Intro

[Antonette]

Hi Ladies,
I'm Antonette, and I have a three year old, Christopher. I joined for a couple of reasons. First, Christopher failed a few hearing tests recently. We recently had tubes placed, and I'm wondering if this will help, or if it will still be an issue.
Second, I work as an Early Intervention therapist in my area. My specialty area is children with hearing loss, but many of the kiddos on my caseload have other issues as well. I have resources that I am happy to share with anyone who might need them, and I really enjoy learning from families who have kids with special needs, because it helps me do better in my work, especially if the child has an issue I am not familiar with.

[Angie from The Downtown Boutique]

Hi Antonette,

I just joined Blissfully Domestic, AND this group. I have a special needs 14 year old son, who was born with 1/2 a heart. He has had 2 major heart surgeries, and because of the heart problems, has had 5 strokes...two of them being major strokes (the strokes happened when he was 2 years old). One of the strokes paralyzed his entire right side. He has right hemi-paresis, but he does have some use of his hand, and leg. Another one of the strokes took his speech and hearing. His hearing came back right away after MUCH prayer, all across the USA! He had to relearn how to talk again, after he was already talking in full sentences.

Right now, we are waiting to hear from the Special Education dept. at the local high school, because we have registered him to go to public high school, after being homeschooled all of his life. I'm a LOT nervous, he's a little nervous. My husband and I think that there will be so much more that the SE teachers can help him with, that we can't. I only wish we had done this SOONER!

We also now have a 19 month old boy, whom we are hoping to adopt through the foster system. He is in our home as a foster child...on the concurrent fost/adopt plan. We just got him a little over two weeks ago, and are finding out SO much about him. He has some serious tactile issues with hands, feet, and mouth. He only eats Stage 3 (and Stage 2) baby food. He does not eat finger foods. He doesn't even put his fingers to his mouth usually. He hates having certain textures on his hands, arms, feet, etc. There are so many things we are having to learn. He has an Early Intervention specialist who comes to see him once a week, and will have PT/OT come to see him once a week as well. In the fall, I will start taking him to classes at a local special needs school. I think the classes are only for about an hour right now. I have to get more info.

It's so good to see others who have special needs children. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only one in my area, who I know, that has special needs kids. I don't know many people in this area, except people from my church, and there's really not much special needs issues there. At least, it's not talked about too much. And lives are so busy here, that when we do get to talk, it's only for a few minutes at a time!

I'm excited to be able to meet others who deal with these things on a regular basis.

Take care,
Angie

[Astacia]

Hello, Antonette. My three year-old daughter "Bear" has cerebral palsy, brain cyst and global developmental delay. She was a part of Early Intervention from 3 months until her 3rd birthday. She is currently in Special Ed preschool and receives all services. She is labelled "multi-disability." We also do additional private PT and OT.

Bear had tubes placed in her ears right before her second birthday. it made a world of difference in her development. She goes in this summer to have them removed.

We have been though the wringer on many issue regarding the medical side of special needs. Feel free to e-mail me directly if you have any questions mamikaze/at/live/dot/com. Also, the Kid-Power.org website and Yahoo group are fabulous resources.