Empowering New Development

The development of new social programming is crucial to the special needs community. There is currently a social gap between teens with and without disabilities. Teens with disabilities face isolation every day in schools, because they are not mixed in with their NT peers. Teens are also unaware of how to interact with special peers, so most choose to ignore since they were never taught properly. Teens with special needs are never given the opportunity to socialize with their nt peers and are given labels, which prevents them from any form of socialization. This leaves a large amount of the community with a sense of isolation. There are many social programs with therapists and other kids who have disabilities, but there are very few that involve nt peers. It is important that social programs involve NT peers because this type of model will help eliminate societal labeling, and will also bridge the social gap in society.