As we count down to the end of 2011 (can you believe it? what the heck happened to the year?), I'm going to take the last eleven days to blog some lists of the Top 11 of 2011 on this About.com Parenting Children With Special Needs site, from the most commented-on blog posts to the most-read articles to the Readers Respond pages you contributed to the most. Kicking the list-making off today is a roster of the most-visited new blog posts in 2011.
1 What Steve Jobs Meant to Parents of Children With Special Needs (October 6): The Apple founder's death inspired many parents to write about the difference iPads and iPods made in their children's lives, and I gathered some quotes together.
2 Strangers Aren't the Only Dangers (July 14): In the wake of a news story about a boy killed after asking the wrong stranger for directions, I worried as well about abuse children with special needs face from people who should be trustworthy.
3 Will This Depiction of Down Syndrome Be a Horror Story? (October 5): Before Fox's American Horror Story debuted, reviews and clips had parents worried about the treatment of a character with Down syndrome on the show.
4 Denying Our Children's Humanity for a Laugh (July 18): We didn't find it funny when an item on GQ's website joked about "Style Down Syndrome, where a little extra ends up ruining everything."
5 Apps Make Social Skills Practice Less Stressful (January 14): Of the posts in my January series on apps for special needs, this one on the apps Dance Party Zoo and Smile at Me was the most-viewed.
6 Parents Magazine Ignores Autism Awareness Month (March 23): You'd think an issue that affects so many children and families would receive significant editorial attention from a major parenting mag, especially in April. You'd be wrong.
7 Do Businesses That Dis Special Needs Realize How Many Of Us There Are? (June 22): Surely if they did the math, they wouldn't, say, insist on roasting nuts in First Class when it could endanger the life of a young passenger.
8 App Suggests Appropriate Weather Wear (January 31): Also popular in my January app round-up was a post on iDress for Weather, which shows kids a picture of attire that suits the weather for any given day. 'Cause they don't believe us.
9 American Idol Contestant Has Asperger's and Tourettes (March 11): A very short blog post about James Durbin got a lot of attention.
10 iCarly, iWish You Hadn't Gone There (August 18): An episode of the popular Nickelodeon show disturbed some parents by promoting misconceptions about teen mental health and psychiatric facilities.
11 The Change-Up Gets Thumbs-Down for Disability Slurs (August 8): A scene in which a character played by Ryan Reynolds jokingly asks if his friend's twins are retarded and refers to a child as looking "Downsy" spurred protests.
Right behind these in popularity were posts on Groupon's food-allergy jokes, Patricia Heaton's Twitter challenge, and parents' protest over peanut policies. And honorable mention goes to the blog posts used for voting in the Reader's Choice Awards this year -- they'd be at the top of the list in terms of numbers of hits (and how), but now that the voting is over, they're not much fun.