Special needs

To The Special Needs Moms

To The Special Needs Moms

When I was pregnant with my first baby, I researched everything. I wanted to make all the right choices. I wanted to avoid anything that could put him at a disadvantage. I wanted to prepare as much as I possibly could, for his birth, for his babyhood, and beyond. And when he was born, I realized pretty quickly that making parenting decisions based on a book, or even on other’s experiences was so very different than raising your own child. Don’t get me wrong, parenting advice books and hearing other’s stories are a good thing. There is a lot you …

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A Letter To My Son With Autism On World Autism Awareness Day

A Letter To My Son With Autism On World Autism Awareness Day

A Letter To My Son With Autism On World Autism Awareness Day In January of 2012, we sat in the doctor’s office and heard what we had suspected about our then five-year-old son. After three or four months of testing, meeting with the doctor, and answering questions about him, our son was diagnosed with Asperger’s. As we were waiting to hear what his diagnosis was, I did my own research and came to the same conclusion. It was the only thing that made any sense. My biggest fear going into that appointment was not that he would tell me what was …

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To the Military Spouse Whose Child Has Just Been Diagnosed With Autism

To the Military Spouse Whose Child Has Just Been Diagnosed With Autism

To the Military Spouse Whose Child Has Just Been Diagnosed With Autism In January of 2012, after a few months of testing, our middle son was diagnosed with Autism. At the time he was given the diagnosis of Asperger’s which they have since stopped doing. If he were diagnosed today, he would have gotten the “high-functioning Autism” diagnosis. That day we found out what was going on with our son, and how we could help him. My biggest fear when we started the testing and doctor’s appointments was that they would come back and say they couldn’t see anything was wrong. …

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When You Have Special Needs Kids With A Spouse In The Military

When You Have Special Needs Kids With A Spouse In The Military

Having special needs kids adds an extra level of stress and hardship to a family. It simply isn’t easy when you have kids that require a little bit more help than others. Add military life onto that and sometimes it can feel like too much. We didn’t know we had special needs kids when my husband joined the military in 2005. Our son was 13 months old and it wasn’t until he was about 2.5 year’s old that he was diagnosed as developmentally delayed. We were in Germany at the time and my husband was deployed. Our 2nd little boy …

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What You Need To Know About IEP Meetings

What You Need To Know About IEP Meetings

Thank you so much to Meg from MilKids Education Consulanting for this wondering guest post all about IEPS! As a special needs mom I have been to a lot of these types of meetings and they can feel so scary. There is a lot to know about them and this post gives any special needs parent a good idea about what to expect. The elusive IEP, or individualized education program, is a tough beast to pin down. It comes in so many different forms, with literally infinite varieties. It looks different every single time, understandably it is a challenging thing …

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Back To School With Special Needs

Back To School With Special Needs

Back To School With Special Needs Summer is almost over for us. The boys go back to school next week. My son with Asperger’s is going to start 3rd grade! I find that a little hard to believe. It seems like we were just getting ready for him to start kindergarten. What a nervous mom I was that summer. We were working with our ABA therapists to get him ready for school. He had been in preschool but kindergarten was something else. We were able to get a schedule of what his school day would like ahead of time and went …

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How I Am Helping My Son With Asperger’s Through Summer

Having a child with Asperger’s means summer can be quite a challenge. There will not be school and a regular routine so you have to make one. There are a lot of activities for kids but they might not be right for your child. It can be difficult to decide what to do. I have come up with a few things to help this summer. My son is eight and if I let him he would spend the entire summer playing video games. I have to really try hard to get him interested in other things. 1) Pool time. He …

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When You See A Child Throwing A Fit

  When You See A Child Throwing A Fit The other day there was a video being posted online about a boy throwing a tantrum in the car. Although I thought it was a little odd that they were filming and not pulling the car over, I felt sympathy for the kind of fit the kid was having. It was the kind of fit I am familiar with. It was just like an autistic fit. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe the kid had no behavioral issues and was just acting like that to get his way. But maybe not. But the …

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Feeling Weak When Others Are Strong

  I love social media, I really do. I can’t imagine life without it these days but sometimes it can really frustrate me. Sometimes I think we only want to post about ourselves when we are strong. When we have it all put together and when everything is happy-go-lucky. I even hear people talk about how one should never complain on social media because it brings others down. Really? Now I agree, someone who is going to complain 24/7, on every post or even in real life every time you see them is going to bring others down. However, I …

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Two Steps Forward, One Step Back When Raising a Special Needs Child

When my oldest was diagnosed with a developmental delay, I knew that someday he would grow out of it. Then a few years later my 2nd little boy was diagnosed with Asperger’s. This was a whole different ball game. He would always be autistic. That would never ever go away. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t make progress or that he never improves. It means that we will work with him over the years to be able to grow and learn how to live in this world. We started with ABA therapy and now we have a great team who work with him at …

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