Realistic Resolutions

Planning out small, attainable goals is a great way to set your child up for success, and it's a good idea when planning New Year's resolutions for yourself, too. These articles and resources can put you in the right frame of mind for pursuing your dreams for your child and your family in small, manageable steps.
• Setting Attainable Goals
• Book Review: Steps to Independence
• Finding Happiness in Your Child
• Before You Go to the Mall With Your Child
• Teach Your Child to Succeed

Reading is one of the greatest challenges for children with learning disabilities, and getting a reluctant reader to sit down with a book is one of the greatest challenges for their parents. These articles and resources can give you tips on what and how to read to help your child see books as something other than the enemy.
• Starting a Reading Routine
• Book Review: Mosaic of Thought
• Book Review: Great Books About Things Kids Love
• Book Review: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
• If Your Child Hates Harry Potter

No one quite knows like another parent of special-needs children what you deal with on a daily basis and how you struggle with hopes and fears and the daily realities of your child's disability. Finding a support group, whether in your community or online, can open a world of advice and understanding to help get you through. These articles and resources will help you find the right group for you, or give you a little support right now.
• Finding a Support Group
• First Five Things to Do
• Love Notes for Special Parents
• Parenting Special Needs Forum
• Reactive Attachment Disorder Forum

When your child pushes your buttons, sometimes the best strategy is to give yourself a time-out, retreat and regroup. These articles and resources will help you give yourself the cooling-off period you need, and introduce you to some parenting books that can give you a better handle on your child's behavior.
• How to Give Yourself a Time-Out
• Book Review: Transforming the Difficult Child
• Book Review: The Challenging Child
• Book Review: Raising Your Spirited Child
• Book Review: Building a Joyful Life With Your Child Who Has Special Needs

Worrying can be constructive — if it leads you to creative solutions and strategies, and gets you moving to pursue them — or destructive — if it leads you to fruitless obsession and despair, and leaves you laying in the dark with knots in your stomach. These articles and resources will help you use worry as a force for good, and avoid passing it on to the next generation.
• How to Worry More Constructively
• After the Diagnosis
• Stop School Behavior Problems (Even Before They Start)
• Book Review: Planning for the Future
• Book Review: The Anxiety Cure for Kids

Do you ever feel like shuttling your child to therapy is becoming a full-time job? Maybe it's time to reevaluate your child's therapy needs, make sure you're happy with what he's getting and how he's getting it, and see if there are things you could do at home instead of spending so much time on the road. These articles and resources will help you assess your child's therapy, and provide some of your own.
• Do a Therapy Check-up
• Before You Pick a Therapist
• Working With an Occupational Therapist
• Book Review: The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems
• Glossary: Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy

Keeping a contact log is important no matter which professional you're talking to -- doctors, specialist, therapists -- but perhaps never more so than when you're talking with educators and special education administrators about your child's special needs. You'll want a record of what has been promised or denied as you move through the process of getting an IEP and enforcing it. These articles and resources can help you understand that process, and take a bigger role in it.
• How to Keep a Contact Log
• Book Review: Now What Do We Do?
• Take Periodic Videos
• How to Report an IEP Violation
• Frequently Asked Questions about IEPs

Recording your thoughts and experiences is one of the most empowering and stress-reducing things you can do as a parent of a child with special needs. It's also one of the hardest things to find time and energy for. If you've wanted to keep a journal but never followed through, here are five ideas for finding the right format for you, and five sources of inspiration from parents who have shared their family's stories in print.
• Five Journal Ideas You Can Really Keep Up With
• Book Review: Tiny Titan
• Book Review: Not Even Wrong
• Book Review: Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie
• Book Review: Will's Choice
• Book Review: Little People

Exercise is always a popular topic for a resolution, but with weight-gain becoming an increasing problem for children, planning more workouts for your wee ones may be a good plan, too.These articles and resources will show you why, how, and with what to get your child moving.
• Ten Ways to Work Out with Your Child
• Book Review: Diabesity
• Book Review: The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun
• Book Review: Integrated Yoga
• Special-Needs Swim Gear

The relative who criticizes your parenting. The teacher who hates your child. The doctor who makes you feel stupid. The stranger who glares when your child acts up. The world is full of people who should carry a warning label due to their poisonous effects on your mind and your heart. You may not be able to change those toxic people, but you can change your reaction to them. These articles and resources will empower you to defend rights, evade slights, and make sure you're not part of the problem.
• Dealing with Toxic People
• Special-Needs Children and Special Occasions
• How to Protest a Grade
• Books on Disability Rights
• Self-Esteem Boosters