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A Parent’s Guide to Taking Care of a Child With Special Needs

June 29, 2020 by

Caring for a special needs child can become very overwhelming, very fast. Discover the complete guide to caring for special needs children here.

Do you or your partner have a family history of having special needs children? Are you worried that you may also have one when you give birth? Do you want to be ready to take care of special needs children in case you get any? 

One in six kids aged 3-17 have a developmental disability and diagnoses have only increased. The likely reasons for this increase include improved awareness, screening, and service accessibility.

It can be disconcerting if you find out you have a child diagnosed with special needs. Below, we’ve got a list of things for new parents with special needs children to remember. 

parents guide

Establish a Good Support System

You don’t have to be alone in taking care of your kid. Your child may have a rare condition, but you are not alone. Many other parents face the same challenges, despite their children’s unique needs.

Look for these parents as a support system. It helps to know people who know what you’re going through. You may even learn some useful tips and tricks for managing your time with your child.

Join support groups or create one in your area. Share your story and learn about how other parents deal with their challenges. Speaking with other parents with special needs kids can be motivating and inspiring.

Educate Yourself on Handling Special Needs Children

Knowing your kid’s disabilities will help you know about any medical complications. Today, parents and family members have a lot of resources. You can find many books on parenting for kids with developmental issues or learning issues. 

Find published books and studies on understanding kids with special needs. If you learn more from listening, you can find podcasts and videos. Additionally, you can consider investing in caregiver training to ensure you are prepared and educated to care for your child.

Learn everything you can about your child’s condition. This will help you sympathize with them and view the world from their perspective. It’ll help you develop a parenting style that will best work for them.

Enjoy Your Kids, Your Partner, and the Little Things

Be there for your child not only as a provider, but also as a caregiver. Remember to enjoy the silly little things. Cuddle, engage, and play with your child.

Make time to bring them to the local park to see the flowers or other kids. Tell them stories that will inspire them. Join them when they’re doing what they like or what’s important to them.

Don’t forget to make time for your marriage either. Being parents of a special needs child can feel like a never-ending marathon. However, remember that you and your partner have needs too.

Find strength in each other through small actions that show care and support. Make a special dinner for your spouse or bring them to a special place for a night. Lean into each other and keep cultivating your relationship so the family thrives.

Learn to Take a Break

It’s tough to be a good parent, especially for children with special needs. As we said, it can feel like a never-ending marathon of work, making appointments, and giving care. At some point, you’ll feel stressed out, exhausted, and unhappy to some degree.

Take a break and take the time to gather your bearings. Hire a caregiver or have a family member take care of your kids for a day. Use the free day to treat yourself to a spa day or spend a refreshing day at the beach.

De-stress in the way that works best for you. By the time you get back on track, you’ll feel a hundred times better. Don’t forget to give your partner the same courtesy if they volunteered to take care of your kids for you.

Teach Your Special Needs Child to Be Independent

Parents with special needs children must make difficult decisions for their kids. Unlike adults with special needs, kids don’t have a good grasp of what’s happening around them. Kids need to learn discipline and independence as much as they need to learn kindness.

With special needs kids, teaching them how to be independent takes more care. Teach your kids the skills they need to make decisions by providing choices. Avoid limiting their choices, but be careful about overwhelming them with too many.

Provide options where possible. This can help increase compliance and reduce difficult behaviors. In cases where choices are not available, provide guidance.

You Will Make Mistakes, and That’s Okay

All parents are afraid of making the wrong choices for their children. As the saying goes, no one is perfect — that includes you. You won’t always get things right, and that’s okay. 

For many of the tough decisions you’ll make, there won’t be a wrong or right choice. As with most things, you’ll learn to make the best decisions. With time, you’ll gain the experience and wisdom to know what’s best for your child. 

If you feel that you’ve made a terrible mistake, don’t focus on it too much. Learn to forgive yourself for any screw-ups, despite having the right intentions. Instead, you have to learn from the experience and keep moving forward with the lesson in mind.

Trust Your Instincts

It’s good to have doctors, therapists, and teachers to support you. However, remember, you are the parent. You know your children best.

If you feel that a professional isn’t giving your kid the care they need, you can get a second opinion. It helps to have an idea of where to go in case you encounter legal problems. Check out this law firm for legal aid specialized for those with special needs.

