tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39228042012-01-30T09:49:09.558-05:00... but it's usually good for a laugh.Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.comBlogger13591100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-58569983820667626162012-01-30T09:47:00.000-05:002012-01-30T09:49:09.562-05:00

"Where's the Functionality?": Last week on her blog Authentic Inclusion, Lisa Jo Rudy lamented that so many resources on "teaching" kids with autism are interested only in teaching kids with autism to look less like kids with autism, not to give them any particular academic enrichment. I've felt the same annoyance, although with my son and his friends, it's been more a matter of "life skills"

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-66618671620872702972012-01-28T19:12:00.001-05:002012-01-28T19:12:55.663-05:00

Better Late Than Never: I've been neglecting my intention to post about the Inclusive Class radio shows, although the chats about paraprofessionals and making schools inclusive have been interesting and worth sharing. To double up here, then, here's the widget you can use to listen to the interview from two Fridays ago with Susan Fitzell about working with paraprofessionasl and what they need to

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-8275775860475879992012-01-25T09:14:00.000-05:002012-01-25T09:14:40.517-05:00

The Arc of Advocacy: Disability Scoop had an item yesterday titled Most Parents Pleased With Role In Child's IEP, which right there made my eyebrows raise. Really? Then I guess it's the vocal minority that writes all the books and the angry blog posts. One thing that particularly amused me was this line: "What’s more, parents of younger students were also more likely to be satisfied, the

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-82004236438798954452012-01-19T18:50:00.002-05:002012-01-19T18:53:00.188-05:00

One More Turn on the Merry-Go-Round: Had the odd experience the other day of taking my son to his pediatric neurologist after about seven years away. She released us in 2005 with instructions to just get in touch if we needed something, and until now we have not. But the possibility that his brief spells of tenacious inattentiveness might be absence seizures has remained in the back of my own

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-19991207972143932432012-01-18T17:53:00.000-05:002012-01-18T17:53:12.784-05:00

What I'll Be Spending All My Time Working on for the Next Couple of Months: If you're like me, you spend way too much time reading blogs, have way too high a pile of new parenting books awaiting your reading time, and pick apart every TV show for the possibility of a special-needs plotline. Well, here's a way to put all that "research" to good use. I've got eight categories of Readers' Choice

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-48901845219525439492012-01-14T15:41:00.003-05:002012-01-15T00:12:42.751-05:00

Memo to Doctors and Hospitals: You want to know how to ignite a firestorm for yourself like Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is experiencing? Three tips: Tell the parents of a child with special needs their child has no quality of life Tell the parents of a child with special needs that their child is not worthy of the same treatment others might receive When the parents advocate for the

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-74867403308066273932012-01-13T17:29:00.000-05:002012-01-14T19:57:57.686-05:00

If You Could See a Lighter on a Radio Show, I'd Have Been Holding One Up: I got to talk to one of my personal parenting gurus, Howard Glasser, on the Inclusive Class radio show today, and I felt like a squee-ing fangirl at the feet of a rock star, yelling out familiar tunes to play. "Tell the analogy about the video game!" "Talk about Kodak moments!" "Tell us where to put our energy!" I knew all

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-46400769862723882772012-01-09T11:50:00.001-05:002012-01-14T19:59:02.177-05:00

Excuse Our Dust: Mothers With Attitude is moving from a host where I have to pay and wrangle HTML to a Blogger blog that will be slightly less spiffy but much much much easier for me to keep up (and pay for, since it's free). The motherswithattitude.com url will move with it, but links to pages off the homepage will be messed up, and the site may be offline for a while in the changeover. Please

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-20216146477694702332012-01-06T18:16:00.004-05:002012-01-06T18:16:48.070-05:00

Just Managing: Today's topic on The Inclusive Class radio show was classroom management, and boy, talk about something that's vital to the success of students with special needs and yet tough for their parents to control. Often by the time I found out that a classroom-management problem was responsible for my son's behavior problems, most of the year was over. And even if you do develop a network

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-46488427601157305662012-01-05T13:50:00.001-05:002012-01-05T13:50:47.434-05:00

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means to Me: Or what it doesn't mean, in this case, which is nieces and nephews calling aunts and uncles Aunt and Uncle. This has been a Thing with my kids and extended family members, and yeah, I've had the talks about calling people what they want to be called, and showing respect to elders, and yada yada yada. I get that it's important to many folks, my kids'

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-40849383920972941352012-01-03T15:41:00.001-05:002012-01-03T15:41:41.860-05:00

Promises, Promises: Hey, here we are in 2012. The year my son will graduate from high school. The year I'll attend my last IEP meeting. The year I'll have to pay for two kids in college. A banner year in many ways. I made some unrealistic resolutions yesterday on my About.com site, so it seems appropriate to make some promises here as well. I'd really like to make a resolution for the Mothers

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-73111351460798761272011-12-23T22:00:00.000-05:002011-12-24T01:37:24.554-05:00

Three Cheers: Really inspiring show today on The Inclusive Class radio show with guest Sarah Cronk, founder of The Sparkle Effect, which includes girls with special needs in cheerleading squads. If you're wondering how you'd get such a thing started at your child's school, Sarah's website The Sparkle Effect has lots of information, and there are grants and mentors available to help out. What

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-19199154475864686492011-12-21T15:27:00.000-05:002011-12-22T17:59:27.702-05:00

