For your final Application this week, you have a choice of interviewing an adult family member of a child with special needs or a person (an older student or adult) with special needs.

To complete this Application, do the following:

Plan: Choose a person to interview. Explain that the purpose of the interview is to help you better understand the strengths and challenges of people with special needs and their families. Here are additional tips to help plan for your interview:

• Confirm the best way to conduct the interview – face to face, by phone, or by e-mail. Agree on a date and time. Be sure you have the correct phone number or e-mail address, as well as permission to do the interview.
• Ask the age and category(ies) of special needs of the person you are speaking with, or of the child in the family, to help you prepare for the interview.
• If you are interviewing a family member, review the readings from this week and other related readings from the course.
• Review information about the relevant category(ies) of special needs. Pay particular attention to overgeneralizations and stereotypes that you do not want to bring to the conversation.
• If you plan to tape-record the interview, test your recorder to be sure it works.