Give Your Child the Best Life

For parents of special needs children, you have a bigger responsibility. Yet, the difficult challenges of raising these kids are extra rewarding as well. Hang in there and be strong because it’s more than worth it in the end.

That’s it for our guide on taking care of a child with special needs. We hope this article helps all parents and to-be parents become ready for raising special needs kids. If you want to see more content on special needs children, check out our other posts.

 

Additional info and resources for families with special needs:



Encouraging your Children to Develop good Study Skills

June 17, 2020 by

We all understand that encouraging our children to be good students is important. Any child that does not do well academically will struggle to find their place in the world of work. Rightly or wrongly, most employers are not that interested in employing someone who has not passed their exams. Even the few that are, hold back if the person in front of them does not have particularly strong reading, writing, and mathematic skills.

Children have to attain increasingly higher levels of academic achievement to be able to pass their exams. As countries like China raise the bar, other countries are upping their standards too. As a result, it is vital that your children develop good study habits and do so from an early age. If they do not they will be left behind. Here are a few ways you can make it far less likely that will happen.

Study

Teach your children to rely on their own abilities

Plagiarism and cheating are growing problems. Unsurprisingly, most educational institutions have taken effective steps to stop the cheats. When they are old enough to understand, use this handy definition of plagiarism to teach your children what it is. Explain why they should not do it and show them how easy it is to get caught cheating. 

Teach them how to cite their sources

Also, explain that there is a right way to use what others have already discovered in their work. Make sure your children know the correct way to cite the work of others. Giving credit shows respect and enables the person marking your child´s academic papers to see that they have carried out proper research. It also makes it easier for them to accept and follow the arguments they are making, which again leads to higher marks. 

Get them into the habit of studying regularly

Doing something at more or less the same time every day makes it far more likely you will do it. In particular, if it is something that you do not enjoy. Getting your children to study every day is an effective way to get them into good studying habits.

Teach them the importance of the right study environment

If left to their own devices, most children will try to do their schoolwork sat in front of the TV or while trying to answer texts from their friends. The majority of adults will do the same. Studies show that it is a very unproductive way to work. The best way to demonstrate this to your children is to sit them down somewhere quiet and time how long it takes them to write a short essay. Then let them do the same task while sitting in front of the TV. When they are finished, show them how much longer it took them to do their work when they were not working in the right environment. 

Of course, that means you need to create the right kind of study space for each of your children. This short guide will give you some ideas on how to do that even if you do not have much room available.




5 Indoor Educational Activities for Kids

May 19, 2020 by

You know that we are all up for teaching kids about practical stuff through fun activities. The lockdown and self-quarantine going around in the world dealing with a pandemic is another reason to bring out our thinking caps and blend fun with learning.

The times we are living in right now needs indoor educational activities to keep the young minds engaged and stop them from boring themselves and annoying the elders. Earlier, a vacation would have been the norm for a school-free time, but now it means staying home and staying safe.

Let’s talk about a few indoor activities that can act as educational as well as a fun thing you can do with your kids.

1. Making Counting, Alphabets, Shapes, and Colors Fun

If you have a toddler with you, it is important to teach them the four pillars our learning process is built on. We here some fun ways to inculcate learning these things by introducing them to your daily routines and also allowing the creative juices to flow –

2. Cooking Easy Dishes

Teach your kids some basics of cooking. Depending on their age, you can focus on different activities ranging from washing, cutting, to cooking. Teach them about kitchen safety and what they should pay attention to, teach them the correct terminologies for things in the kitchen. You can also teach them to make their favorite dishes or some quick healthy meals.

3. Basic Survival Skills

Being stuck at home is the best time to teach kids the importance of learning the basic skills that will help them get through life with ease. One of them is cooking, of course. But you also have quite a few things that they will need to learn along the way. Repair work, sewing, changing a light bulb, cleaning utensils, etc. are things that you can teach your kids.

4. Gardening

Gardening is a great way to teach kids about the food cycle and also get them to appreciate the fact that they have food to eat. They will learn to grow their own produce and will also learn about the technicalities of soil, seed, and weather implications.