Calling All Kids Who Would Rather Play With the Infield Dirt Than Catch the Ball: A post yesterday on Support for Special Needs on "Scouting Inclusion Policies & Special Needs" reminded me of so many attempts at inclusive activities, and how they don't automatically suit our kids. I know the pendulum is swinging away from special-needs-only activities, but there's going to have to be a range of

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-19999763296660912922011-12-21T01:14:00.000-05:002011-12-21T01:14:26.961-05:00

Do You Hear What I Hear?: I'm trying to imagine what goes through the minds of adults who think it's funny to make cracks about a child's medication in front of that child and his parent. Recently it was Santa Claus in the news for taunting a kid, but I've seen a substitute teacher do it to a kid in her class, and I've had a drugstore cashier do it to my son and me. "Did he take his medication

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-51963878445804110502011-12-19T16:39:00.000-05:002011-12-19T16:39:20.909-05:00

Well, They Didn't Say December 5 of Which Year: Feeling extremely ticked off today at the Warner Brothers Online Store, from which you should not order if you have any particular date by which you wish to get your goods. And if you think, "Hey, I don't need it for a month, even if they're slow, it'll come in time," you are sadly mistaken. As was I, assuming that ordering DVDs on November 25, DVDs

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-26206294236408017932011-12-18T02:08:00.004-05:002011-12-18T02:08:56.870-05:00

You've Got a Friend, At Least While the Teacher's Looking: Friday's Inclusive Class radio show was about promoting friendships in inclusive classrooms. And boy, is that sure something that everybody could use some help with. I think programs like the one our guest Heather McCracken was talking about can increase acceptance, and friendliness, and those are very good things. What I think often

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-17087696694934066302011-12-16T09:07:00.005-05:002011-12-16T09:07:52.562-05:00

Weeping Alert: Here's the video I mentioned on the radio show this morning, about two 13-year-old friends, one of whom has cerebral palsy, who competed in a triathlon together. More about it, including photos, on the Ams Vans blog.  

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-47570806459121785112011-12-14T23:30:00.000-05:002011-12-15T05:25:21.712-05:00

Making Your Own Mistakes (as Your Mom Tears Her Hair in the Background): I've been reading a lot lately about self-advocacy as an essential college skill for kids with special needs—most recently, in a post on Different Dream for Your Child—and, sure, of course, it's true. Colleges don't want to talk to the Warrior Mom. If young people can't speak for themselves, they don't get heard. The thing

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-87831333687298156502011-12-13T23:30:00.000-05:002011-12-14T00:50:46.493-05:00

Stage Fright: My once-a-month contribution to Hopeful Parents just went up. I wrote about my son's choir concert last week, and what a relief it was in comparison to his third-grade choir concert, at which both he and I behaved not so well. I kept him away from the performing arts after that because -- well, that's what we do, right? We change the environment. We assess risk vs. reward. We look

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-48884212195496823712011-12-12T17:41:00.004-05:002011-12-12T17:41:48.693-05:00

Let the Boy See the World If He Wants To: That's the theme song for Zach Anner's new travel show on Oprah's network, which finally debuts tonight at 8 p.m. I'm proud to have remembered to set my DVR for it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what this funny guy with "the sexiest of the palsies" can do. Get a preview of the show in the video below, and watch it or record it yourself. You might also

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-39582640136925200262011-12-09T18:09:00.001-05:002011-12-09T20:55:14.025-05:00

Maybe "Children With Special Terminology": Today's guest on the Inclusive Class radio show was Kathie Snow, who advocates for inclusion and person-first language on her Disability Is Natural site, and one of the topics that came up in passing is the term "special needs" and how, well, un-special it is. It sets kids apart in a not really useful way, but I really don't know that there's an option

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-23261092964388707832011-12-08T17:48:00.001-05:002011-12-08T18:13:18.786-05:00

This Was More Fun When Santa Did All the Work: So, let's take a moment to talk about shopping, shall we? Because if you're like me these days, you're pretending to do work while really you're frantically doing Web searches looking for That Thing You Want for Christmas. Or maybe that someone else wants, if you're generous, but this week, it's all about me. My elusive prey at the moment is some

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-25368692842556844432011-12-06T10:47:00.000-05:002011-12-06T10:50:53.257-05:00

You Know What Word I’m Not Comfortable With? Nuance. It’s Not a Real Word. Like Gesture. Gesture’s a Real Word. With Gesture You Know Where You Stand. But Nuance? I Don’t Know.: A post on Support for Special Needs yesterday by Robert Rummel-Hudson touched on something that I think most parents who've been on the special-needs beat for a long time start to feel -- that despite the explosion in

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-10668202628752564592011-12-02T16:54:00.001-05:002011-12-02T17:13:13.396-05:00

And How Great at Organization and Regulation Are You, Exactly: Today's Inclusive Class radio show was on executive function, which is not a party for VIPs but the ability of an individual to self-organize, self-direct, and self-regulate. All those good things so many of our kiddos are so bad at. Our guest, Dr. Christopher Kaufman, had some hopeful things to say about how teachers are starting to

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-281479553072244382011-12-02T08:30:00.001-05:002011-12-02T08:32:27.747-05:00

What They Did for Love: This is the YouTube video that's making us teary around my house this week -- of my daughter's high-school marching band and alumni playing this year at the traditional Thanksgiving game and paying tribute to their director's 40th anniversary. It was my girl's first year participating as a graduate, and inspiring as always to see everyone gathered together. If you've been

