Search Results for: blog toys designed for kids who have special needs

Sensory-Friendly Santa – At a Mall Near You

One of the fun parts of the holiday season is a trip to visit Santa Claus at the local mall. It can be hard for many little ones to wait in line – but most manage to do it. Children who have autism, or who have difficulties coping with the bright lights, loud sounds, and big crowds that surround Santa can visit a Sensory-Friendly Santa. A Sensory-Friendly Santa might also be called a Sensitive Santa or a Caring Santa. Santa looks the same, but is able to behave differently than typical in order to accommodate for kids who have special … Continue reading →

Homecoming, Halloween, Toy Catalogs, and More!

This Special Needs Week in Review blog just so happens to fall on the very last day of September. A wide variety of subjects hit the blog this week. There are blogs about homecoming rumors, Halloween activities for kids with special needs, a new drug, a new toy guide, and some concern about “clustering”. Arbaclofen May Help Symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome Arbaclofen, (also called STX209), has been approved to treat one of the symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome. It helps with social withdrawal. There is potential that this drug might also help people who have an autism spectrum disorder … Continue reading →

The 2012 Toys R Us “Differently-Abled” Toy Guide is Ready!

Many toys come with a label that states the recommended age. Parents of kids who have special needs learn that their child’s chronological age, and developmental age, might not match to what a toy maker recommends. Toys R Us has a guide to make it easier for your family to select appropriate toys for your child. The Toys R Us “Differently-Abled” guide is updated every year. It is designed to be a resource for parents, relatives, friends, and professionals who want to find a suitable toy for a child who has a special need. The guide can help someone shop … Continue reading →

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – April 1 – 7, 2012

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Every week, the Special Needs Blog Week in Review gives you a brief description of all of the blogs that appeared there in the past seven days. This is a good way to find the blogs that you missed, but perhaps would have liked to read when they first appeared. The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on April 2, 2012. This time, I’d like to point out an episode of NPR’s “All Things Considered”. The episode is called “N.Y. Preschool Starts DNA Testing for Admission”. If something in the child’s DNA makes the school think that he or she … Continue reading →

Jack’s Helping Hand Reaches Out to Offer Support

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What does your child play with? It isn’t easy to find engaging, and appropriate, toys for kids with certain kinds of special needs. Organizations like Jack’s Helping Hand are making things a bit easier for parents, by creating a toy lending library. This is just one of the ways that Jack’s Helping Hand can offer assistance to parents of kids who have special needs. Jack’s Helping Hand is an organization that was created by Paul and Bridget Ready, in memory of their son, Jack. He had a rare form of brain cancer, and lived to be three years old. He … Continue reading →

Toys Designed for Kids Who Have Special Needs

It can sometimes be difficult to find an appropriate gift for a child who has special needs. The recommended age that is listed on the box the toy comes in may, or may not, be useful information. Parents can consult toy companies that are special needs friendly, or catalogs of toys for the “differently abled.” Most parents have a pretty good idea of what kinds of toys their child would like to receive as a gift this year. Often, it is the other members of a child’s extended family that are unsure about what types of toys would be a … Continue reading →

Magazines for Parents of Kids With Special Needs

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Have you ever flipped through the parenting magazines while waiting for a doctor’s appointment? Parents of children with special needs often find that the parenting experiences described in those magazines does not match up very well with your life, or with the special needs of your child. Fortunately, there are plenty of parenting magazines that were designed for parents of children who have a specific special need. Parenting Children With Special Needs is a free magazine that is distributed in the Kansas City area. It is bi-monthly. If you live in that area, you can pick up the magazine from … Continue reading →

Wheelchairs With Love, From America

The holidays are here, and if your kids are like mine, they haven’t a care in the world. They’ve written their letters to Santa–filled with requests for video games, clothes, toys, electronic gadgets and gizmos of all kinds. Their world is full of excess. They have never known real hunger, or real poverty. They have never known war on any personal level. They have never known what it feels like to be unable to move about freely. The Gift of a Wheelchair Today, as you read this blog, there are children on the streets of Iraq who are scooting themselves … Continue reading →

“Your kid is HOW old?” Guiding Your Child To Age-Appropriate Behaviors

Children with special needs often have developmental delays which may cause them to be more immature than their peers. Mental retardation, autism, and various learning disabilities can create a noticeable gap between a child’s developmental age and his or her actual age. For example, an eight-year-old girl with Down Syndrome might be fixated on carrying a tattered baby blanket. Or a boy on the autism spectrum who is ten might want to wear a Barney T-shirt. It’s a good idea for parents to help guide their special kids into behaviors which are more age-appropriate. Does “age appropriate” really matter? I … Continue reading →