by Mary Ellen Bogucki As I sit down to write this, I still find it all hard to believe. You see, my daughter, Bree, walks at a pace equal to that of a turtle. Okay, I exaggerate, but only to prove the point that she prefers to walk slowly. As I often say, hurry means nothing to her and the more I tell her to hurry, the slower she goes. So, as I have written […]
by Nicole Kolenda As a parent of a child with special needs, you will ALWAYS remember the day you received your child’s diagnosis. You will always think back to THAT conversation, with that specialist, who sat you down and discussed with you their “findings”. Many of you, in this precise moment, wanted so badly to be fully present and listen that you made yourself nauseous trying. Others just blanked out—asking your significant other a litany of […]
PUZZLES & CAMO BY SHELLY HUHTANEN As I take myself back to the store the other day, dragging my dress behind me with my sunken eyes and my weathered face due to years of crying, laughing and smiling, I can honestly say I have tried. I have tried to speak up about what families with special needs children need. The other day, I did something I don’t do very often. I went shopping for myself […]
by Colleen Berlingieri Everyone has their favorite traditions. One of mine is decorating the house for Christmas. I love putting on some holiday music, grabbing a cup of coffee and going through the boxes that my boys have brought up from the basement. Then I spend the next couple of hours putting away my everyday decorations and putting up my Christmas ones. This year, as I was going about my usual routine, I began to notice […]
I won’t even attempt to speak for other parents of autistic children here. There’s not just a spectrum for our kids, there’s one for the parents as well. BY KIMBERLEE MCCAFFERTY Today we ran into each other at the grocery store. We don’t know each other well, but our kids have been in the same class together several years now, and once we were very compatible room mothers. We chat about our kids (of course), […]
