Every weekday, Monday through Friday, the About.com Parenting Special Needs site offers an opportunity to read, reflect, and respond to a passage from a book, blog, or article. Here are the entries for April, 2009. Read the quote, then follow the link for questions and response suggestions.
< March 2009 | May 2009 >
Wednesday, April 1: Different Views
Read: "Every child has a different view of what is going on around him, often based upon what is going on within him." -- Holly Anderson, Special Needs Bliss
Thursday, April 2: Clueless
Read: "There's no book out there that tells you what to do with some of these handicapped kids. They just hand you this baby with all these issues, and you're kind of clueless." -- Betty Hayes, TLC's Table for 12Friday, April 3: Communication
Cover image courtesy of Woodbine House
Monday, April 6: Down Time
Read: "I don't know this place well — this place of no eminent crisis./This place where it's safe for me to relax my guard just a wee little bit./This place where relative security still doesn't quite equate with "normal."/Whatever "normal" is./This place of in between." -- Michelle, 5 Minutes for Special NeedsTuesday, April 7: Changing Gears
Read: "In life as a caregiver, like most of life, adapting and adjusting are required. Change gears to go uphill, change gears to pick up speed on level ground, change gears again to coast downhill. If you know the road well, you’ll do fine. But who among us ever knows the road ahead?" -- Lynn M. Rickert, PedalingBackwards
Wednesday, April 8: Disappointment
Cover image courtesy of Annie Lubliner Lehmann
Thursday, April 9: Advice
Read: "There is a tendency for people to give unsolicited advice to young parents, and that seems to double when it involves a child with a disability. Not only does the amount of advice double, but the relative distance from reality increases exponentially." -- Guest Blogger, Left Brain Right Brain
Friday, April 10: Peacemaking
Read: "It occurred to me today that a great deal of what we do as advocates for our children involves peacemaking. We pave the way, we explain, we smooth things over. We connect with people, and we connect people to each other. We build relationships, we forge ties, we collaborate, cooperate, and coordinate. We build concensus. We engineer agreements." -- Joan Celebi, The Special Needs Parent Coach
Monday, April 13: Defusing
Cover image courtesy of Jessica Kingsley Publishing
Tuesday, April 14: Self-Image
Cover image courtesy of Western Psychological Services
