Rules By: Cynthia Lord

How would you feel if your sibling had a disability? There are a lot of people with brothers or sisters that have disabilities. I wonder how they deal with having a family member or friend with a disability? There are too many bullies that hurt the feelings of the child with a disability. In the book Rules by Cynthia Lord the main character Catherine has a brother with autism that she has to babysit all summer. She has made rules for him so it is easier for David to listen and easier for Catherine to take care of him. She is hoping that he learns something from these rules so that he won't be as hard to take care of. People should learn more about how kids feel when they have a sibling with a disability.

Catherine has gone through a lot considering that she has a brother with special needs. David is a very smart little boy; he just needs help from his family and friends sometimes though. Many kids that have brothers or sisters with a disability get bullied and that is not right. People that have a disability are usually born with the disability so it is something they can’t help. The bullies sometimes call the kids “retards” which is a really mean word to say. The word retard is a word that you don’t want to be called. Many people get their feelings hurt when they hear it. It is especially offensive to the special needs students that know the word. Retard really means “slow”. The kids that may be mentally retarded are just slow at learning things like math or reading. It isn’t supposed to mean anything mean, but the way bullies use it, makes it sound like a terrible word.

I have a friend that has a brother with a disability. My friend’s brother that is disabled has had numerous surgeries and it is hard to have your close family member go through many surgeries. If you have a disabled brother, would you get mad when other people pick on them? Will you stick up for him? I wonder how it feels to have a family member that is disabled. My mom was a special ed teacher, so I understand that you should treat them like they are like normal kids, because they are normal people but people act like they aren’t. Having a child with a disability is really hard for many parents, especially when they are inexperienced. It is really nice when kids treat the disabled kids like they are their friends.

In conclusion people should be very nice to kid with disabilities. Catherine in the book Rules was a very good sister being able to take care of her little brother. It would be very difficult to have a family member with a disability so she is a very brave girl.