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

Our Partners in Policymaking session last weekend was led by Bruce Anderson of Community Activators. Bruce is an insightful trainer, who leads all types of social entities (agencies, non-profits, corporations, organizations) through exploring how to strengthen their organization and the individual members of their organization by recognizing their own gifts and finding gifts in others. The overall goal is to change/recharge communities.

One of the main vehicles for strengthening communities that Bruce promotes is storytelling.... more

I felt pretty hopeless yesterday, reading about all the families of children with disabilities around me being cheated out of educations a their public schools…or worse, being punished for seeking an education for their children (or the children being abused and traumatized themselves).

The sadness that sets in when I hear these stories is overwhelming.

But today I found inspiration in a speech given by Bill Gates to the graduating class at Harvard last June. (Many thanks to Kelly for posting about Mariska... more

I received one of those unsolicited emails that I nearly deleted without opening yesterday. Something made me open it, I’m not sure what, but I’m really glad I did. Because I found this terrific game that you can download free and print on your home computer. The game board is a little flimsy on printer paper; however, you could glue it onto cardboard.

It is called “Welcome to Stump Your Family!” It's a fun downloadable board... more

Do you ever struggle with yourself over being a good parent versus being a bad parent? For example, if your child really wants to play soccer and you can’t afford it, or can’t transport because of your work hours, so you don’t let your child play, do you feel like a bad parent?

I find myself in this type of quandary about some discipline issues with my special needs children. Do I use the same discipline with them that I use with our average children? If I do, is it fair to them, considering their mental disabilities? If I don’t use the... more

How many times have you read through a description of either a waiting child, or a pregnant mother who is consider placing a child for adoption, and wondered…What do all of these abbreviations mean? I remember when we were new perspective adoptive parents, PAPs, we were very confused about the meanings of all the initials. In fact, we probably wasted the time of some adoption professionals, by checking into situations that we would not be able to consider, because we didn’t know the code.

Please share this list with anyone you know who is... more

My oldest daughter has accused me of wanting others to think I am a martyr. According to her, I’m writing about the issues, we have dealt with over the years with our special needs children; so that others can read about it and think I am a really great parent. She vented at length about my writing, and then reminded me of all my faults.

First, I acknowledged her pain and her anger and gave her the right to own it. She has feelings and I have no right to deny her feelings. If I were to argue with her about her feelings, then I would risk alienating... more

If you’ve ever studied Love and Logic philosophy you’ll remember that you’re supposed to give the child two choices and you’re supposed to be just as happy with either choice. Therefore do not give the child a choice that you’re not willing to accept. For example, if you said to the child; you can either take a shower or take a bath, which would you prefer? Then you’ve given the child two choices both of which accomplish the same goal and make you, the parent, happy. However, it you said to the child; you can either... more

I realize that lying is a normal stage in a child’s development. They all seem to go through it somewhere between five and nine years old from what I’ve seen. I guess it’s one of those signs of maturing, when they realize they can think for themselves and manipulate the world around them. They can exert their independence by not letting their parents or other significant adults know everything their thinking or doing.

Children raised in a chaotic unpredictable environment during infancy when their supposed to learn... more