Realistic Resolutions

Quickly now: Your child's medical records. Test scores. IEPs. Where are they? If they're organized, is your organizational plan holding up, or are there important records scattered all over the house? Getting your child's paperwork organized is a worthy goal for a New Year's resolution, and these articles and resources will help you get what you need where you need it, and make sure your child's teacher has the documents he or she needs, too.
• Make a Care Notebook
• Share Your Story Online
• Book Review: More Than a Mom
• How to Get an IEP for Your Child
• Preparing the School for Your Child with Special Needs

It would be nice if getting your child to school was your only obligation. Those child-free hours of school-time are blessed respite to many parents of children with special needs. But staying involved in your child's school can do a lot to improve everyone's academic experience -- yours, your child's, and the people who have to work with both of you. These articles and resources will help you be an active school parent.
• Volunteer at Your Child's School
• Ten Reasons to Join Your School's Parent Organization
• How to Have a Productive Teacher Conference
• How Well Do You Know Your Child's School?
• Book Review: Believe in My Child with Special Needs!

Reacting to your child's behavior is easy -- your buttons get pushed, and you respond with time-outs or restrictions or a really good scream. Understanding your child's behavior, on the other hand, can be tough -- some behavior just seems to defy reason. Yet understanding why your child does what he does is a necessary part of any effective behavior plan. These items from the Parenting Special Needs site will help you get to the bottom of it.
• Behavior Analysis Basics
• Book Review: The Mislabeled Child
• Before You Look for Information on ADHD
• Before You Look for Information on Sensory Integration
• Before You Look for Information on FASD

Giving your child a little extra time to do something -- whether it's something small, like making a transition or doing a chore, or large, like reaching a major milestone -- can save you tons of time in tantrums, whining, yelling and stubborn resistance. These articles and resources site will give you some inspiration to embrace the virtue of patience.
• Counting to Ten
• Before You Potty Train
• Body Odor Basics for Teens With Special Needs
• Ways to Help Your Child Eat Neat
• Book Review: The Explosive Child

It can be intimidating to deal with medical experts who seem to know everything about your child's condition and treatment. But as the expert in your child, your views are just as important. These articles and resources will help you know how and why to make your voice heard.
• Ten Questions to Ask the Doctor
• Working with Specialists
• What Parents Want from Doctors and Hospitals
• Five Things to Do When the Doctor Says "Wait and See"
• Book Review: Your Critically Ill Child

Helping with homework can feel like a full-time job to parents of children with special learning needs. It's hard to know, sometimes, whether you're helping too much or not enough, but these articles and resources will give you the right approach for the job.
• Homework Help for Kids with Special Needs
• Study Buddies Help Facts Stick
• How to Focus Attention on Math Worksheets
• How to Write a Paragraph
• How to Ensure Homework Delivery

Like it or not, computers are the way of the future. Good computer skills will be important to your child, so using the computer to teach other concepts wraps everything together nicely. These articles and resources can help you do that.
• Educational Software
• "Birthday Math" Makes Calculating Fun
• AlphaSmart Offers Easy Word Processing
• Fun Websites for Kids
• iTunes U

The fact that a child will need treatment or special education or altered expectations is something that most parents take time to adjust to, whether they realize it before or after a diagnosis is formally given. But accepting your child's special needs and learning everything you can about how to help is an essential part of being a good advocate for your child. These articles and resources will help you on your way.
• Accepting Your Child's Special Needs
• Don't Fear the Diagnosis
• How to Research a Disability on About Parenting Special Needs
• Book Review: Supportive Parenting
• Personal Reflections on Parenting Children with Special Needs

Do you put as much thought, effort, and energy into praising your child's acceptable behavior as you do in providing consequences for his negative behavior? If not, think about reversing that equation, and being most entirely present and engaged when your child's not screwing up. These articles and resources will give you some ideas on how and why to accentuate the positive.
• How to Make Behavior Charts Work
• Make an Emergency Behavior Chart
• 10 Printable Reward Coupons
• Using Undesirable Music for Desirable Outcomes
• Five Ways to Use TV for Good

Yeah, okay, we know, the world won't turn without you. But everyone has to take a day off now and then, from the worrying and obsessing and researching if not from the carpooling and homework-helping and behavior-managing. Grab yourself a little "me" time, and see if maybe the world can wobble along. These articles and resources will give you some fun things to do with those precious idle moments.
• Take a Day Off
• 20 Things Not to Worry About Today
• Question of the Day
• Silly Sites Just for Fun
• A Special-Needs Parent's Wish List