5. Solving Puzzles

Puzzles have always been a crowd favorite. You pull out a puzzle, and the kids can stay busy for hours. It teaches them patience and also improves their hand-eye coordination. It helps them exercise their short term memory as well.

Conclusion

Making learning fun is the best thing for a kid. They love learning, and they love having fun. When you combine both the elements, you allow them to enjoy the present and prepare for the future at the same time.




4 Life Science Platforms Online For Your Kids

April 27, 2020 by

The ongoing pandemic has got you all cooped up at home with your family. As such, it is natural for your kids to ask questions, not only about the current situation but also broader aspects of Life Sciences and the Environment.

With schools out and no classes taking place anytime soon, you need to step up in the teaching shoes and involve your kids in answering their questions in an engaging and interactive way.

life science

Here we have listed four websites, which can help you and your kids to have a fun and learning experience.

BrainPOP

It is a great place to start learning about biology. With an interactive interface, fun-filled activities, cartoons, videos, worksheet planners, and other practical features, BrainPOP lets your kid choose topics and units based on different aspects of biology. 

Here, learning is a fun activity yet highly engaging and informative at the same time. Their latest topic about Coronavirus teaches in a holistic yet straightforward way about viruses, how they spread, and essential hygienic habits to avoid getting sick from it.

So, show your kids this site and start school today!

Science Kids

This interactive platform is loaded with lessons,  games, activities, quizzes, images, videos, and facts. Once you choose the subject, you can access grade appropriate materials for your kids.

From DNA to bacteria, cells to organs, humans to plants, this highly informative site makes learning a lot more fun for the kids. Moreover, specially curated activities, further make the lessons more engaging. 

Give Science Kids a try and see for yourself!

HHMI BioInteractive

Aimed at slightly older high school kids, BioInteractive is a platform solely dedicated to teaching life sciences. From innumerable topics to choose from, this site lets older kids understand biology in an in-depth way. 

If your kid is taking AP classes in biology or planning to do so next fall, BioInteractive is an amazing platform to sharpen up the concepts and understand basic biological questions. 

Rich materials and engaging student handouts, makes the biology class come alive at home, through this website.

Exploratorium

This website, developed by San Francisco based Exploratorium offers hands-on lessons in biology. The interactive videos with real-life examples and visual cues make learning all the more fun. 

From COVID-19 to the ecological balance, important topics of biology are covered eloquently and in an easy-to-grasp approach.

So, encourage your kids to visit this website to learn and explore about biology in a fun way and at the same time inspire hope in them to visit the Exploratorium in person, once the world gets better!

 Final Words

It is not easy to home-school your kids and teach them about biology without the conventional lab setups of school. However, with these highly interactive and web-based platforms, you can make learning a fun process for them. 

So, help your kids find an answer to all the burning biology questions that may be in their minds, given the pandemic we are facing and start their learning sessions today!




Make Them Count: Teaching Your Toddler Numbers, Counting, and More

February 17, 2020 by

My recent articles have focused on the basic learning we introduce toddlers to. Having talked about fun ways to teach your toddler to identify shapes by making your own shape book in a variety of fun ways opened up a whole discussion area for me.

That led me to talk about making it fun to teach your toddlers to identify colors and all the jazz. This week, I will be talking about numbers. Math is fun when we are young; it is later when it becomes scary. So, help your kids make friends with it while it is still innocent.

Child prepare for school

While learning to recite the numbers is easy because children memorize quicker, it is difficult to actually put the numbers to practical use. Honestly, we all have memorized a whole bunch of stuff without actually understanding what it means. What you have to focus on here is teaching them how to count and how much each number stands for.

You will have to bolster their number recognition skills. Counting one to ten is great, but knowing how much four actually is, is the test. Like the other things we have talked about, including it in daily tasks is the most natural way for them to pick it up.

Count, count, and count

Here are some examples of how to get them counting and associating the numbers to their values:

  • Dressing up – count the pieces of clothes they have to put on. 3 articles of clothing – 1 underpants, 1 pant, and 1 shirt. Count the buttons on the shirt – 1 button, 2 buttons, 3 buttons, 4 buttons.
  • Eating – If they are having fruits or snacks, something that is countable, then tell them to count it. Make statements or ask them questions, like:
    • “You can have only 4 biscuits.” 
    • “How many apple slices do you want?”
    • “Can you pass me 2 mangoes?”
  • Playing – When playing, you can use their toys to teach them a wide range of things. Toddlers have active imaginations and are expert sorters. They love putting things together and then separating them based on their idea of category. Use this to help them count. Ask them to count the number of stuffed animals they have, the number of toy cars they own, etc.

