I’ve always been a seeker of knowledge and information. When I became a mom it definitely kicked this trait into hyper-drive. Of all the things I’ve learned and experienced, the special needs community was something I knew little to nothing about. By now, I’ve run the gamut on research and I’m still going strong. Some of the first meaningful pieces I found in regards to my personal healing came from other parents. One of the first is by Kristi Campbell titled,…
Caregivers often silently carry around with them the constant, heavy feeling of grief. Sometimes ashamed of it, we may hide it from others. Burying it as deeply as possible in the hopes that no one else will see. Your grief can feel like a nagging and confusing failure, compounding the sorrow inside of you, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You are doing the best you can with the information you have available to you. Cut yourself some slack. Just because…
A surprise I encountered, which shouldn’t have been a surprise at all since people will be people (number 12 says it best for this example), is that not everyone in the autism community gets along. I dove in head first, educating myself, turning over every stone and started to form my own opinions based on all the things I was learning. At first, it was somewhat easy to ignore what was happening on the sidelines. I saw some bickering here or…
PACER is a wonderful resource for anyone taking care of someone with disabilities. Parents, Teachers and Advocates can find so many useful tools on their website. PACER is also a leader in the fight against bullying individuals with disabilities or special needs and created the PACER National Bullying Prevention Center. Visit their website for useful educational tools and ideas. TEACHERS/EDUCATORS: Templates, Charts, Videos, Posters, Classroom Education Models, Project Ideas and more can all be found there. All age appropriate from…
After my dad had open heart surgery, our family went through a massive upheaval. I wish we could have had these resources available to us then. It was a difficult and trying time for all of us, to say the least. Nothing, and I mean nothing, went the way it was supposed to. The strong man we knew and loved, who was our leader, rock and foundation, was suddenly weak, vulnerable and needed our help. He was in crisis and as…