Friendly’s helps kids find Friends Who Care
by Patricia
Thanks to the Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, Easter Seals has been able to update and re-design our free disability awareness curriculum for teachers and parents.
FRIENDS WHO CARE® is an interactive educational program designed to help children understand what it means and how it feels to be a young person with a disability. The program shows kids how their peers with autism and other disabilities adapt to live life, go to school, make friends and play.
The goals of the program are simple: to encourage typically developing children to accept their peers with disabilities as people first, and to find ways to include everyone in school and after-school activities. And best of all: it’s free!
FRIENDS WHO CARE® was originally developed in 1990 with a grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities. Now, thanks to sponsorship from our long-time partner, the Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, Easter Seals has significantly updated the resource and we’re re-introducing the FRIENDS WHO CARE® curriculum just in time for the new school year.
The curriculum explores a range of disabilities and includes specially-crafted learning activities, hands-on exercises, guided discussions and guest guidelines. It starts with an introduction to disabilities, and looks at vision, hearing and physical disabilities and then at learning disabilities — including a new section on autism, ADHD and intellectual disabilities. When students gain a better appreciation of what it means to live with autism or some other disability, they are more accepting of their classmates who have those disabilities. Our hope is that children quickly realize, “Kids with disabilities can be my friends, too!”
Download theFRIENDS WHO CARE® curriculum for free and check it out for yourself. The fun, colorful components can all be downloaded separately for use at home or in the classroom.