Including learning in their daily activities doesn’t overwhelm them and give them a chance to gain practical knowledge. They also feel motivated to learn more when they can see that what they know has a practical use. Teach them to count with their fingers, to begin with. You can start by counting on your fingers so that they can copy.

Final Thoughts

Toddlers are smarter than we give them credit for. They are curious and are hungry for knowledge. This is the best time to teach them things that are going to form the foundation of future learning. Teaching them numbers and counting should be easier as math is in everything. Get creative and get counting!




Fun Ways to Teach Your Toddler to Recognize Colors

February 10, 2020 by

Last time I talked about fun ways to teach your toddlers about shapes. That got me thinking about other essential things we often start teaching them early. One of the things that are an important addition to the basic alphabets, numbers, and shapes routine is colors.

Recognizing the colors and naming them is a fun exercise that kids anyway love to do. Teaching them about picking up different hues is even more fun because they will keep pointing out things that match the things they have learned about. Here are some fun ways to teach your kids about colors:

Finger Painting

Finger painting is one of the favorites when it comes to entertaining children. It is the embodiment of chaotic fun that makes the kids giggle.

  • Name the colors as you take them out.
  • Name them again as your toddler uses them.

This will help them get a visual representation of the words, and they will start associating the color with its name. It makes it easier for the child to remember. This also gives you a chance to teach them things that are often the same color as the ones you are using.

Get Inspired by Youtube Trend – “I Only Ate Yellow Food for the Whole Day”

A recent trend that hit YouTube was using just one color and basing your day around it. Eating the color was the most popular adaptation of it. The Youtuber would eat food only a certain color for the whole day. You can incorporate this in your day and make your child have fun with the learning.

  • Eat just one color food the whole day – red apple, red watermelon, red (arrabbiata) pasta, salsa, etc.
  • Wear a color on a certain day and try to match different things with it – matching the light green grass with your dark green shirt, the pastel green shed with your shirt, and so on. 

This will help them learn about the different hues of the same color as well.

Play a Game – “Color color, which color do you want?”

No, this isn’t the paper version. When I was young, we played this game, which involved running, tagging, finding colors, etc. 

  • There is one person who is tagged, and the other players will ask him, “Color color, which color do you want?”
  • The tagged child will call out a color, say black.
  • All the other players will run to grab something that is black – hair, railing, bike, etc.
  • The tagged person starts running as soon as he yells the color. If anyone hasn’t touched the color, and he catches them, then they are “it.”
  • And the cycle continues.

We did have a lot of games that helped us learn things. We didn’t even realize that. When I sat down to write this article, I didn’t have this game in mind, the memory just surfaced. Ahh, nostalgia!

Final Thoughts

Teaching is all about including methods that help your pupil. Toddlers want to play and have fun. Including lessons in their play is the best way to make them learn without it being too out there for them. This also gives them practical understanding than just theoretical knowledge.




How to Teach Your Toddler to Identify Shapes

February 3, 2020 by

One of the fun things about parenting is teaching your child new stuff. They are always so curious about things and ever ready to learn stuff. They look up to us to teach them things. It is a great and rewarding feeling to be able to share the knowledge and see them grow with it. 

When you start teaching them their letters and numbers, two of the other aspects include teaching them shapes and colors. Today, let’s talk about how to make learning shapes fun for the curious little minds.

block toy

Make a Personal Shape Book

There are a lot of titles already available on the market for children to learn shapes. You can get those, to begin with, but to get your child more interested, you can help them create their own. 

Creating things is equal to putting the knowledge to practical use. The process of creating in itself will help them remember shapes better. There are so many ways to do so.