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-2847376909746600082011-11-30T14:46:00.001-05:002011-11-30T15:04:48.679-05:00

'Cause Who Couldn't Use a Bunch of New Books to Add to the Pile?: Well, this is cool. My book 50 Ways to Support Your Child's Special Education is included on The Coffee Klatch Parent’s Holiday Book Wish List, in the excellent company of books like Thinking in Pictures, The Out-of-Sync Child, Sensational Kids, and The Kitchen Classroom. I'd never actually thought of my little book as

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-72511896779232715922011-11-29T16:52:00.001-05:002011-11-29T17:13:21.126-05:00

Squeamish? Skip This Post: Just got back from the dermatologist, where my son had an item removed that we have taken to calling the Disgusting Bloody Ear Growth. It started out months and months ago as a fairly colorless lump behind his ear, and got bigger with time, and once it was big enough to feel weird to the touch, he couldn't stop touching it, and that made things worse. In August, his

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-78491953010564607282011-11-28T14:39:00.000-05:002011-11-28T14:42:38.587-05:00

Meaning Well Doesn't Make You Any Less Rude: The blog This Ain't Livin' has a post today about Cure Evangelism, which drives people to grill strangers on their medical care and choices under the guise of being helpful, concerned, and well-meaning. Certainly parents of children with disabilities are well acquainted with cure evangelists, not all of them strangers -- surely I'm not the only one

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-72062686616322279022011-11-25T23:41:00.001-05:002011-11-25T23:48:31.858-05:00

Unfair Play: The Ams Vans blog had a post today about a President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports study showing that "only 29 percent of students with disabilities take physical education classes at least five days a week, compared to 34 percent of students without disabilities." Now, when I was a kid, that statistic would have made me envy students with disabilities, because I hated

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-743980380840409752011-11-24T18:46:00.001-05:002011-11-24T18:49:24.808-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!: We just drove over the river and through the woods and down the Interstate to our relatives' house the next state over, and all the way, I was whistling and humming and tapping my toes to this song. Play the video, and it will be your earworm, too. That's my gift to you this Muppet-movie-opening weekend.

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-49481363429835459892011-11-23T10:07:00.000-05:002011-11-23T10:07:38.892-05:00

We Are the 5 Percent!: Education Week had an interesting post up today about statistics from the U.S. Census indicating that about 1 in 20 school children has a disability, or about 5 percent of all students. Not an overwhelming number, maybe, but certainly a presence. Enough to maybe not get treated like someone you're doing a favor to include. Man, in these days when parent participation is so

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-45601702822666920202011-11-22T10:11:00.001-05:002011-11-22T10:20:41.740-05:00

Last Week, He Wanted to Be a Mechanic: In about an hour, I have a meeting with our high school's transition coordinator and a representative from the county Department of Vocational and Rehabilitation Services to discuss my son's future. I wonder how much they'll laugh when I mention that the field he's excited about this week is forensic science. Yesterday in health class, he saw a video in

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-13565293580362021052011-11-21T14:36:00.000-05:002011-11-21T14:36:25.693-05:00

Bullying Unawareness: There's a thought-provoking post by Robert Rummel-Hudson on the blog Support for Special Needs today, entitled The Things Unseen, about parent perception of bullying vs. socially clueless vulnerable child perception of bullying and how big a stick we should carry when we let those kids know that we know what's going on, mister, and you better cut it out. It's funny --

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-50481513168384997912011-11-18T10:07:00.001-05:002011-11-18T10:17:05.431-05:00

Plus, I Rant About the Miserableness of Microsoft Word: Today's topic on The Inclusive Class radio show is one that's often on my mind -- support for struggling readers. Howard Margolis, who does another radio show for Special Needs Talk Radio called "Maximizing Your Child's Potential," talked about the teaching techniques that work best for kids who have trouble with reading, how parents can

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-7530003502916289352011-11-16T15:19:00.001-05:002011-11-16T15:20:42.853-05:00

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly: Somebody pasted clips from this episode on Google+ this morning, and then I had to go find it somewhere online and watch the whole thing. Love the theme song, love the characters, love the fact that, no matter how bad your Thanksgiving goes, it's never going to be as bad as turkeys falling out of the sky like sacks of wet cement.

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-22925941421307626262011-11-15T18:41:00.000-05:002011-11-15T18:41:25.685-05:00

The Pity Behind the Praise: Sunday Stilwell's post on Adventures in Extreme Parenthood today about the condescending way Ann Curry spoke to a teenager with special needs and her dad on the Today show really resonated with me, as I'm still processing a similar sort of comment made to me in church this past Sunday. It was from an older woman who usually sits in the pew behind us, someone I've often

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-62587533153986977202011-11-14T11:44:00.000-05:002011-11-14T11:44:59.222-05:00

How You Know It's Time for a Career Change: What, I wonder, goes through the head of a teacher who would duct-tape a six-year-old with special needs to a chair (or, come on, any student at all) and think that was a righteous application of behavioral techniques? I understand teachers being undertrained and undersupported and overtaxed, but duct-taping a kid to a chair in front of a classroom of

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-78146354808244912132011-11-13T09:12:00.001-05:002011-11-13T10:09:22.940-05:00

