Back to school doesn’t have to be stressful. Summer break is a time to relax, unwind, and refresh. Now that you and your children have (hopefully) had a chance to do that, we offer some ideas for getting back into…
Category: Special Needs Family (page 14)
Back to School, Second Stage: Settling in for the Long Term
Once a new school year isn’t quite so new, students and parents often discover new problems. The fresh routine becomes a rut. The syllabus looks as impossible as emptying the ocean with a teaspoon. The new friends turn unfriendly at…
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…
School Assistance and Free Lunches: Programs Born in the COVID Era
Read Time 5 Minutes In 2020, as COVID-19 outbreaks forced education online, it became painfully obvious how heavily many families depended on in-person schooling. Among the federal assistance programs originated in 2020–21 were a number specifically designed to bridge the…
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…
Emotional Support Dogs (And Other Emotional Support Animals)
Read Time 5 Minutes Service dogs have been around for over a century (or much longer than that, if you count “unofficial” service dogs that have been trained by individuals since early domestication days); but the concept of Emotional Support…
Getting the Word Out: How You Can Help Others Find Affordable Digital Access
Read Time 2 Minutes As discussed in our recent post, “Library Hotspots and Lift Zones,” lack of reliable high-speed internet is an educational, economic, and vocational disadvantage. Fortunately, there are many options for getting advanced digital access on a limited…
A Brief History of Service Dogs | National Dog Month
Read Time 3 Minutes In honor of National Dog Month, BridgingApps dedicates this post to all hardworking service dogs past and present. Working dogs have been part of human civilization for thousands of years. Once upon a time, a wolf…
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…