A New Resource For Special Needs Parenting

Recently, I picked-up a new writing client; they are a blog for children with disabilities. Since I have plenty of experience with this, I was more than happy to start writing for them. The site has recently launched in the last month and I would like to let you know about it.

When you get a chance, check out: ChildRC.com

As a parent to a child with Special Needs, I firmly believe in bringing awareness to this subject; I believe this site will help with that.

As I have written before, my youngest child is a Special Needs child. She has Ataxia and Hypatonia, No one can tell us for sure what is causing her condition. We have only one specialist tell us it seems like it is Ataxic Cerebral Palsy, a very rare form of Cerebral Palsy, but needs more research to be sure.

For anyone that is a parent of or works with a Special Needs child, I urge you to check out ChildRC.com and add it your list of sites that are helping to raise awareness of Special Needs and disabilities rights.

I am always looking to connect with other parents and professionals that work with Special Needs children. You can reach me at my contact page or on Twitter. I am working on a FaceBook page for this site and it will be up a bit later.

Photo credit: wricontest

Happy New Year!

Well, another year has gone by. That also means another year is starting.

I hope everyone has a great new year and all of your goals for the year come true!

I personally hope this year is better than the last. So many things have happened and I hope this new year will bring better opportunities than 2009.

Happy New Year to All!

Photo credit: optical_illusion

Happy Holidays to All!

This is the time of year to focus on more personal things in life: family, personal goals and accomplishments and more.

I am thankful for what I have and that I still have my family and home. I have had many changes this year; some good and some not so good. I am planning for many things in 2010 and hope for a new start on some things in my life.

Here is hoping that you have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones.

Photo credit: me

How a Video Game Taught My Child About Quitting

“It’s too hard; I can’t do it, I quit!”

These were the words from my 5-year-old daughter. We were playing Wii Sports Resort and she was playing the sword duel module. She was in a duel to knock the computer player off of the platform with a fake sword – she kept losing.

I said, “Quit? Why don’t you try again?”

She said, “It’s too hard. I won’t be able to do it, ever!”

I said, “If you quit, you will never win. Keep trying and you will make it.”

She had enough; she sat on the floor and asked me to play instead. I picked up the controller and picked another module to play – Ping Pong. I played it before; I liked it and I won last time – well not this time.

I tried again and said, “See. Daddy didn’t win and he isn’t giving up.”

No response from my daughter.

After another 3 defeats, I tried again. (Usually, I am pretty good at this, but this time I must have had something in my eye – yeah, that was it!)

Now my daughter was cheering for me to win. Another 2 defeats; guess what I did then? I tried again.

I won.

I said to my daughter, “See, I didn’t give up. I didn’t quit, I kept trying.”

She replied with, “I want to try now.”

She took the controller and proceeded to pick her fake sword game and try again.

She lost.

She tried again. She lost again. After 3 more times, she won.

She said, “I did it! I kept trying and I did it!”

My response, “Yes, see what happens when you keep trying? You will do it.”

So what is this all about?

I have been through many things in my life, some good and a lot not so good, but I don’t like to quit; I actually hate it. There were times I had to quit, but for good reasons – not because I didn’t want to do something.

I don’t want my children to come up against difficult things in their lives and just quit. I want them to keep trying and make things happen for themselves.

Now, I am not taking about winning at all costs, I am taking about just giving up and not even giving something a try. (I will touch on the winning at all costs discussion in another post.)

We all have things to overcome in our lives, some worse than others; I want to instill in my children that when things get hard, you keep trying – don’t quit, don’t give in to your fears or frustration.

Do you keep trying?

How do you encourage your children to keep trying?

Photo credit: Zanastardust

What Are You Thankful For This Holiday Season?

The holidays are a time for giving and giving thanks. Too many focus on getting gifts and not enough on the reason for the season. This holiday season, we should think of those less fortunate; some families don’t have a roof over their head now.

I give thanks I have a roof over my family’s head, food on the table, and my loved ones are around for this holiday season. In my personal opinion, I don’t think many give thanks for what they have; they only focus on what they don’t have.

I recently wrote an article at Parenting Special Needs Magazine on giving thanks and how my Special Needs child helps me see things in a new light. Please give it a read here:

What Are You Thankful For?

During this holiday season, let’s focus on what we do have, helping those less fortunate and spending more time with our loved ones. You never know what could happen tomorrow.

Photo credit: Graham Lewis (Grinner)

Health Insurance – A Love-Hate Relationship

Health insurance.

Some love it. Some hate it. Most love AND hate it. There are some that even say it is a love-hate relationship. I have one of these relationships; for me, marriage is much easier!

The Need for Insurance

You get sick; you go to your doctor or your local hospital for treatment. You may have some tests done or told to get some medicine.