Not Sure If I Should Be Hopeful or Not: Today's my once-a-month day to post on the blog Hopeful Parents, and for once I actually did it early in the day rather than at 11:59 p.m. This month's entry is about the unlikely prospect of my son going to his senior prom, and why I can't run screaming and laughing from that idea as I entirely should, as my husband totally can. Why does prom have such a

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-30700540336838936212011-11-11T11:05:00.001-05:002011-11-11T11:17:04.171-05:00

Is the Principal of Your School Your Pal?: One of the challenges in getting schools to embrace inclusion is finding principals who really believe in it. I'll never forget the way the principal of the school in which my daughter had her first inclusion class did everything she could to sabotage inclusion, thus giving her teachers no particular incentive to try hard to make it work. I think she

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-13594747098911897852011-11-10T16:12:00.001-05:002011-11-10T16:24:22.573-05:00

Speaking of the Need for Overprotectiveness: Another post that reinforces the need to check and check and check again that your kid is being watched at school -- not to mention the value of befriending bus drivers -- is up on the blog Adventures in Extreme Parenthood. In related news, my post yesterday about the tragic result of a lack of bus oversight brought me the oddest Twitter mention today;

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-63133311495659130552011-11-09T23:19:00.001-05:002011-11-09T23:19:09.558-05:00

Why We Helicopter Parent: If you've never thought much about what happens when your child's bus gets to school, and who meets it, and how supervised kids are as they make their way into school, a terrible story about a girl with autism and what happened when she got off the bus should prompt you to ask those questions. And feel better about watching your child walk all the way into the school

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-13137972387508644162011-11-09T10:11:00.003-05:002011-11-09T10:11:47.604-05:00

Here's Why I Don't Clean My House: I recently took some time to polish our good-wood dining-room table. Looks great -- except I set the can of polish on the table at some point, and it was apparently wet on the bottom, because when I was done with the elbow grease, there were three new can-shaped rings marring the finish. So I grabbed a bottle of another wood-cleaning solution, and went at the

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-379981899697356572011-11-08T18:14:00.003-05:002011-11-08T18:14:59.798-05:00

I Voted, Really, I Did: I was at my polling place bright and early today, as a matter of fact, but I can't prove it because our town (or at least, the high school where we vote) does not give out stickers or stubs or any bit of swag with which to brag on one's status as an official voter. What gives? I see pictures of people on the Web proudly bearing their proof of good-citizenship, and I feel

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-38640466039695329442011-11-08T13:25:00.000-05:002011-11-08T13:25:32.367-05:00

Talking the Talk: It's well past Halloween, but here's a scary story for your Tuesday -- a post on the blog Bloom stressing that yes, you really really do need to talk to your child with special needs about sex. If you accept that premise but have no idea how to go about doing it, may I recommend The Rules of Sex: Social and Legal Guidelines for Those Who Have Never Been Told, a very

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-21110906754996876752011-11-07T09:32:00.000-05:002011-11-07T09:32:34.594-05:00

When Productive Work = Procrastination: Yesterday I had planned to finally finish the book I've been trying to read and review for a month, and so instead I started noodling around on the computer and designed the new Love Notes for Special Parents Calendar 2012. A worthwhile thing to be sure, and something that needed to be done, and yet ... that book is still sitting and staring at me. When did

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-8098984815551515382011-11-06T22:30:00.000-05:002011-11-07T01:36:01.129-05:00

The Underwear, at Least, Is Mine: Managed to switch over my closet to winter wear this weekend (so, people of the Northeast, expect a sudden heat wave). How odd is it, do you suppose, that the majority of the clothing I wear is either a hand-me-up from my daughter or something I retrieved from my mother's closet after she passed away? There's surprisingly little that actually originated with me.

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-33680827883023890322011-11-05T18:27:00.000-04:002011-11-05T18:37:04.191-04:00

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: It seems sort of Grinch-like to complain in any way about Toys 'R' Us's annual Toy Guide for Differently-Abled Kids. It's a nice idea, a useful gathering of things, a high-profile enterprise with an appropriate celebrity selected each year to draw warm-hearted attention (this year it's Eva Longoria, who has a sister with Down syndrome). But ... that phrase, "

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-70974435870547984332011-11-04T21:00:00.000-04:002011-11-05T01:12:23.667-04:00

Three Letters That Make Our Blood Run Cold: The topic of this morning's The Inclusive Class radio show was IEPs, and automatically when I hear that term I cringe -- from memories of bad meetings, from memories of having to decipher that thing, and from memories of advocates and authors insisting that if you're not obsessing about every word in that document you're letting your child down. But our

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-73382949521930931872011-11-03T19:26:00.000-04:002011-11-03T19:26:16.313-04:00

At What Age Can They Take Over Fighting With Insurance Companies?: The blog Thriving, from Children's Hospital Boston, has a post today about a subject that's much on my mind lately -- preparing your child to take over responsibility for his or her own health care. We're about at the end of the road with my kids' pediatrician, and that's made me wonder whether they should also, say, be making

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-61130566425019219092011-11-02T16:40:00.000-04:002011-11-02T16:40:08.011-04:00

Stopping the Blame Game: It was nice to see a post titled "The Best Reasons Why Parents Should Be Looked At As Allies & Not Targets Of Blame" on the blog Engaging Parents in School this morning. I get why teachers want to blame parents, and why parents want to blame teachers, and sometimes the blame is deserved. It's never particularly useful, though, and tends to distract from more important

