Not that long ago, bullying among kids was treated as just one of those things you have to “learn to live with.” Kids who complained were called oversensitive. Parents who complained on their children’s behalf were labeled overprotective. And for…
Category: Special Needs Family (page 12)
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…
Retired Service Dogs
For the disability-affected person who seeks companionship along with practical assistance, the service dog is far superior to any inanimate tool. But though it’s a hard fact to face with any companion animal, a service dog is also likely to…
The World of Cerebral Palsy
Today’s post is dedicated to World Cerebral Palsy Day, Thursday, October 6. Cerebral palsy is one of those disabilities that everyone has heard of but few (outside of the 17 million families who personally live with it) really understand. Ask…
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…
Hearing Loss: The Most Isolating Disability
“The problems of deafness are deeper and more complex … than those of blindness. Deafness … means the loss of the most vital stimulus—the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thoughts astir and keeps us in [human] intellectual…
Parenting Special Needs Magazine | Tech Tools for Growing Up
The new issue of Parenting Special Needs Magazine is here! Our article, “Tech Tools for Growing Up”, contains tools for caregivers of teens and young adults to help make the transition from childhood to adulthood a little easier to navigate. Perhaps you and…
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…
Staying Healthy with a Disability
Do “disability” and “healthy” sound mutually exclusive? They shouldn’t be. An impairment to one physical or mental function doesn’t render the whole body useless: if anything, other functions become more effective as they’re exercised to compensate. Still, if the person…