Are you sending your special needs child off to a week of summer camp? It will be a week of fun and adventure for your child no doubt. It should be an enjoyable week for you, the parents, as well. You and possibly other family members get a well-needed break from your child’s constant special needs. Summer camp can be an inexpensive alternative to respite care. You don’t feel like you are punishing your child, or getting away from your child when summer camp is the destination. You can feel good about the situation all the way around. Are there ways you can help your special needs... more

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) usually affects infants and children under 10 years old. It is a viral illness that is considered moderately contagious and last for 7 to 10 days. Like most viral illnesses, there is not a specific cure, nor is there a vaccine to prevent infection. The number of cases has been growing in parts of Asia since March of 2008. In China, the number of cases seemed to peak in May at 176,000 confirmed cases of HFMD. In June, China reported less than 4,000 cases a day. Hong Kong had only report 100 cases as of July 2. Taiwan confirmed... more

If you have adopted a child, who seems to be delayed in language skills do not delay in seeking treatment. If your child is under the age of three years, early-on services may be available for your child free of charge. Private insurance companies may pay for speech therapy for children between three and five years. Once children reach school age, speech and language services are available free of charge through the local public school district. The school district must provide these services even if your child is not enrolled in public school. However, you will need to... more

If you haven’t already made your summer camp reservations for your children then you had better get started. Many of the best summer camps are already filled up for prime weeks and placing children on waiting lists, incase someone cancels. Some of the specialty camps may only offer one or two weeks to choose from over the entire summer making those spots more difficult to come by. Recently, I came across a list of summer camps available throughout the continental United States for children and adults with communication disorders.... more

I am guilty. I admit to running out of children’s Motrin in the past and just giving my child half of an adult tablet. My thinking, like so many parents, was that children need the same medicine as adults, just in smaller doses, because they are smaller. However, that is not always the case. Some medications affect children much differently than they affect adults. When it comes to giving our children medications, we need to remember that they are not just miniature adults.

If you are fostering children, or if a child is placed with you, but not yet adopted, you need... more

If your child has diabetes then his or her blood sugar levels are too high. High blood sugar can damage nerves or blood vessels over time. That nerve damage can result in burning pain or cause your child to lose sensitivity in body parts such as the feet. Because of lost sensitivity, your child may not feel a cut, blister, or sore. Ulcers and infections can result from these untreated foot injuries. Your child’s feet may eventually not get enough blood or oxygen due to... more

One thing is for certain, I would have failed the test of loving LuLu is I hadn’t really loved myself first.

I’ve written before about agape love and love being an action word…and how hard it is to love unlovable kids. But, to really be able to survive learning how to love a child with challenges (especially if they are extreme and manifest themselves in behaviors), you have to first truly LOVE yourself. There is very little room for self-doubt and low self-esteem in parenting... more

I am by no means an expert on children’s grief. But, having been through a family death recently (and the loss of three of LuLu’s grandparents in the decade she’s been in our family), I can offer you the insights I have for dealing with special needs children and their responses to death…or at least MY special needs child and HER responses to death.

Keep in mind that our children will each respond as differently as we do. Some people cry, some are angry, some don’t want to talk about it and some want to talk about it non-stop. Our children’s responses are really... more

Parents of special needs children are always swimming in uncharted waters. And when it comes to the topic of death and grief, we don’t get a pass on that either. I was reminded of just how “goofy” LuLu’s grief appears when another mother was describing her son’s reaction to a recent death in their lives. It seems that a teenager who participates in the same sporting league as her son (son is much younger) died recently.

Her son’s reaction to this news was all over the place emotionally. I can relate. The most frustrating (and appalling, if you’re not ready... more

As an adoptive parent who started out as a foster parent, I frequently wondered if a specific child’s behavior was normal or age appropriate. I had many long discussions with caseworkers assigned to my children about their behaviors and the possible causes. Over the 14 years we have been foster parents, Super Dad and I have racked up literally hundreds of training hours on special needs subjects like lying, stealing, and passive-aggressive behaviors, which has not helped in answering this question. I was reminded of this question the other day when I read Faith’s blog about, “... more