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-70348796438596785332011-11-02T15:24:00.001-04:002011-11-02T15:24:51.121-04:00

If There Was a Skeleton There, You'd Never Find It: In a very kind plug on her blog today about the state-by-state special-education resources on my About.com site, Jolene Philo wrote, "Someday, I’d like to look at Terri Mauro’s closets to see if they’re as well-organized as her website!" And I about spit-taked my coffee when I saw it, because ... no. No, you don't want to look at my closets. I

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-89020694830021920752011-11-01T15:37:00.000-04:002011-11-01T15:37:31.550-04:00

I Hate Fundraisers: Well, that's not saying much, is it? Most parents feel that way about school money-raising activities. What I'm particularly hating on at the moment is a fundraiser that came home with my son a couple of weeks back with absolutely no information on what it was for, when it was due, who to make checks out to, where to bring it, or really anything other than a glossy two pages

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-69762974358425172772011-11-01T14:00:00.000-04:002011-11-01T15:29:12.580-04:00

Jessica Lange Has a Lot of Company: The FX series American Horror Story is proving to be quite comment-worthy on my About.com site, with some folks objecting to the way a character with Down syndrome is depicted and treated, some folks saying it's just a TV show and we're supposed to object to the way the character's mother treats her, and some folks glad just to have someone with Down syndrome

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-2221178074207102252011-10-31T19:56:00.001-04:002011-10-31T19:57:28.982-04:00

Trick or ... Aw, Never Mind: Maybe it's the snow or the warnings about live electrical wires in the street, but costumed kiddies have not been beating a path to our door this Halloween night. We've had one little group so far, and it's looking more and more like that bag of candy bars is ours. Living on a cul de sac with no young children for neighbors seems to be the key to avoiding

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-89261154451858320752011-10-31T09:12:00.000-04:002011-10-31T09:12:20.887-04:00

Our Tuition Dollars at Work: For an example of customer service done brilliantly via Facebook, I direct you to the page for Bergen Community College. Students post questions and concerns, and are promptly answered by a very polite man/woman/artificial intelligence who does not mind answering the same "Is the college closed tomorrow?" question over and over and over. I like the way he/she/it

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-44871650442252445402011-10-29T13:53:00.001-04:002011-10-29T13:53:06.382-04:00

Nature's Own Little Halloween Trick: So it's snowing here in the northeast, for no other reason than to mess with us, as far as I can tell. We had weeks and weeks of rain and flood and hurricane, then about five minutes of nice fall weather, and now it's snowing? Really? Whatever. For now, we have electricity and therefore computers and can amuse ourselves nicely. If the power goes out, I'll be

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-3715570054985554952011-10-28T09:41:00.001-04:002011-10-28T09:41:58.656-04:00

Let's All Move to Vermont: Just finished the latest episode of The Inclusive Class, on which Nicole Eredics and I were very honored to have inclusion guru Dr. Paula Kluth as a guest. It was a very interesting conversation, and I believe our very first show to go over time and be cut off in mid-sentence (at least for live listeners, of whom I can't believe there are very many first thing Friday

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-65643564773515418782011-10-27T18:56:00.000-04:002011-10-27T18:56:54.534-04:00

Self-Determination Is a Life Skill Too: I like what this post on Radical Neurodivergence Speaking has to say about self-advocacy, which is that it's always important and not always what we as parents might like. Which is to say that a child saying "No!" is an act of self-advocacy. A child refusing to do something she doesn't want to do is an act of self-advocacy. A child digging in against a

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-17201876726426267152011-10-27T11:17:00.000-04:002011-10-27T11:19:51.837-04:00

Zero Tolerance Can Be a Bully, Too: A post on the blog Thriving this morning has me thinking about bullying and the proper response to accusations. There's a major bullying crackdown going on at my son's high school, and that sounds like a good thing, but I'm not so sure. Many of the accusations of bullying turn out to be little more than misunderstandings or minor disagreements -- but each has

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-13060430760932239112011-10-26T19:12:00.001-04:002011-10-26T19:13:07.420-04:00

I Nag About as Well as I Floss: My son just went to the dentist, and miracle of miracles, he did not get a lecture about brushing more. Which is a good thing, because nagging him to brush has been a source of some tension lately. I've been feeling like a terrible parent when, at the end of the day, tired and lazy, I take him at his word when he says he's brushed even though I'm reasonably sure

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-25948779784313423282011-10-26T14:49:00.001-04:002011-10-26T14:49:32.908-04:00

Sadly, Klout Doesn't Make Your Kids Listen to You Any Better: If you write a lot on the Internet, and particularly if you are fortunate enough to have people read what you write, the day will come when you do a Google search and see something you've created in the top spot. And you'll feel proud and honored and, if you get paid by the page view, jubilant, but at least one small part of you will

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-6152723254550464922011-10-25T16:40:00.002-04:002011-10-25T16:40:33.992-04:00

Not All Who Wander Are Lost: You know what I'm tired of? I'm tired of reading books about fetal alcohol spectrum disorder that are filled with despair and lost hope. I'm tired of case studies that involve prison and sexual abuse and family disruption. I'm tired of stories about adoptive parents tearing out their hair and lost boys and girls whose only remaining purpose in life is to be a

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-51033519312098648052011-10-25T16:28:00.002-04:002011-10-25T16:29:08.124-04:00

