Disability Resources for Families

Teaching Your Child about Peers with Disabilities. What better day than today to publish this post. Today is the first day of Developmental Disabilities Awareness month. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that…

Kids and Self Esteem All children are different and unique in their own ways, but one thing that all children have in common is the need for love and acceptance. When a child feels like they are not good enough, it can be difficult for them to succeed in life. Many of our kids have…

Special Needs Sports Programs An often overlooked area of our kids’ lives is their recreation time. As parents, we spend so much time worrying about their health, worrying about IEPs and education, that there isn’t much time or energy left for recreation time. The sentiment is starting to change on this topic. Many schools and…

ARFID “Mom, I don’t want another ham and cheese sandwich for lunch.” “Well, you don’t eat anything else for lunch. Give me something else to put in your lunchbox, and I’ll do it.” And so began our journey with ARFID. A few quick facts about ARFID. Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Was renamed in DSM…

Google Organization Apps Let’s face it, when you have a disabled child, Moms and Dads become caseworkers. I’ve never seen one person, let alone a child, generate so much paperwork. Then you add in annual IEP dates, annual and biennial medical appointments, biannual evaluation dates, MA renewal, Rx renewals….it’s exhausting and overwhelming at times. But,…

Cellulitis from a Bug Bite Can you get cellulitis from a mosquito bite? Cellulitis from an insect bite? In a word, yes! It’s happened to us. Twice! Despite our snow squalls here in PA yesterday, I have seen mosquitoes already this year. My son has always had the worst time with bug bites, fly bites,…

Disability Moms Yesterday I had a lovely phone conversation with someone whose child was recently diagnosed with a disability. We have mutual friends who referred her to me. She’s been having a bit of a struggle just finding a group that she feels comfortable with as far as our different parenting. I think we all…

Easy Fundraisers for Schools It’s back to school time, and I swear, every time I turn around, I’m writing another check for this or that. I only have 2 kids, I don’t know how larger families do it, or those with less income. You want to help, right? But we cannot support every fundraiser that…

Disabled Child Grandparenting Disabled Child Grandparenting? That’s a phrase you never heard even 20 years ago. Now, grandparents want to know. It’s their nature to want to help. So how do you involve your extended family in disability parenting? Paying attention to grandparents and other extended family members, as it pertains to having a disabled…

Buying a Home While Disabled Buying a home while disabled may feel impossible but here are 11 programs available to help you. I’ve compiled a list of various state and federal resources that may help you buy a home if you are disabled. I was recently asked this question. “Are there any programs that can…

Chester County Special Education Omigosh, if I had a nickel for every time I was asked this! Ok, this is not the answer you want to hear. But I cannot in good conscience make a recommendation for you. I’m sorry. I’ve thought this over for a few days and even consulted with some good friends….

Wraparound Services As I’ve navigated my way through the disability community over the past fifteen years, I’ve noticed a trend. That is, NO ONE TELLS YOU ANYTHING! Don’t get me wrong, if you ask, you usually are helped. At least that has been my experience. But how do you even know what to ask for?…

Pets in the Classroom Pets in the classroom are now easy for every teacher to get. The benefits students receive just by having a pet in their own classroom are life-changing. I’m going to share with you how to get one for free. “Nothing else that blinks!” That used to be my household rule. Nothing…

Calming Classroom Decor Look, I love teachers. They are totally underappreciated and the whipping boy for “all things bad” with society and schools. But classroom decor? Yikes! Lots of room for improvement based on some of the classrooms I’ve been in. And, attending IEP meetings all over the Philadelphia region, I’m in a lot of…

AngelSense My friend and fellow advocate Susan loves to tell this story. One morning she woke up and her son was gone. He is autistic and has limited speaking ability. Before panic was able to set in, a neighbor called to say they had found him. He was sitting on their living room couch. It…

Taking your Disabled Child to the Dentist On a good day, with a non-disabled person with no communication issues and no dental issues, we still dread going to the dentist. Add in some communication issues, sensory issues, autism, feeding an, swallowing issues, noise and pain thresholds that are different, and it can be an absolute…

How to Talk to Children about Death “Mommy, can people die from surgery?” I’ve answered that question about 1000x in the past 2 months. Or one similar to it, just switch out that last word to something else. Lately, my non-disabled child is somewhat obsessed with death. It doesn’t appear to be affecting him in…

Vaccines Just saying the word Vaccines makes some people uncomfortable because they know a debate will ensue. This is something that I’ve been wanting to share for quite some time, just never had the motivation or purpose to do so. Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed by it, and I’ll get into that in a bit. I’m…

How to Create a Medical Care Binder I need to do a Care Binder. This is long overdue. I’m traveling across the country in 2 weeks to speak at a conference. I’ve never left Kevin alone since his epilepsy started. And guess what?!? Pretty much his entire plan and his medical records are in my…

