In honor of Grandparents Day, I wanted to share this article written by a father of a child with Aspergers about the importance of grandparents' involvement in the lives of children on spectrum.

GRANDPARENT POWER! How Extended Family Can Enhance the Lives of Kids on the Autism Spectrum

By Dan Coulter Copyright 2006 Dan Coulter All Rights Reserved Used By Permission

The word "family" can evoke powerful memories and emotions. Thinking of family recalls the Robert Frost line, "Home is the place where,... more

There is so much to learn about special education -- the procedures and laws are only part of the story. How each school system applies these laws and what services are available differs from state to state, school system to school system.

Many parents find it extremely helpful to network with other parents within their state or school system to learn the specifics. One of the best ways to do this is through email listserves. I'm a member of one in my state, so I went searching for listserves around the country. While I wish there were... more

In Part 1, I shared with you my thoughts about how a child with multiple communication and emotional impairments could truly be “stuck” emotionally as a toddler and pondered how difficult that must be for them not being able to figure out a way out of the tantrumming.

Make no mistake, it is difficult for us parents as well. A screaming toddler is hard enough, but a screaming 8, 9, 10-year-old. Not only is that physically challenging and emotionally... more

One of my listserve buddies (and a truly awesome mom) has been reading this book, The Emotional Life of the Toddler by Alicia F. Lieberman, Ph.D. and posted some information about it to the list yesterday. She is reading it, not because she has a toddler, but because she has an older child with attachment disorder and other emotional, psychological and neurological complications and her daughter appears to be stuck at the emotional age of a toddler.

Her... more

We had a guest preacher at church on Sunday. He spoke on rejoicing...always. He cited Phillipians 4:4-7 as his text, which in addition to saying we are to rejoice always says "Do not be anxious about anything..." Hmmm...that sounds a bit like a direct order from God, perhaps THE direct order I needed to hear this week.

I'll admit it - I have a hard time not being anxious. Gee, wonder what I have to be anxious about? But I, of all people, should know just how futile (and damaging) anxiousness is. I live with the queen of anxiety. Between... more

One of the things that truly makes my heart sing is when I realize that LuLu realizes that someone truly “gets it” what it’s like to be her. Being LuLu’s mom is HARD! But being LuLu herself is so much HARDER! It irritates me when people who interact with LuLu tell me how hard they are trying and how difficult SHE is. Being around LuLu is difficult, but SHE is not difficult. Why do I say this? Because I know she’s not trying to be difficult…she’s trying to deal with the difficulties in her way. That is, by definition, what disabilities... more

Some moms were talking about a book called W.I.S.E Up Powerbook recently. Apparently it's a book for children who have been adopted and about how to deal with the ackward, sometimes rude, questions and comments.

So I thought, based on their recommendations, it was worth checking out.

The W.I.S.E. Up formula offers the options kids are looking for when faced with rude, annoying, or thoughtless questions. It is presented by the main character, W.I.S.E. Owl, an adoption advocate. The book gives options of what to say and what to do in various... more

Ok,

I've heard a lot of ridiculous things this week in my own trials and tribulations. But these two from other parents around the country reminded me that there are countless adoptive parents out there "fighting battles" for their kids. And there are countless "gatekeepers" at bureaucracies whose job it is to deny, deny, deny services and assistance to families in crisis. And sometimes, believe it or not, those people say the darnest things:

One mom from Florida has a daughter adopted internationally who keeps running away. She contacted... more

“Mom, if we didn’t have dyslexia, would we be rich?” Now there’s a question for you! (Read it on an online support group today.) The truth of the matter is that children with special needs often put a true, intense financial burden on their families. Parents scramble to find funding for the many therapies and interventions their child needs. Sometime insurance will cover pieces of it. Sometimes not. Sometimes schools will provide therapies; sometimes not. Sometimes the child qualifies for government assistance; sometimes not.

Parents of children... more

Here are some examples of online support groups. There are basically three types of online support forums:

Email lists. These are sometimes called listserves and are a way for each member to send and receive emails from all the other members. The advantage of listserves is that the conversations come in as emails and are usually set to respond back to the entire group. The disadvantage can be that you receive MANY emails (depending on how active the listserve is). There is usually an option to subscribe to the list as a digest, meaning that you receive a daily email (sometimes more) that is a compilation of several individual emails. Many of these listserve emails... more