Friday Free-for-All: Speak Up on Good Neighbors, Bad IEP Decisions, Useful Inventions

The opportunities for spouting off on this site have grown over the years from the forum to blog comments to article add-ons. I'm going to take Fridays to highlight a few contributions each week to try and get everybody in on the conversation.

My post on the promise and peril of new neighbors brought some positive stories of mutual neighborliness. Wrote Melissa:

"I chose to inform my new neighbors the first time I met them that he was not a bad child and I was not a bad mother, he just didn't know any better and doesn't understand. Which, the day they moved in, my son was home and was at their door wanting to come in. And once I talked with them, they have been so understanding and helpful. I believe that the more awareness you bring, the better outcome you will have. I have more support from my neighbors than my own family at times, I am blessed. So talk it out be proud of your children and the silly things they do and as well the weird places they lead you to. Smile and laugh it off! When you do, most people will too!"

Have you had similarly good experiences with neighbors, or has there been tension in your neighborhood? Share your experience and suggestions in the comments of that post. It looks like the house next door to ours may be changing hands fast.

Not receiving much support from the school district is forum poster maythe, whose son with OCD and depression needs more help than he's getting:

"He is under medication, weekly therapy since March 2007, plus he's been on behavioral therapy for nine months. He has lots of issues in school. He is in 8th grade, cannot focus, hard to understand math, hard to control his anxiety, etc. We recently had an IEP and the school denied services for him, according to the test they did and some kind of surveys that only ONE teacher filled out, they agreed he cannot receive special classes. What can l do!?"

If you've had some success getting services for children with mental-health issues, stop by the forum and share some advice with this parent.

If you could invent one thing that would improve your life as a special-needs parent, what would it be? Taking me up on the offer to add to my list of tools I'd like to see was reader Jennifer, who imagined a "Thoughtinator":

"My son is non-verbal and a lot of his communicating at two is done through grunts and whines and raising of eyebrows. I would like a nifty little contraption that you could attach to his head that would share his true thoughts so that we could better meet his needs ... or do I?"

What's your dream contraption? Put on your thinking cap and add your invention to mine and Jennifer's.

What else is on your mind today? It's Friday, and time's for wasting. Share your thoughts in the comments.

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