The Continuation of Self
When my son was diagnosed with autism, I knew that working in a lab as a geneticist or as a professor wouldn’t be in the cards for a while, but I was getting anxious, depressed, quiet. I had just received my Master of Science degree from Arizona State University and...
The Power of Advocacy
If COVID-19 has taught us anything it is that if you are raising a child who has a disability- you need to learn how to advocate. During this pandemic we saw some companies, schools and departments of government really step-up to help our community, but we also saw...
More Needs to be Done for Special Needs Families
Last week I reached out to families and asked them to share their stories about how online in-home schooling is going and to find out what more needs to be done. Parents are worried about their children falling behind because schools are not making accomodations for...
Create a One Page Intro for your Child
Therapists and teachers go in and out of our children’s lives… almost like a revolving door. I can remember at one time we were juggling 3 doctors, 5 ABA therapist, 1 speech therapist, and 1 physical therapist. I remember getting tired of repeating the same things...
Building a Functional Relationship with Your Child’s Therapist
Therapists are part of the package when you have a child with a disability, and there are so many of them: physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapists, and on, and on. My children have had as many as 4 therapists at a time and when I had a...
ABLE Accounts
ABLE (Achieving a Better Live Experience) accounts are a great resource for children and adults who have been diagnosed with a disability. It allows people with disabilities to keep more than $100,000.00 and still maintain their SSI benefits. When Matt and I had our...
Guest Blog- The Isolation of Special Needs Parent
One of our members shared this blog post with the community. Thank you Denise Graham for sharing your feelings with us. I know many sympathize with the feels you shared with us. Thank you for expressing yourself freely and for showing others that they are not alone in...
The Gender Gap
The Gender Gap Today we are honored to have our daughter Maria grace the cover the SARRC’s Outreach Magazine. She is the first girl to be on the cover since the magazine started in 2007. When Maria was diagnosed with autism we were shocked. Her autism looks nothing...
How COVID-19 is affecting the Special Needs community.
The special needs community has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our children thrive on routines and this change in routines has been extremely difficult for them. Let's look at the various ways this community has been impacted. School...
Giving the gift of the ARTS back to the special needs community.
Last Friday 25 special needs parents were given a gift. A gift of the arts. We were treated to a night at the symphony. We were treated to the symphony by Valerie Bontrager, the director of education and community engagement at The Phoenix Symphony. She is a champion...