Author Archives: Beth

Beth is a mother of three, happily married, Canadian, and working for the government full time. Her youngest daughter, Precious, has a global developmental disability. The family keeps themselves busy with piano lessons, swimming, school, work, gymnastics, skating and hockey.

Happy Mother’s Day

When I became a mother in 2002, I truly felt transformed. The birth of my son was an empowering experience; primal and intense and painful, but giving birth to him and becoming a mother for the first was truly the most incredible moment in my life. Having my second child in 2003, at home, and…

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Respite

Last weekend being the long Easter weekend, my sister-in-law had invited me to go shopping in the States. The exchange rate is in our favour right now (I’m in Canada) and the prices at the outlet mall we were planning to hit are always good. My son who turns 9 today started going on a…

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Connecting

DH and I met a lovely woman at the support group we attended last fall. Her son is similar in age to Precious and has a similar diagnosis; mild developmental disability. I emailed Steph a month or so ago and she, her husband and her son came over and hung out with our family for…

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The School Board

We’ve been working hard over the last month to get Precious into the right placement next year in Grade One. We got all our paperwork done and submitted it before the deadline and asked that she be placed in a special class at a nearby  school. The local school team was amazing and they really…

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Being The Other One

I just finished reading Kate Strohm’s book Being the Other One: Growing Up with a Brother or Sister Who Has Special Needs. When I told a co-worker a couple of years ago about my daughter having special needs, she said “My friend’s sibling had a disability and as soon as she was old enough, she…

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It’s Official

After 5 years, innumberable doctor’s, therapist’s and specialist’s appointments, blood tests, x-rays, MRIs and on and on, Precious is no longer “developmentally delayed with a suspected developmental disability” but is officially developmentally disabled (aka ‘MR’) and we have the psychologist’s report to prove it. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the results, but I cried…

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Adults with Special Needs

We went to the maple sugar bush this week as it was March Break for the kids. Part of the attraction of this particular sugar bush is the all-you-can-eat breakfast and the small farm they have with a pig, some sheep, a goat, a cow and some chickens. We headed out early on Thursday morning…

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Learning her ABC’s

This winter, Precious was seen by a new occupational therapist (OT) after going almost 18 months without seeing one. She had four different OT’s during the first four years of life and they focused on self-care skills like teaching her to put on her shoes, do up her zippers, feed herself and use the toilet….

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My Favourite Labels

She’s my Precious. Or Goo-Goo. Or Googles. Sweets. Cutie Pie. Cutie Patootie. For all the labels our kids with special needs are given, these are my favourite ones for my littlest girl. Beth P.S. Favourite is spelled the Canadian way as I am Canadian.

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Got My Back Up

On Thursday, we had a great meeting with Precious’ occupational therapist, physical therapist and vice principal. By ‘we’, I mean me, as DH was flat on his back; a victim of the same virus that has been plaguing our family for the last 4 weeks. Precious’ teacher and her speech and language pathologist were both…

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