  • Draw Your Own – This is the easiest way and will need the least amount of effort.
  • You can help them draw the shapes in a notebook. 
  • A better way would be to help them draw the shapes on different colored chart papers and cut them. 
  • Stick them in the notebook with labels so that you can practice later.
  • Search and Stick – This will be like playing a little treasure hunt, and the process of putting the book together will be like scrapbooking.
  • For every shape, you can go through newspapers and magazines to find the shapes. 
  • Let your child do that, and you can then cut them out, and also help them stick the cutouts in a notebook. 
  • Click and Stick – If you are feeling more adventurous and want to make a day out of it, you can take the treasure hunt out in the world. 
  • You can go on a trek or a hike or even to the local park or neighborhood. 
  • Ask your toddler to point out things that resemble various shapes like a circle cookie in the cafe, a round pebble by the river, a square piece of scrap. 
  • Click photographs, or, better yet, help your toddler click pictures.
  • Print out the pictures. Make sure to get various objects for one shape so that they will have many examples to go by.
  • Stick the prints in the book and label them.

Both the methods tickle their creative sides as well. This makes the process of learning more fun and more effective.

Final Thoughts

Learning doesn’t have to be boring and shouldn’t seem like a chore either. When the process becomes fun, toddlers start getting more involved. You can also turn their favorite food into a shape learning spectacle. Make their cookies and sandwiches in different shapes and let them have fun with it.




4 Animal Face Painting Design Ideas for Your Kids

November 11, 2019 by

Whether it is a birthday party attraction or a costume competition – knowing how to face paint can be really handy. I spent my niece’s last birthday, painting the faces of little children to help them look like the animals they wanted.

I honestly had more fun than I thought I would. Here are some of the popular designs I made and how to make them.

1. Dog Face Paint Design

Dogs are one of the most common animals that kids want to dress up as or want to be associated with. Painting a dog face is an easy task so you have no reason to sweat. Have you seen the dog-face emoji? The one with a white pup with black spots. It is one of the most common interpretations people use.

How to Paint it –

  • Start with white face paint. Cover your child’s face with a white base to help enhance the look and other features.
  • Add basic black eyeliner around one of their eyes to make it look like a spot on the dalmatian.
  • Apply some on the tip of their nose to represent their puppy nose.
  • Use the same eyeliner to draw whiskers.
  • You are done!

2. Bunny Face Paint Design

While adding rabbit ears is enough to often represent a bunny, painting a bunny face isn’t that difficult and will kick the look up a notch.

How to Paint it –

  • Sponge a base coat of grey and white paint on your child’s face like for the dog face.
  • Add rosy cheeks to highlight a bunny’s chubby little cheeks.
  • Add a nose and whiskers.
  • Draw on the two bunny teeth.
  • You are done!

3. Tiger Face Paint Design

Tigers are more a more common demand among children than you would like to think. Tigger from Winnie the Pooh could be an inspiration. The tiger stripes, though very impressive, are actually very easy to make.

How to Paint it –

  • Give a white base coat to your child’s face.
  • Sponge off the face orange leaving an area around their mouth, eyes, and the edge of the face or jaw.
  • Sectioning off parts of the face with areas of orange and white will help you create the muzzle effortlessly.
  • Use black paint to draw stripes.
  • Add black nose and whiskers.
  • You are done!

4. Butterfly Face Paint Design

While the butterfly isn’t technically an animal. You will be surprised at how many kids demand to be painted like a butterfly. The colours surely are the reason for many kids being drawn to them. You don’t need to paint the whole face, the area around the eyes is enough to create a stunning butterfly design on your child’s face.

How to Paint it –

  • Trace out the wings around wither both the eyes or one eye, depending on the wing placement you choose. Both eyes will also give a mask illusion.
  • You have the option of choosing the color here. Choose one, choose many, choose a rainbow – ask your child to choose their favorite. Paint the wings.
  • Add borders and details.
  • You can dot the wings with gems and glitter to make the design look more intricate.



5 Ways To Keep The Kids Entertained This Summer

August 9, 2019 by

When summer comes along, it can be hard to keep your kids entertained all of the time. They are no longer in the routine of heading to school and doing fun activities on the weekend – they need to be entertained all of the time.

Extra activities

The good news is that we have put together some of the best ways that you can keep your kids entertained this summer. Keep reading to find out more.

Create Something Together

One of the best ways to keep your kids entertained is to spend some time creating something together. This could involve arts and crafts, or it could be as simple as baking a cake. Your kids will love getting their creative juices flowing and they will be happy with the end result. Make sure to check out a list of some of the easy recipes that you can bake with kids here. 

