Specific Disabilities and Diagnoses Recent Posts

Costumes, Halloween parties, trick-or-treating and spooky decorations are fun for most kids, but for a child with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Halloween celebrations can be overwhelming. A child with SPD processes input from the five senses differently. What is background music to others may be…

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Imagine the courage it takes for children to try outrigger canoeing. That’s the situation for some visually impaired kids who have participated in an adaptive program run by the Nā Koa Kai Canoe Club, a Hawaiian outrigger canoeing program for kids in San Diego. “The…

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Approximately one in every 700 babies born in the U.S. has Down syndrome, or trisomy 21, a chromosomal disorder in which children are born with three copies of chromosome 21. Parents today have an abundance of available resources to help raise a child with Down…

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Are you having any homework challenges now that the kids have been in school for a while? It’s important to help your child find a “homework rhythm,” as well as identify tools that are most effective. Having worked with hundreds of youth on the autism…

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Back-to-school commercials look so joyous on TV: Parents happily buying supplies and kids giddily choosing new backpacks. But for children who have dyslexia, the commercials might look a little different. They might depict parents reviewing IEPs and 504 plans and prepping their kids to be…

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My heart both rejoices and breaks every year when we celebrate my firstborn’s birthday. I rejoice when I think back to my son’s birthdays when he was 4 or 5 years old. Each year he picked a new theme for his party, reflecting his current…

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On February 11, 2015 we welcomed our fourth child into the world about two weeks early. She appeared completely healthy, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz. We were surprised she was a girl, as my husband and I spent the entire pregnancy preparing for a boy….

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For a very long time, autistic children were seen as broken versions of “normal” kids. It hurts my heart to type that sentence, but I’m so grateful to live during a time when that paradigm is shifting. Thanks to the tireless work of writers with…

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I knew my son was different when his tantrums lasted hours at a time. We knew we needed more help than our pediatrician could offer. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is like having a child who never grows out of the terrible twos—it is a constant,…

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Birthdays. They come once a year and are usually met with much anticipation and excitement—balloons, cake, ice cream, friends and presents. These are all wonderful traditions, but what happens when you have a child who has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)? These are the very things…

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