Life as a special needs parent can be overwhelming and stressful. It can be even harder when you are surrounded by people who don’t share your experiences. You may feel alone and don’t know where to turn for support. Parent support groups can immerse you in families with similar experiences bringing you much needed support for your daily life. They can also provide other benefits – emotionally and knowledge based. To get the conversation started, here are 4 reasons why you should join a parent support group.
The first reason to join a support group is to...
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Our organization is based upon a simple premise: make information easy to access for parents of children with Cerebral Palsy. Unfortunately there are far too many gaps in how information is made available to the public when it comes to the various charities, federal organizations, local programs and more that can help those with CP. This is where MyChild has found its purpose: providing free access to a wide range of information and program access related to helping make a difference when it comes to Cerebral Palsy.
First and foremost, we want parents to...
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Children are curious and will eventually be asking questions about special needs, either due to a family member or friend having a specific condition or due to encountering someone in a store, on the street, etc. It may catch us off guard, especially if it is directed towards our own children. Being prepared for the questions and the conversation can help lighten the stress and the sense of being overwhelmed. It also benefits the curious child when we can fully answer the questions appropriately. Provided with the following tips, we hope to make it easier when...
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In what is becoming a great recurring theme in the past few months, another retailer has stepped up and embraced the needs of parents of children who are facing challenges. As LEGO and doll makers have stepped up to meet the demand of toys that reflect a spectrum of special needs, a clothing line in the UK is answering the bell for parents looking for options.
Marks and Spencer is a major British clothing retailer that produces clothing, home products and high-end food products....
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Much is said about the challenges children with Cerebral Palsy face and the doors shut in front of them. This is sadly the case in far too many instances, leading to serious exclusion and the constant belief that many things are simply not an option. However, a new trend in adaptive equipment and enablement that shows a wide assortment of opportunities exist in sports for children with Cerebral Palsy.
One area in which activities and outdoor fun exist for children with special needs is in horseback...
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Life as a special needs parent can be overwhelming and stressful. It can be even harder when you are surrounded by people who don’t share your experiences. You may feel alone and don’t know where to turn for support. Parent support groups can immerse you in families with similar experiences bringing you much needed support for your daily life. They can also provide other benefits – emotionally and knowledge based. To get the conversation started, here are 4 reasons why you should join a parent support group.
The first reason to join a support group is to...
Read More
All too often, news (and clicks) are generated by highlighting disappointing or tragic circumstances. On our Facebook Page, we try to avoid these stories whenever possible, not to hide them but, instead, to instead focus on the positive and inspiring. The sad truth is that the special needs community is already well aware of how far society has to go in order to be truly inclusive, which is one of the core reasons MyChild was founded in the first place. Today, though, we want to celebrate some recent news stories...
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Goals are important for everyone. Using goals as a platform for encouraging certain behaviors is a focus for most parents due to the value success and achievement can create. Children with Cerebral Palsy, in particular, often face enough challenges in their everyday life that goals can be both big and small in scope. Just as Occupational Therapy can turn a random exercise into an effective, everyday solution, so too can goals focus on a ‘traceable’ achievement that has a far larger impact. While...
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One of the first things you may notice on our newly designed website is a statement in the upper left noting that the site is owned and operated by attorney Ken Stern. This disclosure should not raise an alarm, though. Instead, it represents our founder’s career path and the immediate realization anyone who works with children with special needs has: that more help is needed.
Ken Stern has served as a Cerebral Palsy attorney for over three decades. A father himself, our founder went into...
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As many of our community members already know, the entire concept of MyChild and CerebralPalsy.org was to create and foster a dynamic resource to help parents of children with CP. Far too often, there are needs or simple requests for even general information that fall through the cracks because governmental agencies, charities or foundations, are unable or unwilling to help. Even when programs are available to help, finding them amid the Internet’s clutter can be too difficult. MyChild serves to help break down these barriers to securing information. As a...
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