If you read one book about parenting special needs children this year...this one is IT! The Elephant in the Playroom is a compilation of essays written by parents of children with special needs, and eloquently compiled by Denise Brodey, editor in chief of Fitness magazine, and mom to a son with sensory integration dysfunction. Ms Brodey has captured the very essence of life as the parent of a “special” kid. I found myself laughing, crying and furiously... more

I mentioned last week that I’m reading a new book by Anne Ford, called “On Their Own.” Chapter six, in the book, deals with the friends and relationships of your Learning Disabled Child. Reading this book is making me feel rather naïve about learning disabilities. I keep coming across scenarios, that I have lived through either with our foster children or our adopted children, which I didn’t realize were signs of being learning disabled.

Our teenage daughter C came to live with us when she was 15 years old. We helped... more

I’m reading a new book by Anne Ford, called On Their Own. In the first few chapters, she has been addressing her learning disabled daughter’s adulthood. Not a day goes by that she doesn’t speak to her daughter, now 34 years old. Not a day goes by that she isn’t prepared to intervene in her disabled daughter’s life, if necessary.

While I frequently wonder what the future holds for my daughter with FAS, I readily admit that I hadn’t thought about parenting her into her 30s and beyond. At least I hadn’t thought about it until I... more

Yesterday in the mail, I received my summer 2007 copy of "Buckner Today", so I obligingly flipped through the pages. The photo of a beautiful baby caught my eye probably because it was accompanied by the words Buckner Orphan Writes Her Story.

The beautiful baby in the photo was a girl, just five months old, sitting up, and smiling. The story went on to say that, she was determined to be unadoptable at the time because she had an eye with a deformity. Since no family would consider adopting such a defective child, she... more