Top 11 of 2011

A post on the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs turned into a celebration of the extraordinary impact that iPads and iPods have had on the lives of children with special needs and their families, and became my most popular new blog item of the year. Also attracting attention were posts on (non)stranger danger, American Horror Story, GQ's Down syndrome joke, and businesses that dis our kids. See the whole list and follow the links to read more about these hot topics.

Older posts often get more visitors than newer ones because of search-engine placement, topics of enduring interest, and a full twelve months to count toward their totals. Posts that kept on attracting readers in 2011 through written as early as 2004 included entries on papoose boards, bus problems, Parenthood, Arthur's Asperger's episode, college scholarships, iTunes accounts, and Mady Gosselin. See the whole list and follow the links to read more about these hot topics.

School-related topics took up more than half of the spots on this year's list of the 11 most-visited articles on the About.com Parenting Children With Special Needs site, with 504 plans of particular interest. Also popular were pages on credit-card-free iTunes accounts, a head-lice remedy, the definition of special needs, and ways to amuse bored children. See the whole list and follow the links to investigate these useful resources.

An article on apps took the top spot, but my round-ups of Readers' Choice Awards winners and finalists dominated the list. They're still worth a look if you're interested in great blogs, memoirs, children's books, and support sites on special needs, and to whet your appetite for another round of nominations starting next month. See the whole list of top-ranked new articles and follow the links to give them a read.

Articles on the About.com Parenting Children With Special Needs site are organized into category folders on topics both broad and specific. Looking at the most visited categories offers a good look at what we were looking for this year -- special-education advice mostly, with tips on therapy, behavior, sports, and tax breaks in the mix. See the whole list of most-visited category folders and follow the links to see what's inside.

Readers have a variety of ways to respond to questions on this About.com Parenting Children With Special Needs site, and one option involves filling out a form to tell a complete story on a subject of special-needs interest. These long-form Readers Respond questions create a page on my site for each response, and this round-up looks at the eleven topics that received responses in 2011. See the whole list and follow the links to read these personal contributions.

Apps were a hot topic this year, so it's no surprise that the most-viewed reader reviews this year were those in praise of various helpful iPad or iPhone programs for kids with special needs. However, a few book reviews also managed to work their way close to the top. Did a review you wrote or an item you love make the cut? See the whole list and follow the links to read these personal contributions.

I've enjoyed creating short-answer opportunities all around my site, in response to articles and blog posts or just for fun. This year, my manifesto for respect toward kids with special needs got a great response full of inspiring stories, and a large number of readers also wanted to share the great camp they've found for their kids. Read the whole list and follow the links to see what your fellow readers had to say.

Topics that got you talking this year included Steve Jobs, American Horror Story, stranger danger, iCarly, Groupon, Parents' non-autism issue, lunchbag-cams, peanut protests, and bad moods. Check the whole list of new posts that received the most comments in 2011, and follow the links to see what other parents had to say and add your own two cents.

With the search broadened to most commented upon of all posts, regardless of when the posts were written, top topics include children with autism growing into violent adults, college scholarships for special needs, setting up an iTunes account without a credit card, and Mady Gosselin. Check the whole list of posts that received the most comments of all in 2011, and follow the links to read those opinions and add your own.

Links to news stories from around the Web featured in Today's News and Views eventually make their way to topic categories, and for this final Top 11 list, we look at the news folders that got the most visits. Not surprisingly, special education was the topic of greatest interest, with Down syndrome and learning disabilities close behind. See the whole list of most-visited news folders and follow the links to see what's inside.