Weighted Calming Plush Toys We tried the whole weighted blanket thing. And, I did an entire separate article on how my weighted blanket caused pain for me. Extreme pain. However, I still believe in and enjoy the concept of weighted items having a calming effect for anxiety, autism, etc. I really wanted to have something…

Direct Language We live in a sarcastic society. We also live in a society that uses clichés, innuendos, double entendre and other literary license. Even when it’s not in literature, these components have permeated our spoken language. But some kids need direct language, all the time. If you do not struggle with language processing, you…

Pet Therapy Programs “Is that a therapy dog?” The good news–more and more, we (society) are better understanding the human/animal bond, and using it to make progress or make things accessible. The bad news–there is more confusion than ever as far as what is a therapy pet, a service pet and so on. Before having…

OSEP Dear Colleague Letters Parents, here is another great tool for your advocacy toolkit. And yes, another issue that was brought to my attention in our Facebook group. Sometimes I forget what it is like to be an IEP newbie. So when a parent asked, “What’s an OSEP guidance letter?” I knew I had to…

How to Teach Kindness and Empathy Research shows that teens today are 40% less empathetic than they were thirty years ago (Dr. Michele Borba), and 62% of Americans say kids are less kind than they were in the past (NBC News State of Kindness Poll, 2015). And, for us special needs moms, that scares the…

Parenting a Disabled Child This has been an issue that’s been on my mind lately due to a few things I’ve read and encountered. As usual, I’m trying to organize it in my head and not having as much success as I’d like. I preemptively apologize for rambling. I’ve been thinking about money, finances, time,…

Swim Diaper for Adults This has been a huge struggle and colossal waste of money for us. Finding an adult swim diaper for an older child that really work. And that fit Kevin well. Kevin has really skinny legs, so it was a challenge to find swim pants that were snug around his legs. Well,…

Sepsis and Children I’m a worrier. It’s my nature. Having a disabled child, and one who is both non-verbal and medically complex only exacerbates my worrying. In the past 15 years, I have actually known two people who have died of sepsis. I mean, I know thousands more have, but these were people who I…

Medical Assistance PA When I moved from Canada to the Philadelphia area, I was a bit confused as to what services I could receive for my children. There were very little resources out there provided to my family regarding my children’s disabilities and the support that was offered was scarce. No one told me about…

Easy Daily Routines “Come ON! You’re going to miss the bus!” you scream up the stairs. Or, you answer another barrage of the same questions-Where’s my backpack? Mom, I can’t find my other shoe! Mom, I told you that we were supposed to wear BLUE today, and I don’t have anything clean that is BLUE!…

All About Me Worksheet Sending any young child out into the world is scary. Meeting new teachers can be nerve-wracking for kids, and for moms. Additionally, if we throw in some medical concerns, safety concerns and communication issues, and sometimes its a wonder how we do this. There’s also a pretty high turnover rate in…

Flu Warning Signs Extra worries about the flu this year, right? But so far, due to social distancing, flu numbers are low. Still, when you have young children or kids who are non-verbal, you might be wondering what flu warning signs to look for. During this stressful time, you can always call your pediatrician and…

For the Newly Diagnosed With a Disability. Welcome! None of us expected to be here, but here we are. And I’m here to tell you, that you are still going to have a rich, rewarding, full and enjoyable life. I mean that! Please don’t let anyone suck you down into that world of “perpetual grief.”…

Books About Siblings of Special Needs Children Yesterday was not a great day. It wasn’t terrible, just not great. I picked B up from preschool and was handed his projects and stuff to take home for the week. Among the items was his thankful list. No, I’m not upset that the dogs outrank me on…

Special Needs Adaptive Clothing Accessible and Adaptive Clothing for kids and adults with Special Needs is really having a moment, isn’t it? (and yes, I know that the term Special Needs is being phased out) I bought my son some of the Target onesies and I’ve been quite pleased with them. We got them because…

Work for People with Disabilities We vote with our dollars. When you buy something, you aren’t just saying that you like or need the product. You are also saying you support their corporate philosophy and what they do as a company. As parents raising disabled children, we need to band together and vote with our…

Early Intervention IDEA Part C Kevin is my first born. Like many new moms with internet access, I was um, shall we say ‘hypervigilant’ about his infancy and development. One of the first milestones that parents look forward to is rolling over at 3 months. And yep, you guessed it, he missed it. I frequently…

How Many Calories a day to Gain Weight? We spend so much time talking about childhood obesity, we often forget that there is a group of kids out there who need to gain weight. My kid is one of them. What if your child needs to add calories and gain weight? And what if they…