Meet the Family – May 2019

For this month’s Meet the Family, we introduce Aiden and his mother Hae Kyong Chong.

“Hello. I am thankful for this opportunity to be featured for Meet the Family – May.

My son Aiden is 10 years old and his Korean name is Tae Ra Oh.

Aiden loves his family. Once a week, our family members make time to all gather and eat together. Aiden loves the time spent being together. That might be a reason why Aiden has such a warm heart and loves to care for other people. Even when we had an electrician fix the electricity in our house, Aiden gave him water and snacks.

Aiden enjoys swimming and watching TV. He is an outstanding singer as well, which gets him perfect scores in music on his report card. Aiden’s teachers at school say that he seems to be talented in science so I am thinking about sending him to a science camp this summer. Sometimes it gets difficult when I see the hyperactive activities happening, but overall, I am just grateful for his well-being.

Aiden is in elementary school now but as Aiden goes to middle school and high school, I am very curious as to what new world will unfold along with some feelings of fright. As a mother, I try to help with my child’s important transition and I think many times “Aren’t there teachers or support to help me with the parts that I don’t know about?”. That is why I am participating in parent education seminars to get as much information possible. I am also participating in CIDA’s Volunteer Advocacy Project (VAP).

What I’ve learned recently was that at a child’s school, you can receive meaningful educational benefit and individualized assessment fitting to the child but also measure the progress monitoring. I think that having this knowledge can be a tool for empowering families with children with disabilities.

Every time I go to attend an IEP meeting, I am afraid of what to say to these school officials during the meeting. However, it is important to have a good relationship with the teacher for my child, so every time I attend a school event, I try to talk to the teachers.

If there was one thing I hope to see from CIDA… Mothers with children with disabilities often have feelings of discouragement or feelings of being disconnected from society because these mothers are put into situations of solving problems on their own. With thoughts of wishing someone would just pull me out of this situation, I think it would be great if there were other moms who could openly share the same mind with me. I believe that mothers need the support as well. With people who share the same mind, I have many thoughts of coming together in “our own space.” I hope we can continue to have such opportunities through CIDA.