Visit The Zoo

Kids love animals and so you should think about taking a trip to the local zoo with yours this summer to keep them entertained. You can all see the animals up close and possibly even give them a feed. If you don’t have a zoo nearby then you should also visit the aquarium or a farm. Either way, your kids will be entertained, and this will work well. 

Take A Family Road Trip

Have you ever thought about taking a family road trip? This can be a great way of getting out and exploring with your kids and it will save you some money on a vacation. Of course, for a successful road trip with kids, you’ll need a large family SUV fitted with comfortable seats and plenty of space. SUVs with tray tables can also come in handy for when you want to share some snacks with your kids. Make sure to pack some games for the car to keep them entertained.

Arrange for Water Fun

What better can you think of than making arrangements for water fun to keep kids entertained and beat the summer as well? Water slides can be a great source of water fun. Not only is it a fun and exciting way to beat the summer heat, but it also encourages physical activity and creativity.

One can easily get customized small water slides designed that are suitable for indoor pools to install and ensure that from kids to adults in the family, enjoy the summers to their fullest.

Have A Backyard Sleepover

Another great way to keep your kids entertained this summer is to have a backyard sleepover. This is just like camping except you do it in your backyard and you won’t have to head off anywhere. Your backyard sleepover just needs a tent, some blankets and snacks for the night. You can play games and watch movies at your sleepover so make sure to consider this.

Be Tourists

Have you ever explored your own hometown or city as a tourist? This can be the perfect way to keep your kids entertained and it is definitely something that you should give a try. You can find plenty of sites that offer family discounts on tourist attractions so make sure to have a look at this. Your kids will love seeing the sights and you can get some great photographs. 

Keeping your kids occupied and entertained over the entire summer can be tricky but if you try out some of the ideas that we have discussed here, you should be able to achieve this.




5 Fun Art Activities to Involve Your Kids In

July 8, 2019 by

1. Rock Painting

Rock painting is one of the most fun and inexpensive art projects you can get your kids involved in. The canvas for the painting – rocks – are totally free and you will have a gala of a time hunting for the perfect rocks with your kids. After you have selected the rocks that you would like to paint – mostly the ones with a smooth surface works the best.

Craft

Set up a painting station – outdoors if you want. Rock painting is great for working outdoors because no paper is going to be flying around. So, it will not be a mess. You and your kids can paint the rocks and make characters out of them which can then be used for stories or playtime or just decorating your garden.

2. Crumpled paper art

Crumpled paper art is a simple technique and is not much different from your regular painting. I would say it works best with watercolor than acrylic, poster, or oil paint because watercolor is easier to move around and simple for kids to play with.

Crumpled paper makes even just running brush strokes on the paper turn it into a different design every time. Other than you deciding what colors to use and what to paint, the end result will always be a surprise to you.

3. Leaf wreath

Making a leaf wreath isn’t only an activity that you will enjoy while in process, you will also get to have fun preparing for it. Just like rock painting, you can spend time with your kids walking and talking and collecting leaves.

Then comes the process of making the wreaths and that is fun trying to decide what leaves to use, which color combo to go for. Do you want it close nit or spaced out? Let your kids decide how the wreath is going to look.

4. Paper mache

Paper mache is a great way to teach kids about recycling and also getting them into the habit of making best from waste. Teach them how to get the paper ready to be sculpted into whatever they want. You can teach them to make paper mache statues, utensils, dishes, and even jewelry. Once you have spent a messy afternoon making them.

You can have another play date painting the dried results. This is a great activity to spread out during the week. The kids also learn how to consistently work on one project over the course of time.

5. Shaving cream marbling painting

This is a fun activity preferably done outside. What we do is get a tub and put in some shaving cream, you then have to put in some paint and swirl it around with a toothpick making a marbling effect. You can use any color combination and swirl it to your heart’s content just let the paints remain streaky.

Place the paper on top and let it stay for a few seconds and then pick it out of the tub. When it dries the paper has a cool marbling effect. You can scrap off the access shaving foam from the paper to have a smooth marbled paper.

This paper can again be used for crafting so the kids are making their own decorative paper. The paper can be used as gift wrapping or can also be used to make greeting cards.




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