It depends on who you ask...is joining an online parents support group a good thing or not?

For me, online support groups have been a lifesaver. I joined my first one back in 1996, as we began pursuing the idea of adopting a baby from China. At the time I had just spoken with an FCC (Families with Children from China) member whose main advice was "Get thee to the Internet" because you can't easily do an international adoption with out it.

I found his advice to be sound, and before long was on the "APC" (adopt-parent-china) list.... more

Hey all you brainiac moms, I just found another cool website: ScienCentral News. And I found a great article entitled: A Mother’s Touch. The researchers in this study were out to prove (or not) that mothering styles are passed from mothers to children and to figure out if it was a genetic or environmental thing. Guess what they discovered? (Nature or nurture?)

Well, they used rats, not humans.... more

This book caught my eye last night. We stopped by Borders to pick up a last minute summer reading list book for KayKay (school is just around the corner), and this book was on the new hardbacks table.

I was reminded of the book again this morning when reading what fellow blogger, Sandra, on the Older Parent Blog had to say about Helicopters... more

I was reading another great article from Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building a Connection last night. This time it was an article written by my friend, and fellow adoptive mom, Nancy Hemenway about adjusting to adopting a child who has special needs that you didn't know about.

Nancy's daughter and LuLu share some disabilities and others they do not. But in many ways we are living parallel lives. So, as I read about the process that Nancy's family went through to not only adjust to the reality of parenting a special needs child, but to appreciate and embrace it, I could definitely relate. Nancy describes her daughter... more

Already this week I've had three moms contact me about ideas for their attachment-disordered child at school. And there are countless more expressing the same concerns on listserves. What is the best placement for my child? What do I tell the teacher and ask her to do about my child's behaviors? How do I simply explain a disorder and issues that can be so complex? What if the school thinks I'm crazy?

This is a tough call. Sending a child with Attachment Disorder to school can prove to be very difficult. However, like I said the earlier... more

It's almost that time again. It's the time when Staples starts doing their back-to-school commercials, and those really crack me up. The listserves I frequent are a flutter with parents seeking others advice on their children's upcoming classroom situations. And inevitably it comes up -- how much should I tell the school about my child's background?

I've always been puzzled by this question and by the thought process that says to not tell the school the child is adopted. This is hard for me to grasp, mostly because there is no way for me... more

Check out the latest issue of Readers' Digest (August 2006) for an article called Boy Wonder by Cammie McGovern. It is a heart-wrenching/heart-warming account of coming to grips with her son's PDD-NOS diagnosis (pervasive developmental delay - not otherwise specified, a variant of autism).

The article is brief, but does cover a variety of ground, mentioning the Thimerosal/CDC vaccine controversy, Gluten/Casein-free diets, and ABA therapy.... more

I was blown away! My copy of Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox. Building a Connection from EMK Press arrived this week. I had been anxiously awaiting it, because now I'm a published author! (I have an article there on internationally adopted children in school. My mom is so proud, believing that I always was the author in the family. I must get an order in for her to have her very own copy.)

But beyond that, I didn't know what to expect. I knew the book would be great just... more

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How many parents experienced the heartache of seeing their child struggle tying their shoelaces and a minute later be totally baffled and awed when the same child comments; the question isn’t if the chicken or egg came first, but the plant or the seed? Or have kids who spend most of their time in resource rooms, special day classes, or sitting in the principal’s office and still score 99% across the board on standardized tests?

How many parents have the pleasure of working side by side with remarkable teachers... more

The listserves I frequent are great sources of encouragement. This week a mom posted the Ode to Special Parents, which she found on this site. I wanted to repost it here because it rang so true for me. And one of the best things we special parents of special kids can know is --- WE'RE NOT ALONE!

Ode to Special Parents by Dave November 12, 2002

How many parents are their child’s legs when they can’t walk, their voice when they can’t speak, their ears when they can’t listen, their hands when they can’t write, their eyes when they can’t read, their... more