There Are at Least 150 Other Ways to Say 'Stupid': I'm percolating an article in my head about bad excuses for using the R-word, which will include a listing of synonyms for those who fear that they can't say anything anymore without it. While I'm working on that, here are two posts I've seen this week that save me the trouble of making some arguments, 'cause I can just link to them: "Words

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-38324841659430544132011-10-25T01:02:00.000-04:002011-10-25T01:02:52.369-04:00

Because Everybody on NCIS Has to Have Family Issues: My husband and I seem to be consistently a week or two behind on TV viewing, knocking shows off the DVR just in time for a new one to be added to the pile. So I just now watched the NCIS episode from October 11, and what do you know, an adoption plotline for Abby. That is, she's just discovered as an adult that she was adopted, not that she's

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-92111641641742416292011-10-24T10:22:00.001-04:002011-10-24T10:22:28.379-04:00

Is Big Pharma Behind This Somehow?: So all of a sudden, Vitamin D is a thing for our family. The kids had blood tests with their recent check-ups, and one of them was for Vitamin D levels. It was no surprise that my son was deficient, because he hates milk and will not drink it. But my daughter is very happy to drink milk, and does so often, and so I'm surprised that she's deficient and

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-73239034141817375422011-10-24T08:46:00.002-04:002011-10-24T08:46:45.726-04:00

Proving That There Are Bridge Games in Heaven: One of the many things my mom and I had in common was a tendency to fall down. Genetic poor center of gravity or weak ankles, maybe? We both did a mean splat/leap up/declare "I'm okay!" combination, and most of the time, we were okay, though there were scrapes and sprains and deep embarrassments on various occasions. Since my mom passed away, it's

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-46831333390566102432011-10-22T10:26:00.000-04:002011-10-22T10:26:08.633-04:00

That Cause-and-Effect-Thinking Thing Is Tricky, I Know: A challenging thing about raising kids with fetal alcohol exposure is getting them to understand that unanticipated consequences are still their responsibility. If they throw a ball and it happens to break a window, but they didn't intend to break a window, they can't connect what they did to what happened. And they're often puzzled and

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-52431029928421160382011-10-21T12:47:00.000-04:002011-10-21T12:47:26.679-04:00

Never Trust a Headline: I read enough science articles on the Web to know that headlines are more often than not misleading. And I know why that is, because in our increasingly noisy travels through the world of media, our attention can only be grabbed by big surprising statements. So "Scientists think that maybe" is never going to get as many readers as "Studies show!!!" Reading the article

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-76992160383695530472011-10-21T11:09:00.000-04:002011-10-21T11:09:50.771-04:00

The Keys are Preparation and Flexibility. Good Luck With That: Had a nice chat with Nicole Eredics and Dr. Sandy Gluckman on The Inclusive Class radio show today about stress as it relates to inclusive classrooms -- stressed teachers making a change in the way they do things, stressed students having to deal with classmates who are different, stressed children with special needs having to deal

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-69475554523927146902011-10-20T16:11:00.000-04:002011-10-20T16:11:06.795-04:00

Test to the Teach: A blog post on Education Week today discussed alternative assessments for special-education students and lamented an amendment that would increase the number of kids exempted from standardized testing (the amendment failed shortly after the post went up, it appears). I understand why disability advocates don't want special-education students shunted off to an evaluation system

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-78368938619245072262011-10-20T14:15:00.002-04:002011-10-20T14:16:47.796-04:00

Hope People Police Better Than They Park: A new app sounds like an interesting solution for illegal use of handicapped parking spots -- it allows do-gooders to snap a photo of the offender and send it directly to law enforcement -- but it also sounds like a pretty troublemaking tool to be put in the hands of just anybody. I've heard enough stories of people with legitimate but less obvious

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-23769063090997777622011-10-20T10:27:00.002-04:002011-10-20T10:27:30.891-04:00

Also, I'm Not a Newborn Baby: Confidential to the lowlife who sent me a scam e-mail through my Google+ profile this morning: Although I did post on Google+ yesterday about a documentary having to do with deaf students, I am not myself deaf or hard of hearing, so it seems extremely unlikely that a deaf organization would give me $150,000, even if the only requirements are being active on the

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-15372415571597792812011-10-19T20:50:00.000-04:002011-10-19T20:50:14.006-04:00

Don't Do Us Any Favors: I've wondered, in my About.com blog, why the growing number of kids with special needs doesn't give their families any sort of clout. If you could add up all the kids with autism and the kids with food allergies and the kids with learning disabilities and the kids with chronic illnesses and get their families to act as one big interest group, wouldn't somebody have to try

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-35607485278719367742011-10-19T14:15:00.000-04:002011-10-19T14:15:29.169-04:00

How About Putting This on Regular MTV, and Restricting Snooki to College Campuses?: So I was getting all excited about an MTV series about deaf students at Gallaudet University -- because, as reality series go, how great an idea is that -- and then I saw that it will be airing exclusively on mtvU, a channel shown only on college campuses. I'm all for college students seeing it, but I think it

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-21949976684149620642011-10-19T13:38:00.000-04:002011-10-19T13:38:08.194-04:00

If Only Everybody Came With an Explanation for Their Inexplicable Behavior: In a post called "I'm Not Bad. I Am Autistic," the Special Needs Homeschool blog offers a handy and easily understandable explanation for behaviors that are common not only to kids with autism but with other special needs as well. Many of these are typical of my son, who is neither autistic nor bad. Of course, for him,

