Welcome to Our Newest Members

We are so thrilled to have a lot of members that have recently joined. One of the special things about the site is that people are starting to make connections with each other. It’s what we envisioned when we started the site. Please stop by our newest members’ profiles and say howdy!

Patrick Blair, “Father of Maggi Blair – Trisomy 9 Mosaic Syndrome. Maggi is one of only 8 kids in the world with Trisomy 9 Mosaic.” He also joined The Man Cave, which made group owner Julian very happy.

Gayle, “Hi I’m Gayle a mother of two wonderful kids (Jon-Jon and Courtney). Jon-Jon turned 3 today and started Special Ed Preschool due to his speech delays. He’s very verbal but most isn’t understandable. Courtney is 20 months old and is only saying 5 words tops. She will start the birth-3 program soon. I’m very happy to find this group, it’s good to know that you are not alone.”

Shelley Freedman

Joseph Harris, “I have two kids, a neurotypical, precocious 5 year old girl, and a determined, pre-verbal, almost 4 year old with autism.”

Michelle Howard, “Michelle Howard is a wife, mom and business owner. She has a special needs little boy named CJ who has inspired her to start a blog, Stress Relief for Caregivers. Stress Relief for Caregivers is an extension of Michelle’s passion to reach as many people as possible to bring awareness to the fact that natural and alternative treatments for pain relief and stress are available.”

Mara Kaplan, “I am an educator, a parent of a child with profound disabilities and a seasoned advocate for inclusive play. I work with playground manufacturers to help them improve their equipment and design. I edit a website called http://www.accessibleplayground.net, where you can find accessible playgrounds near you as well as information about how to advocate for an accessible playground in your community. I also help parents find toys for their child–toys, not therapy equipment. High quality toys that you can purchase at typical toy stores, that last a long time, and can be played with by all the children in the family. You can visit my blog to read more about toys at http://letkidsplay.blogspot.com.”

Michelle Kay, “I am the mother of a almost 14 year old special needs child. He has a rare chromosomal abnormality and probably autism too.”

Debbie M, “I am a mother to two wonderful boys! My oldest has Down syndome and my youngest has ADHD/ODD.”

Shelley Mannell, “I am a registered Physical Therapist with over 20 years of experience in pediatrics who currently owns HeartSpace, a private practice in St. Catharines, Ontario where I offers a variety of services for children with motor dysfunction. I am certified in NDT (C/NDT) and has advanced clinical skills in Myofascial Release, Craniosacral Therapy and Sensory Processing Intervention. I was a clinical faculty member in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, teaching in the School of Physiotherapy for 10 years. I am a certified children’s yoga teacher and meditation facilitator as well as the creator of HeartSpace Yoga and Meditation for children with motor and sensory challenges. Recently I co-created Core Restoration for Kids, a new approach to treating core stability in children with motor challenges. I have always had a strong committment to continuing education. I teach workshops for parents, residential facilities, and early childhood development centres as well as continuing clinical education courses for therapists internationally. I enjoy the challenge of combining the science of movement, the theoretical basis of treatment and the art of clinical skills in a problem-solving approach to treatment, blending approaches to facilitate optimum functional skills for each child.” (Note: Shelley is writing for us! Check out her first article here!)

Diana, “I’m a mom to 3 great kids. Our daughter is a long awaited biological miracle baby. Our boys were adopted from Ukraine in July, 2007. Our lives will never again be the same. Just a few of the things we adopted along with our boys include RAD, PTSD, ADHD, FASD, CP, OCD and a whole bunch of other “alphabet soup” kinds of stuff.”

Heather Sebastian

Cheryl W., “I am a mother of 4 (one who has gone home to be with the Lord). Christ is first and foremost in my life and my family is such a gift. I love movies (especially animation), reading and animals. We have a micro chicken farm where we enjoy organic, cage free eggs and also watching chicken antics are fun.”

Member News On and Off-line

Julie is collecting Clutter-free Teacher Gifts in the Organizing … Specialized group. Got any ideas? Please share them!

New member Michelle wrote a great blog post, Handling Ignorant Stares, and shared it on our Community News page. Lots of people retweeted it when it went out on the SupportSN twitter account! (Did you know our Community News posts automatically get tweeted? Yup, they do!)

Sylvia‘s son was in the hospital this week with a fever but thankfully he is back at home!!

Jolene was chosen to speak at the CMX (Children’s Ministry Expo) Conference in Lexington! Congratulations Jolene!

Janet is looking for ways to keep all the service providers working with her family up to date on what’s happening. Do you have anything to share? Let her know!

Andy is very proud to announce that after four reading sessions with a tutor her son Liam has moved up a reading level! Way to go Liam!!

Jo-Ann had a really tough night recently. Please go give her some love!

Mindy was surprised to see her son’s rare disorder on ABC News the other night. Click here to see the segment.

Didder Broder’s Daddy has been pretty busy on the site. Check out his recent blog post. Breaking Through the Barriers of Infallibility at his blog! (He’s also figured out how to add images to forum posts so he’s way ahead of me!)

Siobhan came by my house recently with a bag of outgrown clothes from her daughter to mine. You gotta love those in-person connections, eh? (If you’re touching base with site members in-person we’d love to hear about it!)

We’re planning some great things for the community and we are so glad you are along for the ride. We hope you will make the connections so you can support and be supported.

Want to get more out of our site? Join our community!