Special Needs

Articles

...daughter is fifteen and has Marfan syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) and has struggled with an enlarged...fifteen and has Marfan syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) and has struggled with an enlarged aorta,...fifteen and has Marfan syndrome (a connective tissue disorder) and has struggled with an enlarged aorta, severe...

...Rose has a life-threatening disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome....Syndrome, or EDS, an incurable disorder that affects the body's connective...disorder that affects the body's connective tissue. EDS is characterized...affects the body's connective tissue. EDS is characterized by fragile...the body. EDS is a rare disorder, and the general public (and...

...structure, the routines they build: none of this is locked behind a clinical door. The tools are accessible, the activities are learnable, and the connection you make through music at home is a legitimate part of what your child's therapy is trying to build. You don't need a music background. You need...

...doesn't make them less important. Studies consistently show that adaptive sports participation improves physical health, mental health, and peer connection for kids with disabilities. But "improves quality of life" doesn't meet the medical necessity threshold most insurers use. Some families successfully...

Your teenager wants what every teenager wants: connection, acceptance, someone who sees them. The disability doesn't change that....rarely does. Teaching consent, managing safety, creating space for social connection while staying present enough to intervene: none of this has a template,...

...alternative routes to accomplish the same function through three mechanisms: Synaptic strengthening. Repeated activation of a pathway makes the connection stronger. Think of it as wearing a trail through the woods: the more you walk it, the clearer it gets. Cortical remapping. When a brain region is...

...Winter Games, and this sport wasn't even on her radar until ten years ago. Here's why that matters. Gretsch was a world-class para triathlete. Three consecutive world championship titles. She was training for the 2016 Rio Paralympics when the classification committee announced that para triathlon wouldn't...

...who'd only been playing the sport for seven years. Sixteen years later, in Milan, he became the first player in para ice hockey history to win five consecutive Paralympic gold medals. He was also the last surviving member of that original 2010 squad still competing at this level. And before the final game...

...sports," he has said. "I was looking for something I could be competitive in." Seventeen years later, on March 15, 2026, Farmer completed his fourth consecutive Winter Paralympics gold medal in Milan. Team USA beat Canada 6-2 before a record crowd of 10,795 at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. He was...

...mentions Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. You Google it. The phrase sounds vague, another parenting technique promising to fix behavior through "connection" and "communication." PCIT isn't that. It's a structured, evidence-based protocol where a therapist coaches you in real time through an earpiece...

...The answer isn't obvious. Online groups eliminate transportation, childcare logistics, and geographic barriers. In-person groups offer face-to-face connection and the kind of emotional engagement that's harder to replicate through a screen. Research shows both formats work, but they work differently. The...

...where to start breaking it. Friendship for children with disabilities isn't about hoping the right peer shows up. It's creating the conditions where connection can happen, then scaffolding it with deliberate practice. That means identifying what your child cares about, choosing the right social setting,...