Now, how are you going to pay for it? You didn’t think it was free, did you? Of course not! This is where insurance comes into play. This is what you pay your insurance premiums for. There are some that can’t get health insurance. There is a big battle on this in Washington now; I will save that for another post.

When you have insurance, you usually pay the small co-pay and the insurance will get billed for the rest. For the rest, you will have to pay out of your own pocket. Usually, everything runs smooth and the bill will get paid but this is not always the case.

What about specialized treatment? Medical expenses can run from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Insurance does not cover all treatments; such as specialized therapies. There is that love-hate relationship again!

My Relationship with Insurance

As I wrote in a previous post, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Review, I went into detail of my experience with this treatment and how it has helped my daughter. In that post, I mentioned the cost of the treatment is high and not usually covered by insurance.

What is the reason it is not covered by insurance? There are many things listed, such as: “there is not enough data to support this works”.

Bull!!

Through my experience talking with other parents, other medical professionals and finding a massive amount of data supporting positive results, I would say there is proof!

Don’t they say, “the proof is in the pudding?” Well, I got plenty of pudding and I will be sending it to my insurance company. We have statements from doctors, before and after videos of her progress and more; the data from the video alone is indisputable. How can you not see how this treatment has helped, not only my child, but also many other children with special needs conditions as well?

Yes, at times, insurance is good. Then there are those times you want to take a Nerf bat to their head and say “Listen to me! Why aren’t you listening to me? Is this what I pay my premium for?” This is MY love-hate relationship.

Photo credit husin.sani

I Don’t Remember Toys Like Those When I Was Growing Up

I grew up playing with toys like G.I. Joe, He-Man and Star Wars; I actually have a few of them in my closet. In those days, you were lucky to get the kung-fu grip on your action figures. Today, we have toys that can make a pre-school aged child into a fully functional bringer of hell itself. I don’t remember toys like those when I was growing up!

Now I have two girls, so I don’t get to go down the toy isles that prepare children for the end of the world; however, from time to time my oldest will want something that is far beyond anything I could imagine at 5 years old. At 5 years and 4 years, I would think toys for their age group would be somewhat conservative. Yes, there are some of those but I have seen toys for girls that, to me anyways, are preparing them to go out for a night out at the club. Baby dolls I can handle; black lipstick and accessories are a bit too much for this Dad!

Just like the days of TV and movies, I remember the days of toys that could help you take over the world.  I also remember getting into a toy package was not like trying to get into Fort Knox. As a Dad, I sometimes wonder what the toy makers are doing when they think up ideas for new toys.

Do they really need a college degree or even a high school diploma to get their job?

I don’t know why but I sometimes think of some toy makers are like Pinky and the Brain.

Pinky – “What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?”

Brain – “The same thing we do every night Pinky; try to take over the world!”

What do you think? Have toys nowadays gone too far?

I would love to hear your opinion as well.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Review

As I wrote before, I recently finished doing Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy treatments for my youngest daughter. The experience was wonderful and the personnel there were great. I want to thank everyone that helped out during this time.

I have written a review of the experience on one of the sites that I write for. It details the experience and how I believe this treatment is something all Special Needs Parents should look at.

You can find the article in the current issue of Parenting Special Needs Magazine. Here is the link to the article:

http://parentingspecialneeds.org/article&article=166

For any any parent that is thinking of this treatment, I highly recommend it.

For anyone that would like more information or would like to get more information on my experience, please contact me at the following:

My Contact Page

On Twitter – @grpasswater

Email – dadwritings(at)gmail(dot)com

Updated – Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment

In a previous post, Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Time, I wrote on how we were starting a new treatment for my youngest daughter. The new treatment, Hyperbaric Oxygen, is not really new; it is something that has been around for years for treatments of wounds and more.

After 4 weeks of treatment with this therapy, I am happy to say this therapy is working and we will be continuing treatments. Others and me are seeing improvements in cognitive, physical and other areas of my daughter’s progress. I do believe this treatment is the start of getting my child on the road to a much improved life.

Everything is great with this therapy except one thing, the cost. It is a expensive therapy and insurance does not cover the cost. After all the improvements and testimonials from parents and others of this therapy, I would think the medical insurance industry would look closer into helping with the cost of this. Hopefully, someday this will change.

As we move into this second round of treatments, I will post another update on how the progress goes.

Are there any parents out there that are looking at this treatment or have more information on it?

Contact me.

I would love to converse with you.

Happy Father’s Day

Since I am a Dad and we celebrated Father’s Day yesterday, I want to wish all Dads and Grandfathers happy Father’s Day. I had a great day with my children along with going to my Dad’s house for the day.

I hope all you Dads out there had a great day and you got to spend the day with your families.

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