Top Ten Most Popular Parenting Special Needs Articles of 2009

The "504" in "504 plan" refers to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which specifies that no one with a disability can be excluded from participating in federally funded programs or activities, including elementary, secondary or postsecondary schooling. Learn more from about 504 plans from this first page of the 504 FAQ, then continue on through the questions and answers that follow.

A periodic homework assignment for schoolchildren is to put covers on textbooks. Many schools make it easy by allowing stretchy BookSox, but others insist on these old-fashioned brown paper bag numbers. While most kids will learn to do this on their own, children with special needs may always depend on Mom or Dad to handle this particular assignment. Can't quite remember how? Here's your cheat sheet.

A good Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) can make a big difference in how a student with special needs acts and reacts in a school setting. However, getting the appropriate school personnel to do the necessary behavior analysis and put a plan together can be a frustratingly lengthy process. You may want to try proposing a behavior plan of your own -- particularly if you have a good relationship with your child study team, and your child's teachers are as frustrated by the delays as you are.

Need more help than you got from the how-to at #2? This popular step-by-step offers an illustrated tutorial in cutting, folding, fitting, slipping on, and finishing a paper-bag book cover.

"Special Needs" is an umbrella underneath which a staggering array of diagnoses can be wedged. Children with special needs may have mild learning disabilities or profound mental retardation; food allergies or terminal illness; developmental delays that catch up quickly or remain entrenched; occasional panic attacks or serious psychiatric problems. The designation is useful for getting needed services, setting appropriate goals, and gaining understanding for a child and stressed family.

Every Saturday on the About.com Parenting Special Needs blog, I offer five fun sites to visit -- site describing a family activity, a site for kids, a shopping site, a site with inspiration or humor, and a site that's just for amusement. Those sites get saved on this Fun Things to Do Today index, a good spot to stop whenever you're looking for a family friendly good time.

Wondering what a 504 Plan should look like? These templates and accommodation lists, put on the Web by school districts and disability organizations, can give you an idea of what to look at and look for when working with the school to put together a plan for your child.

Though iTunes is mostly a store for purchasing music, TV shows, and movies, there are many free resources available that may be fun for your child to download and view, from educational programs on iTunes University to Sesame Street podcasts to weekly song picks. With a free, no-money-attached account, you can download these to your computer or your child's and enjoy them without having to pay for a gift card or share credit-card information.

A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) takes the observations made in a Functional Behavioral Assessment and turns them into a concrete plan of action for managing a student's behavior. Learn more about BIPs from this definition page.

Shampoos with tea tree oil aren't the best-smelling things you're ever going to put on your child's head -- but as much as you don't like it, lice dislike it even more, and will find a treated head altogether less hospitable. That makes it a good natural solution, particularly in conjunction with another technique such as smothering the bugs. You'll also want to have everybody else in the family shampoo with it to stay lice-free.