak to a group of 7th grade students about CP and inclusion into regular classrooms.
We averaged about 20-30 students in every group and they all seemed to enjoy it. We even presented to some classes which had student with special needs included in thier classrooms.
All in all this year went very well. As of this writing we still have a few more presentations to do, but our busy time is over till fall.

The team,
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Left to Right: Matt, Me and Allen

For more information about setting up a Making Friends presentation for your school or group, please email me at making_friends14559@yahoo.com
 
or check our new Making Friends site at http://making-friends.tripod.com