By the time you read this, schools across the country will be in full swing. Teachers may be easing into a groove with their new students. But for parents of children with special needs, those initial jitters never truly subside. For every great, gifted educator out there, there are countless others who are clueless and incompetent when it comes to teaching our children in the unique way they need to be taught.
Autism is growing, and with this latest spike reported in the U.S. (30 percent in just two years), nobody can keep up. All the time and money being invested in finding a cure is creating a vacuum of lost children, most of them boys. What happens to these kids once they get handed their piece of paper? Let me tell you what happened to us. Lots of phone calls with various coordinators, informing us of services we could apply for. Then nothing.
When it comes to special needs, there seems to be two schools of parenting: one that aims to understand and accept and another that seeks to change or cure. My philosophy tends to align with the former. I'm done with laying blame. I'm done with reading up on the latest possible cause or the hottest new "remedy" for autism.
As moms go, Michelle Gentis is a pretty remarkable one. Not only is she training to run a full marathon, she's going to do it while pushing her wheelchair-bound son.
It's largely the Vancouver-based mom's 'can't beat 'em, join 'em' attitude that sparked her desire to run with her son, Joshua, who is severely physically disabled.
Talk about inspiration. A clothing retailer whose slogan is to fit in while standing out has just found its perfect face in Karrie Brown, a teen with modelling aspirations, who also happens to have Down's syndrome.
