What does challenged kid really mean?
I always thought to myself what do people call challenged kids? There are several labels actually:
1- Disabled: I didn't really like this description.. because I've seen these kids having abilities that we don't have, so from their perspective we are disabled as well.. being disabled is very relative..every person has different abilities from others and this is what keeps harmony in life.. so if I can't do anything like climb a mountain, or play the piano or be a working mom, will society label me as disabled? I guess not.. then why call a child who can't walk disabled? He just can't walk like us.. that's all.. he does things differently, like we all do things differently.. a challenged kid might need to read the word 150 times to be able to understand it but in the end he will understand it.. he might need to practice walking for years before he can walk or maybe he won't, he will still find a way to move around..
Tala used to keep stuffing her mouth with food until she chokes on it because the receptors in her mouth didn't send a signal to her brain that it's full, so the brain didn't give her the order to stop putting food. Tala just needed to have small portions of food at a time until she learned how to eat slowly.. i need to Remind her while she's eating that she needs to stop and swallow.. with time she's getting better, this is not a disability on tala's side, this is a privilege that we were lucky to be born with, without working for it like she is working for it.. so I cancelled the word disabled from my dictionary or at least I'm trying

2- abnormal: it's the same as disabled or even worse.. Tala's genetics doctor told me this when I first me him and told him the word abnormal.. he asked me "can you define normal?" What is normal? And who is normal? I thought about this question a lot.. diversity on Earth is what keeps it going, everything is normal the way it is without comparing it to anything else.. every creature on Earth has certain adaptations to be able to survive, these adaptations are normal to each creature.. there will be no harmony in our life if we are all the same.. we won't learn anything if everything is exactly the same.. challenged kids are normal the way they are.. they learn to adapt to their limitations that we create, not them.. A blind child will find a way to survive and live his life, he's normal.. but when we keep telling him you're blind, you can't be like us then we are defying nature, we are being abnormal to deny him the right to try to adapt..and since then I stopped using this word..

3- retarded: I consider this word an insult so I won't even talk about it..

4- Special needs: I used this word a lot and still do sometimes because I got used to it but then I came across a video of Down's syndrome kids talking about why do we call them special needs? I thought to myself "what does Tala need?" She needs to be loved, cared for, needs to play, eat, drink, sleep, go to school, be happy, have friends.. non of the things I listed above are special.. isn't that we all need?
Someone might say but they need facilities, they need special cars , they need ramps.. that's why we call them special needs.. well, I don't think anyone who lives higher than the second floor would argue that an elevator would be awesome.. although he can climb the stairs. But an elevator will make your life easier.. can anyone now survive without a smart phone? I highly doubt.. although it's a luxury but take away smart phones and the internet and the world will stop.. so are we going to say that because we need the internet we have special needs?! We all have needs and some of them are not even essential for survival they are pure luxury.. so when a child needs a ramp to move from one place to the other how dare you call that a special need? Saying a special needs kid is off my list..

5- challenged kid: yes, I love this description.. it's so accurate on so many levels.. a challenged child is not just challenged alone.. he challenges everyone around him.. Tala challenged me to live normal, to accept her, to love her the way she is.. to talk about her without feeling ashamed, to work around her challenges and make our life with her happier than without her.. she challenged our families to embrace us, to work with us in making Tala's life easy and happy.. she's challenging every person reading about her now to spread awareness and reach out to those who are ignorant and in denial of the presence of challenged kids.. she challenged other kids to learn compassion and embrace the differences between one another.. Tala challenged her therapists to work harder and find a way to get her where she should be, find different techniques to capture her attention.. she challenged me as a teacher, she made me question myself "do I give up on my students if they don't understand or rebel or for just being a teenager?"
Challenged kids make you look yourself in the eye and see who you really are.. are you a fighter? Are you compassionate? Do you have the patience and strength to go the extra mile? Are you strong enough to face challenges everyday and still have a smile on your face and have the kindest heart ever like these kids do?
some kids live in constant pain, I've seen them and when I smile at them they smile back.. how do they do that? There are kids who can't control their movements at all so they keep slapping themselves or banging their heads on the wall, but when their moms told them I love you, they would just put their head on her chest and bang on it.. the mother explained to me that that's his way of saying I love you too.. how do they still have the capacity and strength to love? It tore my heart in pieces when I saw this scene but then it made me stronger, more forgiving, more loving.. it challenged me, it challenged my feelings towards a lot of things..
These kids are beautiful, loving, energetic souls put in a body they can't control, a body that doesn't function the way they want it to.. their beautiful souls create the impossible.. they fight and when they don't win, they fight some more.. don't put them down and tell them they can't.. encourage them, love them, make their life easier.. these kids gave me the perfect example of how our bodies are not what matters, it's our soul.. our soul that often gets lost when we start living like machines.. 

God bless all of our children