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Home Health Providers: Finding the Right Fit

No matter what the caregiver’s credentials, however, be prepared to spend some initial time training and teaching. After all, no one knows your child like you do. No one else is as informed about your child’s needs as you are, or has your experience caring for your child.

 How Merrill Lynch Helps Special Needs Families

For more on Special Needs Planning, please see my interview with Doug Baker.

To aid families through the initial process of starting a Special Needs Trust, Merrill recently launched a Special Needs Calculator, which helps parents project how much they will need, at retirement, to provide for their child, based on certain financial information and the child’s projected life expectancy. The calculator can take into account expenses such as a child’s monthly health care, housing, special education and transportation expenses, as well as his or her projected employment income, and state or federal government benefits.

The Financial Needs of Children with Autism

This applies to all Special Needs Children.

The city water facility was able to inform him that there could be a medical flag put onto the account, so long as a doctor signed a form.It doesn’t mean that the bill doesn’t get paid (as the money would still be due) – it just means that the city would take an extra step and work with you further before any action on turning the water off would be taken.

 Effective IEP Teams: Reality or Impossible Dream?

I wish I had this information when Matthew was little! For more help with IEP’s and Special Education, visit Special Education Advisor.

What happens at IEP meetings when staff and parents come together to develop an effective plan for a child with disabilities? It is basically the same set of people. What is different about an effective team?

Game-changing technology offers everyone hope

Technology – giving voice when there was only silence.

…But I’m waiting for this day. I’m waiting with all of the bad and good that can come with self-expression – even hopeful for it. I’m hopeful within my family’s world. And, I’m even hopeful for our great, wide world, too.

Explaining Death

A few years ago, a friend of Matthew’s died suddenly. He was the person who taught my Son with Autism how to have a friend. We had no warning; no time to prepare Matthew. To this day, I don’t think Matthew understands what happened. All I could do was to try to make sure that Matthew didn’t think his friend just didn’t like him anymore.

I know this will be difficult, but death and funerals are a part of life and living. I think the more the children are included in big family events and shown how to care, share, and show respect, the better they will be prepared for life. That does not mean that I cannot do a little preparation.

Generation Next Question

I thought that those of you with Special Needs Young Adults might appreciate this…

Some of those things that I should be familiar with as a parent of a typical 17-year-old may well slap me in the face as my son starts to integrate with his neurotypical peers. Or maybe it will be reality that slaps me in the face if Cameron struggles mightily in the general population setting. We’ll never know unless we try. Either that, or I’ve got to really find that crystal ball.

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