Category Archives: Communication

Out of the Blue

Are you ever taken by surprise by something your kids say…out of the blue? Today at lunch my daughter started a conversation that surprised me on many levels. She was tuned in, took multiple appropriate turns, answered questions and absorbed complex answers. I will savor this one for a long time: The Child: “Mom, I…

Continue Reading »

Leaping Past the Labels

Monkey is 8 years old and does back handsprings in my living room. Not my favorite place for that, admittedly, but considering as a toddler in foster care she was Failure to Thrive, and that she has Bipolar and Anxiety… I’m just happy she’s doing any leaping at all! Gymnastics and dance get her through…

Continue Reading »

iPod Touch and iPad Apps for Special Needs

In my last post I mentioned how we use an iPod Touch to help Peanut communicate. Dana, a speech pathologist, asked me what apps we have found useful in helping Peanut with her communication. We have found a few apps that we like, but I thought it would be fun to see what everyone else…

Continue Reading »

Language is Amazing

For the most part the child’s language seems pretty typical now, but every once in a while something pops up that just highlights how differently she processes words. The exchange yesterday between the child (age 7) and her little sister (age 3) went something like this… 7 yo: “You Dare!” 3 yo: “I’m not a…

Continue Reading »

You Don’t Know That

Imparting parental wisdom to a child is difficult, but offering advice to those with special needs can be challenging. Using your life experiences, you advise them about possible mistakes. But in their world of absolutes, the response you get from them could be something like … YOU DON’T KNOW THAT.

Continue Reading »

Staying Sane While Raising a Bipolar Child

She stomps out of the room, each firmly-planted step shaking the floor. Tear-stained, she plunges her face into the pillows on her bed, where she screams and cries. As she starts to calm down, I feel the adrenaline retreating into the places from which it flooded my body. Breathing, relaxing myself, I tend to her…

Continue Reading »

Complacent?

I scrambled up the hill to my daughter’s “old school” to pick up my son from his “new class.” My daughter attended this school from Early Intervention through Kindergarten before being moved to our neighborhood school for first grade. I know most of the Early Intervention staff pretty well, and I know the IEP process…

Continue Reading »

learning…

Learning…I’ve not written about homeschooling yet so I thought maybe this would be a good time. Homeschooling isn’t so typical for us, we have many challenges to get over. We do use therapies as part of our daily routine (even if we are still on sabbatical from professional therapies at our local hospital). We do…

Continue Reading »

Have You Tried Sign Language

Sign language seems to be the current cure-all for those dealing with speech issues with their children. You are bombarded with it either for your toddler who is just learning to talk or for your child whose speech is delayed. In the beginning I had a positive attitude about sign language. I introduced it to…

Continue Reading »

Is that too much to ask?

This week my husband’s grandmother passed away. She was 93 year old, never took more than a multi-vitamin in her life. She did however, several years back, begin her journey with Alzheimer’s Disease. It was a long journey, spending 10 years in a nursing home. She had 5 children, 12 grandchildren…and so many great grand…

Continue Reading »