Special Needs

Articles

...letter arrives by mail or email: your child's occupational therapist, the dental...committee introduced a new health and welfare budget that cuts $21 million from disability...Here's the critical distinction: your child's Medicaid benefits haven't been cut....family's benefits being terminated. Your child still has Medicaid coverage. The challenge...

...Misunderstood Conditions Affecting Child Welfare A few years ago, I spent...Misunderstood Conditions Affecting Child Welfare A few years ago, I spent a good...single biggest issue confounding the child welfare system. I still think that's...biggest issue confounding the child welfare system. I still think that's true....

...minor children at income levels equal to or above what was required for welfare eligibility in 1996. These are parents enrolled in Medicaid not because...you're on Medicaid because you're the parent or caretaker relative of a minor child,...

You're sleeping three hours a night. You snap at your child over nothing. You can't remember when you last felt anything other than exhausted or numb. If you've recognized yourself as burned out, the question...

...self-care. That's not judgment, that's reality. Between medication schedules, therapy appointments, IEP meetings, and the daily logistics of raising a child with special needs, the advice to "take an hour for yourself" lands somewhere between unhelpful and insulting. But self-care doesn't require an hour...

You're two hours into a meltdown, your child is screaming, the insurance company just denied the third appeal, and you can feel yourself unraveling. The advice to "practice self-care" or "take...

...therapy schedule because they happened to make the first call. That parent continues because they already know the therapist's availability and the child's progress notes. Over time, this becomes "their job," and the other parent loses visibility into what's involved. The same pattern repeats with school...

...appointments, and everything else that comes with raising a child with special needs, your marriage can start to feel...impossible. Finding childcare that understands your child's needs is hard. Finding the energy to go out after...mornings run on a tight sequence. Someone gets the child up, someone makes breakfast,...

...All-or-nothing thinking shows up when you believe any choice that isn't perfect is a failure. If you can't attend every therapy session, you're failing your child. If you take an afternoon for yourself, you're neglecting them. There's no middle ground in this pattern, which means guilt is guaranteed no matter...

...scrambling to find someone who can step in for a child who needs specialized support. It's 9 p.m. The babysitter...right now. Finding emergency respite care for a child with disabilities is different from calling the...the street. You need someone who understands your child's communication device, knows how to position them...

Your child talks about their gaming friends the way other kids talk about school friends. They share strategies, jokes, and frustrations. They coordinate raid...

When your child can't get to a friend's house because of transportation...convenience. It's access to the peer connection every child needs. These aren't substitute friendships waiting...and operating systems, which matters when your child's friend uses Android or Windows. The gallery view...