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-21877170880038689212011-10-19T13:22:00.000-04:002011-10-19T13:22:43.722-04:00

We Don't Bite, Unless Provoked: A perfectly nice post on the blog Special Happens seems to have gotten under my skin today. In 'Questions “Typical” Parents Are Afraid To Ask,' the mom of "3 very healthy, athletic, socially adept (ish) kids" wants very much to be correct and polite and supportive to families of kids with special needs, and not be one of Those People. And sure, that's what we want,

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-56717958719731399152011-10-14T14:08:00.000-04:002011-10-14T15:03:53.798-04:00

Instead of, you know, posting timely blogs on this site. Spent the better part of two days trying to upgrade my iPhone to the latest operating system and migrate my Mobile Me account to the cloud. At least I got a blog post out of it for HopefulParents.org, about how what we do for our kids with special needs is kind of like upgrading, too. Tried to be patient while waiting for results of a

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-76816065164959137042011-09-16T10:39:00.000-04:002011-09-16T10:39:10.250-04:00

I had a good discussion this morning with Nicole Eredics on our BlogTalk Radio show "The Inclusive Class" about whether inclusion is right for every student, which of course involves a discussion of all the stupid ways school districts are doing it wrong and planning for failure. You can listen to the archive at the link above. I also got a rant in on my About.com site about Ron Clark's

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-22697963381554719952011-09-08T12:29:00.002-04:002011-09-08T12:29:41.072-04:00

Tomorrow at 9 a.m. is the beginning of "The Inclusive Class," a radio show I'm cohosting with Nicole Eredics. I hope it will be the beginning, anyway; I'm in charge of the switchboard, so there's always the chance that I'll hit the wrong button and we'll be off the air. Assuming we stay on, you can here Nicole talk with Kathryn Burke, author of An Accidental Advocate, on the topic of "What Is

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-79471152072105327372011-08-15T11:36:00.003-04:002011-08-15T11:43:14.873-04:00

My monthly contribution to Hopeful Parents went up very, very late (my time) on Saturday. It's about my son's somewhat problematical work experience this summer. Read it here.My About.com site has its own shiny new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aboutcom-Children-With-Special-Needs/203015833087281?sk=wall. Stop by and like me, please!Over the weekend, I started up a listing of

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-17470922245756463702011-08-11T12:16:00.003-04:002011-08-11T12:18:24.538-04:00

I'm still having fun on Google+, and now have 150 invitations to share at https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DRlOJUjgrI3A%3A6sw1tGl7ArA. If you've been curious about it, give it a try. You may also notice some weird-looking posts on this blog like the one two posts down -- I'm trying out posting here directly from Google+, and though the formatting's a little

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-84087425006490795112011-08-07T11:36:00.003-04:002011-08-07T11:47:40.624-04:00

Woo hoo! Just recorded the promo for a Talking Special Needs Network show I'll be doing with Nicole Eredics of The Inclusive Class, and I'm totally excited that I sound lucid and relatively like myself on it. Give it a listen below, and tune in to the show starting September 9 at 9 a.m. Eastern time; you can also listen later in the archives. Listen to internet radio with TalkingSpecialNeeds on

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-30791193063849982122011-08-03T14:24:00.004-04:002011-08-03T14:45:44.360-04:00

I'm kind of intrigued by this idea of flipping, whereby kids watch the teacher lecture on a screen at home and do what would normally be "homework" in the classroom. Seems like something that might benefit students with special needs in inclusion classes -- more hands-on activity, less having to sit quietly and process information. I'd way rather listen to instruction with my kids and help them

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-68593748564093951292011-07-27T13:43:00.001-04:002011-07-27T13:48:48.484-04:00

I wrote about the 21st anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act yesterday on my About.com site, and it totally didn't occur to me until this morning that something else important (to me, at least) happened in July of 1990: I got married. My marriage is 19 days older than the ADA. That seems impossible, that people with disabilities did not have those rights at the time my husband and I

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-7289708737770564882011-07-24T17:09:00.003-04:002011-07-24T17:18:32.595-04:00

A boy my son has known since first grade lost his father last week. His mother passed away two years before, and we have no idea what's going to become of this kid, whose disabilities are not as immediately obvious as my son's but nonetheless there. My son has clashed with this young man somewhat over the past four or five years; it sounds from the various reports I've received that this friend

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-28656960696615779432011-07-10T15:19:00.002-04:002011-07-10T15:27:09.932-04:00

Not that I need more shiny things to distract me, but I'm giving Google+ a try. It's a little empty now, and needs to be filled up with lots of parents ready to talk about special needs and adoption. If you're on Google+ already, look me up at gplus.to/mamatude. If you need an invitation, leave a comment here with the e-mail address you want to use for Google+ and a little bit about yourself, and

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-26289460460979030612011-06-13T19:17:00.001-04:002011-06-13T19:18:18.364-04:00

Summer vacation's about a week away for us. Boy, do I remember how I used to dread this part of the year. I so valued the routine of school, the way it occupied the time of kids who could not for the life of them occupy themselves at home. The end of the school year meant a transfer of expectation for time-filling to me, and as much as I loved spending time with my kiddos, oh my gosh, it was a

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-83012940371705052492011-06-06T13:29:00.003-04:002011-06-06T13:44:34.632-04:00

