Thanks to BridgingApps team members, Cathy Foreman (Special Projects) and Marjorie Reichard (Project Manager), for contributing personal perspectives to the following article. Over 9 percent of people in the U.S. have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is a challenge…
Category: Caregiver (page 5)
“High-Functioning”: Blessing or Curse?
You may have heard of “high-functioning alcoholics”—people who work steady jobs and seem immaculate in public, but become cranky and ill at home if they miss a regular dose of wine. If someone hints their drinking is “a bit much,”…
Home Emergency Preparation for the Special-Needs Household
This post is dedicated to October as Fire Prevention Month. Emergency preparation is an essential that too few people are proactive about. One Liberty Mutual survey found that fewer than 3 in 10 families had ever had a home fire…
When It’s Your Turn to Make Reasonable Accommodations
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, anyone with a disability has the right to “reasonable accommodations“–modifications to public and work environments as required for equal participation in everyday activities. A few examples: employee handbooks in audio form; captions or a…
Prenatal-Diagnosed Disabilities: Expecting and Raising a Child with Special Needs
September is Newborn Screening Awareness Month—but in modern obstetrics, much screening takes place weeks or months before the birth. Pregnancy has always been a time of extensive preparation—and of learning that things never go according to script. Not even when…
Make the First Five Count
Life inevitably includes unwelcome surprises; and for parents, among the most dreaded surprises is hearing that their baby isn’t as physically and mentally “perfect” as hoped. But if this happens to you, don’t let anyone tell you that your child’s…
Polypharmacy: Too Much of a (Usually) Good Thing
(This article is partly adapted from “Polypharmacy: What Is It and Are You at Risk?,” a workshop presented by Jay Gupta at the Houston 2022 Abilities Expo.) Polypharmacy: the simultaneous use of multiple drugs by a single patient, for one…
Counting Disability as a Blessing
Read Time 5 Minutes “It’s not the ‘challenge’ of having a child with special needs. It’s the privilege of having a kid with special needs.” –Alan Roesch, father of a teenager with neurological disabilities Whether a disability is diagnosed before…
Special Needs and Unwanted Surprises: Dealing with Last-Minute Disruptions in an Uncertain World
Read Time 5 Minutes If there’s anything worse than having your plans spoiled, it’s having plans spoiled when they include someone who has autism or Down syndrome, who never heard the unspoken “circumstances permitting” behind “we’ll go to the beach…
BridgingApps Reviewed App | If I Need Help
BridgingApps just published the following BridgingApps Reviewed App on the site: If I Need Help is a free web-based app (and mobile friendly) that allows family members and caregivers, to create a customized wearable QR code linked to an individual…