Results
Parenting > Self-Care
The Respite Care Blueprint: How to Find, Fund, and Use Backup Care
You can't be on call 24/7 forever. It's human biology, not a failure of will or love. And yet most families raising children with special needs don't know where to turn when they need backup care, even...
Medical > Neurology
Sensory Processing Disorder: The Neuroscience Behind Your Child's Sensitivity
...accommodations harder to secure. But research from UCSF's Sensory Neurodevelopment and Autism Program has given SPD something it's lacked for years: biological proof. Brain imaging studies show that children with SPD have measurable, structural differences in white-matter pathways, the neural highways that...
Assistive Tech > Apps
Special Needs App of the Day: Frog Dissection
...tactile experience in the procedure with a real frog. The app does, however, provide a realistic dissection experience and gives a great introduction to biology for students. It also seems like it would be more cost effective to use in classrooms that already have iPads for use. Frog Dissection comes at a...
Special Needs > Dyslexia
Study Finds Dyslexia Starts Before Reading
...dyslexia. As one of the most common learning disabilities, dyslexia has been the subject of much research. A study published April 2012 in the Current Biology journal suggests that signs of dyslexia are present even before a child begins to read. Dyslexia is a reading disorder that is characterized by the...
Health > Diagnosis
Suffering in Silence: Do Food Allergies Play a Role in Selective Mutism?
...to unravel these kinds of disorders and learned that the place to start looking for answers to disorders in the mind is in the body. First, a basic biology lesson brush-up: Remember that old song from kindergarten: “the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone, the leg bone’s connected to the thigh bone…”...
Research > Drug Development
Fragile X Drug Trials: The First Real Breakthroughs and What They Mean for Families
...good news loosely. AFQ056, STX209 (arbaclofen), RO4917838: all three drugs generated real excitement, all three targeted what looked like the right biological pathway, and all three failed in human trials between 2009 and 2015. Families got very good at absorbing disappointment. They built a healthy skepticism...
Research > Drug Development
The Drug Development Pipeline for Special Needs: What Parents Need to Know About How Treatments Go from Lab to FDA Approval
...preclinical research. This happens in the lab and in animal models. Researchers are answering basic questions: Does this compound do what we think it does biologically? What dose range seems to work? What are the red flags for toxicity? Preclinical work typically takes three to six years. It's not regulated by...
Medical > Neurology
Brain Plasticity and Therapy: How Intervention Actually Rewires Your Child's Brain
...brain's ability to reorganize itself in response to experience. It's the biological mechanism that makes therapy work. It's not magic. It's neurons firing...This is why "use it or lose it" isn't just a motivational slogan: it's a biological fact governing brain development. The Ten Principles That Shape Outcomes....
Parenting > Adulthood
Adopting a Child with Special Needs
Whether single or married, raising biological children or other adopted children, potential adoptive families are guided...own personal experiences when making this decision. They may be raising a biological child with special challenges or they may have grown up with a special...
Special Needs > Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy - An Adoption Story
...stepped into a world of wheelchairs, MRIs, therapy, and countless doctor appointments. We thought we were ready, that it would be easy since we had a biological daughter with Down syndrome, yet, we felt challenged and stretched and often times wondered if we had made a mistake. "Why did we adopt a child...
Lifestyle > Recreation
Dora's Story
Blind 20yo Dora shares her life story, including her love for Justin Bieber and her adoption due to her biological parents' drinking.
Special Needs > Attention Deficit Disorders
Diagnosing and Treating ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is one of the most common neuro-biologic health conditions seen in school-age children through the adult years. ADHD does not mean not lazy, spoiled kids. It is an identified brain chemistry...