NEW RESOURCE BY MELANIE DAVIS The Funding Guide for Children with Disabilities focuses on the author’s proven process for applying for support from the various funding sources that assist children. It also includes a directory of over 200 funding sources divided into three categories: National, State and Wish Funders. For more than a decade, Tamara Simmons has been assisting families in raising the funds they lack to cover assistive technology and other expenses for their […]
BY HELENE SCHORR, M.S. AND ERIN VLASAK, M.S. HOW CAN WE ENCOURAGE AND MOTIVATE SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM, TO MAKE SOME TYPE OF EXERCISE OR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PART OF THEIR WEEKLY ROUTINE? Many students with special needs have had a hard time throughout their schooling when it comes to physical education, especially organized team sports. This negative feeling towards sports and physical activity can carry over through adulthood. As we […]
Discussing sexual behaviors, personal space boundaries or hygiene and self-care during puberty with a child is difficult enough for any parent, but possibly even more perplexing for a parent of a child with developmental disabilities on the autism spectrum. A new sexuality workshop for parents of special needs children, created and presented by Michelle Brill, MPH, Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences at Rutgers University Cooperative Extension was recently held […]
BY KIMBERLEE RUTAN MCCAFFERTY I’ve never been one for remembering certain types of anniversaries. I admit to forgetting the birth dates of beloved grandparents long passed, have only a passing acquaintance with the month and year they were buried. This doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention to certain milestone events–it’s just that I don’t feel constrained to remember them on one particular day. I keep special people alive by talking about them with my sons, […]
SIBLING TIES BY PAIGE TALHELM What makes things perfect is when he and I can just sit around and watch TV or listen to music together. We don’t have to talk, or we don’t have to be working on his socialization skills. As the end of the school year approaches, I find myself cramming for finals, preparing for graduation, and planning my summer. This is about the same for everybody, where some are asking that […]
