Special Needs Archives - Page 17 of 22

Include Classmates Who Have Special Needs

Sep 06 2012

My child is different. Her genetics make it so. Due to a random stroke of fate, a chunk of her DNA is missing. Nobody knows why. But old friends don’t search for what is missing. They just see what’s right there in front of them—the joyful light surrounding this happy girl. They love her big laugh and even bigger hugs. They embrace her mischievous streak of curiosity. They accept her just as she is. But new friends, some adults and children, hesitate. “What’s wrong with her?” they ask in hushed voices…which we can totally hear by the way. There is nothing wrong with her. She may have trouble communicating succinctly. She might stumble over her words or repeat herself, but she has something to say. She wants to contribute to the conversation. She doesn’t always understand when you’re making fun of her or that you’re leaving her out, but as she gets older, she is more aware. When your child, with a disability or not, comes home from school in tears because they had nobody to play with at recess, it stings. She doesn’t need to be invited to everything. (Side Note: Number of parties she was[…]

Apr 14 2012

We all want our daughters to have a voice. I need my daughter to have one. I won’t always be around to speak for her – to explain to others why she may not understand, or to make her understood. Before my daughter was born, deep down I worried there was something wrong. All the prenatal testing indicated she was fine, but sometimes a mother just knows. When she was born, and I held her in my arms, I saw only perfection. I still do. We soon discovered our girl was special. In fact, she’s so unique there isn’t a name for her particular syndrome. She has come miles further than we were told she could. Her future is bright, yet shadowed by developmental and medical challenges. Our daughter doesn’t understand the rude looks or ignorant questions. A stranger’s comment about her “walking funny” results in a carefree smile. Teasing, from a neighbourhood kid earns him a giggle. One day, she will understand and feel the sting of hurtful words and actions. The most important thing I can do to prepare her is to help her to find her voice. My girl is a mess of blonde curls, big brown eyes and pouty pink lips. She’s beautiful. People want[…]

Mar 23 2012

My husband helped run a March Break Sports Camp, which our son attended. They brought home some truly wonderful father/son memories but also, some weird bronchial virus. A week later Avery caught it. Her soft voice was soon replaced by what we call her “Jazz Singer” voice. My initial fear was that she had Cholera. What? She had been playing in the yard, frolicking and splashing in stagnant pond water. I thought maybe she had ventilated some bacteria. Sigh. I tend to jump to the most extreme circumstances. It was just a virus. Mind you, a temperature of 105 is something to be taken seriously. Also, when your child has a seizure disorder, any illness suddenly becomes extra alarming. What if this fever triggers another seizure? What if it’s a big one? These are thoughts that never go away once you’ve experienced the worst. So whenever Avery is sick, we follow protocol. Daddy ships out of our bedroom and Avery moves in with me, and I assemble the “Medi Ready Over-Night Kit” — a plastic shoebox filled with supplies including: pre-dosed meds (because who can read the dosage in the middle of the night?), pen and paper to write[…]

Mar 07 2012

March 7th, 2012 is Spread The Word To End The Word Day, part of a campaign started by The Special Olympics to educate people about the offensive nature of derogatory terms like “retard.” I signed the pledge and proudly display the badge on my blog. I’ve written about my feelings about the r-word and many others have blogged about it too. It boggles my mind that people (some who I’ve quietly un-friended online) continue to use the word, in jest. It’s not funny. The r-word is “hate speech.” End of story. Love that Max (written by Ellen Seidman) is a favourite link on my blog roll. In a recent post, Would You Call My Child A Retard Ellen offers up some of the idiotic comments people have made in defensive of using the word retarded. Unbelievable. In answer to your question, Ellen… ….no. I would not call your child a retard. I would call him Max. And it breaks my heart to think somebody would look at my child and without even knowing her, call her retarded. Her name is Avery. This is Ellen’s video. Please watch.

Jan 11 2012

My girl likes to potty all the time, potty all the time, potty all the tah-hime! Well, NOW she does anyway. For the first 51/2 years of her life she wasn’t on board with the whole toilet sitch. Potty training ANY child takes time and patience and patience. Did I mention patience? Potty training a child with developmental delays is even more “special.” I wrote about past Herculean efforts to get this girl out of diapers and into some stylin’ Dora underpants here (tricks like these generally work wonders for most kids). Alas we tried, we failed, and we did a sh*t load of laundry. She just wasn’t ready. Over the Christmas holidays we tried again. This time instead of sinking into the bowels of hell, we were triumphant. It’s slightly ridiculous, but here’s what worked: We choose a quiet week where we would be at home most of the time. I told Avery there were lots of babies who needed diapers and asked if it would be okay to give them hers? Of course, she said NO! This girl has a serious Pull-Up addiction. When I hid her diapers anyway, she tore the house apart looking for them.[…]

Category - Special Needs

Include Classmates Who Have Special Needs

Her Voice

Honk, Honk

The R-Word

Use These Potty Training Incentives To Achieve Toiletting Triumph