Finding Dory Gives a Lesson in Perseverance and Special Needs some High-Profile Exposure.

Everyone’s beloved blue tang is back on the big screen 13 years after joining Marlin on a quest to find his missing son. This time however, Dory takes center stage and is not only shedding light on the special needs community but also demonstrating how perseverance can help anyone overcome their unique challenges.

This film takes place 6 months after Marlin and Dory find Nemo. They have just returned back to the reef when Dory begins to have flashbacks regarding how she lost her family. Through this sequence, we realize that Dory was actually born with memory lapse but chose to embrace her uniqueness and maximize each opportunity.

Throughout the flashbacks, we start to notice that her family was aware of Dory’s special needs and that they also showed perseverance by finding creative and fun ways to give her the best life possible. For example, in an effort to teach Dory the life skills necessary to become independent, her parents incorporated tools like: building seashell trails to help her find her way home and role played to show her how to engage with her friends. And when her parents weren’t teaching her these skills, Dory also remembered how they would oftentimes worry about whether or not she would be truly ok on her own.

Because of these flashbacks, Dory’s decides to go on a quest to find her parents once and for all. Throughout her journey, she discovered that her challenges can actual be an advantage instead of a hindrance. Because of Dory’s determination and the help from her friends, who also overcame their own disabilities (e.g. Destiny the nearsighted shark, Hank the seven tentacled octopus), she was equipped with all the skills necessary to navigate throughout the various treacherous waterfronts to finally reunite with her parents.

You may worry for your child like Dory’s parents did. You may also wonder whether they will be ok on their own when they get older. It is a reality that parents will continuously wrestle with. Pixar’s Finding Dory touches on this parental inner turmoil and portrays what acceptance is all about. Finding Dory centralizes on the idea that despite one’s differences or challenges, you can achieve anything as long as you don’t give up and just

keep on swimming.