Special needs entertainment news

Whether you make an effort to get out of the house and into a theater every weekend, or have your entertainment options limited to whatever kiddie show your child is obsessed with at the moment, it's still good to read up on what's out there. Every Monday on Parenting Special Needs, find a round-up of entertainment news of interest to parents of children with special needs. Here are today's picks:

• Emmy fashions from last night's TV awards are already lining up for auction at Clothes Off Our Back, the organization that sells celebrity threads for the benefit of charities including Cure Autism Now. Among the goodies garnering bids this morning are Katherine Heigl's earrings, Jeremy Piven's sunglasses, and Lorraine Bracco's handbag.
• Also on the auction block, for the benefit of The ALS Association, is a Permobil powered wheelchair used by James Woods as an ALS sufferer on the TV medical drama ER. The wheelchair comes with a speech augmentation device and is signed by cast members of the show, although if you're actually going to use the thing, the fact that the signatures are on the seat is probably a minus.
• If your child dragged you to see How to Eat Fried Worms or forced you to join in multiple viewings of the Disney Channel premiere The Cheetah Girls 2, it may be a good time to ambush them with a little reading by pulling out the book version of those popular entertainments. Paperback accounts of those worms and those Cheetahs are just right for slipping in back-to-school backpacks.

Got a hot tip or a question about an upcoming special-needs entertainment offering? Drop a mention of it in the comments and I'll check it out.

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