Tag Archives: Parenting

Special Parents Confidential 67 When the Nightmare Happens

When the Nightmare Happens.

This episode could probably be called Parent Story number four, but I’ve chosen to call it When The Nightmare Happens. Because this is the kind of parent story that you don’t want to happen.

Meet Kiri Salazar.

Kiri Salazar is a person that my wife Sarah and I met here in the Grand Rapids Michigan area. She is a widow and her son Alexei has non verbal autism. Like many people she has a blog, where she writes about her life and her son’s challenges. This past November, 2018, Kiri shared a story about an incident with her son that was about as frightening and stressful as it can get. Fortunately, as you will hear, the incident eventually turned out fairly well. But I felt it should be shared, which is why I invited her to be on this episode, and she agreed to do it.

What Would You Do?

I should warn you that Kiri’s story is difficult to listen to. But her hope is that by sharing it she can perhaps help other families who may be faced with a similar situation. Our greater hope is that some officials in government, who are in a position do something about the challenges we talk about, can help to remedy these situations by coming up with ways to provide better support to families.

Links

You can visit Kiri’s blog at: The Dust Season 

Kiri’s original blog post about her son’s incident: With Prejudice

Reminder

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Special Parents Confidential 56 Parent Stories 01

Special Parents Confidential 56 Parent Stories 01

We begin a new series of episodes dedicated to Parent Stories – real life experiences raising a child with special needs.

When I first started doing these podcast episodes, my goal was to provide two things – answers and advice from experts on many subjects of concern to parents of special needs kids, and stories of experience from other parents of special needs kids. I wanted to re-create some of the support group meetings I’ve attended where we would hear from an expert and the the parents would get to talk. Hearing parent stories can help because we all seem to do better when we know we’re not alone.

Of course, when the episodes started I mostly began finding lots of professionals willing to talk about their areas of expertise that could help all of us with our kids. And the parent stories idea has kind of taken a backseat to those episodes on advice.

We Really Are All In This Together.

Well starting with this episode, we’re going to feature parent stories. We’ll hear from parents who’s kids are either still in school, or recently graduated from school. Parents who have worked for and fought for their kids, parents who have struggled and may still be struggling, or parents who have somehow gotten through. They may not have always gotten exactly the help they wanted for their child, but they were able to get  the best they could and their kids are either on their way toward independence or already there.

We’re giving these episodes the designation, Special Parents Confidential Parent Stories, so that you’ll know that they’re different from the regular episodes. But I think you’ll find yourself learning as much from these stories as you do from our expert interviews.

Welcome Back Carol Lippert.

Our first guest to share her parent story is appropriately enough, Carol Lippert, who was my guest on the very first episode of Special Parents Confidential. In that episode we talked about how she created and organized a support group in her community for parents of children with Autism. In this episode she shares her personal story of how she and her husband David are dealing with raising their son, Wyatt, who is autistic. 

Connect With Us On Facebook!

A great way for you to stay in touch with me and communicate your thoughts on these episodes is on the facebook page for Special Parents Confidential. Use the Facebook button on the right side of this website, or the button at the bottom of this text, or use this link. You can also search Special Parents Confidential on Facebook. It’s also a great way to share our podcast with everyone you know.

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Special Parents Confidential 49 Parenting Concerns

Parenting Concerns.

Having a special needs child always causes tremendous parenting concerns and a lot of work. Many moments can be incredible, exhilarating, and full of amazing wonder. But it can also be extremely stressful. Dealing with schools, social situations, family situations… it can seem like everywhere you turn is another opportunity for more parenting concerns and stress. The other problem is that not everyone understands or even cares about these situations, so many parents can feel isolated in their worries and concerns.

Family Stress

So what can you do to help you deal with all these stresses and keep yourself from coming apart at the seams?  Our guest on this episode has some great advice. Jean Holthaus is a licensed independent social worker with Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Pella Iowa. She specializes in dealing with anxiety issues, parenting concerns and family issues, and working with special needs children. You’ll also find out about setting boundaries for special needs children, dealing with emotions including anger in children and adults, and how to deal with school anxiety issues. Jean also talks about great resources for parents to access that can help with numerous situations for schools, home, and social situations.

Links Mentioned in the Podcast

Jean Holthaus’ Page at Pine Rest 

Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education

US Department of Education ED Publications

The American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry

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SPC One Year Anniversary

SPC Studio

SPC One Year Anniversary.

One year ago this week I posted the first two podcasts on the newly minted Special Parents Confidential website. Fifteen episodes in one year, about three more than I thought I would be able to get produced, which puts me ahead of my expectations. And that’s always a good thing.

What does it take to create a podcast? As far as equipment goes, not much really. A mixer, a microphone, a phone interface, headphones, speakers, a digital recording platform, and some wires to connect it all.

But Special Parents Confidential is far more than the equipment. It’s a lot of people who helped me get started nearly six months before this date last year. Those people and their contributions are listed on the About Us page and I’d like to encourage you to take a look at the links to their own websites because they are some amazing people who do incredible things.

Most importantly I’d like to thank the 15 people who agreed to take time out of their busy schedules to answer questions about what parents of special needs children need to know and what they do to help. Some very graciously took a long time, nearly missing important events or meetings, just to make sure they answered every question.

When I started these interviews my goal was to create an online support group for parents of special needs children who aren’t able to attend support group meetings. Thanks to these first 15 people I can say that the goal has been exceeded

Here’s the list of those fine people and their episode subjects once again. If you haven’t heard all these interviews yet, please take a listen!

1. Carol Lippert – Support Groups

2. Dan Blauw – Legal Issues

3. Cyndi Blair – Playdates

4. Dr. Oren Mason – ADD/ADHD

5. Kindy Segovia – Assistive Technology

6. Kathy Holkeboer – Special Education Advocacy

7. Stacy Burns – One Parent’s Journey

8. Chris Kenward – Social Issues In School

9. Julie Wiseman – Deafness and Hearing Impairment

10. Paula Lancaster – Special Education

11. Rev. Mathew Cockrum – Special Needs and Spiritual Needs

12. Elizabeth Welch-Lykens – School Funding and Special Education

13. Rabbi Tzvi Schectman – The Friendship Circle

14. Gabriella McCall Delgado – We Connect Now

15. Conny Raaymakers – Applied Behavior Analysis

It’s been an amazing journey. I’m looking forward to continuing with more episodes in 2014 and beyond.

To everyone who agreed to be interviewed, to everyone who helped out in making this podcast and website a reality, and most of all, to you for finding my site, taking a listen, and then recommending these episodes to people you know:

A huge   T H A N K   Y O U !!!!