You know how we talk about one bad experience freaking our kids out for days and days afterward, leaving them all disrupted and disorganized and prone to extreme behavior well after the thing that caused it is over? I'm feeling like that now over a confrontation last week, and really, shouldn't I have gotten over it by now? It wasn't even an IEP confrontation over something important like my kids

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-493127034309132542011-05-19T10:17:00.003-04:002011-05-19T10:25:16.755-04:00

That's my son's planner for this school year. I've loved the large size of the Aspire student planner, and also the format -- each day is a column, with subjects running down the side. It's been a great way to communicate with his paraprofessionals, keep track of his homework, sign off on assignments, and report on where in his backpack the completed homework may be found. But ... oh, that

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-86705918741727154102011-05-09T09:35:00.002-04:002011-05-09T10:05:56.833-04:00

Point of etiquette: When talking to another parent, is it okay to say bad things about the school that parent's children attend? Should you at least take that parent's "temperature" first, make sure they also want to badmouth the school, before you rip into it? If the parent clearly is happy about the way the school has served his or her children, should you not back the hell off and not talk at

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-25123848387549687802011-04-21T07:39:00.002-04:002011-04-21T07:52:59.803-04:00

This morning, my son went to school an hour early to pass out Earth Day buttons with other members of the high-school Conservation Club. First period, he'll check into homeroom and then go get his picture taken with the other club members. Second period, he has to change out of his Earth Day shirt and into a uniform shirt to go work for a couple of hours at a supermarket as part of a school

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-76990963907238516812011-03-13T15:29:00.001-04:002011-03-13T15:31:51.345-04:00

If I told you I walk my son to school because he has to cross a busy road, you probably wouldn't think anything of it ... unless I also mentioned that he's a junior in high school, about a week short of eighteen years old. Then the thup-thup-thup sound of helicopter parenting would begin to beat in your ears, and you might feel silent pity for the teenage boy whose mother just won't let go, the

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-81990605007075427862011-03-08T10:35:00.004-05:002011-03-08T10:40:07.714-05:00

Here's a mystery: My son loves ID badges, makes up his own ID badges on the computer and prints them and laminates them and wears them constantly when he's at home, makes badges for friends and makes them wear them, is constantly fascinated with the badges of workers and teachers and other people he sees. Yet, when he has an actual real ID badge of his own that he has to wear, he wants no part of

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-29363905883455902802011-01-13T12:50:00.001-05:002011-01-13T12:51:24.745-05:00

Of all the melancholy transitions that come with your last child graduating high school, IEP meetings are one thing I will. not. miss. I'm relieved that my son looks ready now to continue to college rather than remain at the high-school for all his extra IDEA-promised years, because friends, I need to get off the IEP train. I'm done. I'm fried.Read the rest of this post at Hopeful Parents

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-58188890209783578272010-12-13T18:31:00.000-05:002010-12-13T18:32:14.117-05:00

My daughter is coming to the end of a successful first semester at college. And boy, are those words I thought I'd never say, both the "college" part and the "successful" part. As much as we try, as parents of children with special needs, to stay afloat in the sea of bad testing scores and professional predictions of doom, as much as we try to believe in our kids' abilities, there's always that

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-6276503621130626452010-11-22T13:01:00.002-05:002010-11-22T13:12:19.860-05:00

Two stories of interest here in Adoption Awareness Month:+ I did an interview with Danette Schott at S-O-S for Parents about adopting my kids back in 1994 (!) and what we've learned along the way. Take a look, if only to see photos of how cute my kiddos were then, how cute they are now, and how very old I have become.+ According to a blog post on adoption.com, Taye Diggs of Private Practice is

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-36729316071229630582010-11-13T14:48:00.001-05:002010-11-13T14:49:05.572-05:00

This has been a growing-up kind of year for my son. He's out of self-contained and into inclusion classes at school. He's growing his hair out from the buzz cut we gave him years ago so he wouldn't have to comb his hair. Though his head's no longer stubbly, his face is. These were all expected transitions, and ones we fought for (me, the inclusion classes; him, the hair). But there's one step

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-45328312411319468362010-11-11T12:07:00.001-05:002010-11-11T12:07:45.149-05:00

This year, for the first time, my son is in a resource-room class for English instead of self-contained. And I was excited to hear, at back-to-school night, that the class would be reading Catcher in the Rye, a bona fide literary classic, something that I read and found meaningful during my own schooling. Woot! A standard high-school educational experience for the boy!So they've gotten to it now,

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-26687285318030446112010-11-08T11:13:00.003-05:002010-11-08T11:39:25.068-05:00

Bad news for adoptive parents who are thinking the hurtful family tree and baby picture type assignments end with lower education. My daughter has a college assignment now that has her in tears: She's to give an oral presentation on her family's cultural heritage, with suggested questions like "Where were you born? How did your parents decide to give you the name they did? When did members of

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3922804.post-62636581615671617212010-10-27T11:58:00.000-04:002010-10-27T11:58:43.418-04:00

The essay I wrote about my son's experience with sensory integration for the 30 Families in 30 Days awareness-raising event for the blog Hartley's Life With 3 Boys is up today. It's our version of a success story. Please go read, and consider donating to the cause of sensory processing research. You might win a copy of one of my books, and if nothing else, there's a super-cute photo of my guy in

Terri Maurohttps://profiles.google.com/100145016939911091655noreply@blogger.com0