Special Needs Podcast Roundup – Week of July 12, 2011

There are so many resources out there for parents who have children with special needs. Podcasts are an often overlooked source of information. This week’s Special Needs Podcast Roundup includes: author interviews, a glimpse into the life of a family with nine adopted special needs children, a conversation about stem cells, a parenting course, a lunch chat about a resource center, and more. The Parenting Plate Podcast released an episode on June 7, 2011. This episode has an interview with Jolene Philo, author of the book “Different Dream Parenting: A Practical Guild to Raising a Child with Special Needs”. The … Continue reading

When Someone Very Special Dies: Children Can Learn to Cope with Grief

When someone passes away and goes home to heaven, it is difficult for adults. Can you imagine how it feels to a child who understands “why” even less than an adult does? Children deal with loss a bit differently than an adult does. It is necessary to help them through the grieving process as much as possible. When Someone Very Special Dies: Children Can Learn to Cope with Grief by Marge Heegard is an amazing book where children are presented with a situation or a statement regarding their loss. On each page a statement is made similar to, “this is … Continue reading

The Five Steps to Group Development.

This is the follow-on article from How to Grow a Families Leader: The Eight Characteristics of Leadership. Using the example of Families.com as our group, how can we each develop the stated eight characteristics in ourselves? While Lisa Pietsch may be seen as the leader of Families.com (she’s the community manager), group dynamics would suggest that we each have a role to play in ensuring our group’s survival through a systematic understanding of group stages. Bruce Tuckman (educational psychologist) is honored with establishing the five stages of group development. How do these five stages fit Families.com? We have undergone two … Continue reading

Education A to Z: Y for Your Child and Brain Based Learning

We are almost to the end of my blog series, Education A to Z. I am up the letter Y in my long series of education blogs. My focus in this blog will be your child and brain based learning. First, let’s define what brain based learning is for those of you who may not know exactly what it is that I am talking about. Much research was done over the years that focus on the brain and how it interacts with the learning someone does. Researchers came to a conclusion that the brain is always seeking meaning in things, … Continue reading