You Know You Have a Child With Special Needs When…

 

• You teach your child HOW to pull things out of the cupboard, off the bookcases, and that feeding the dog from the table is fun.
• You can name at least 3 genes on chromosome 21.  (You really know your toast if you can spell the full names correctly)
• You fired at least 3 pediatricians and can teach your family doctor a thing or two.
• Everything is an educational opportunity instead of just having plain old fun.
• The clothes your infant wore last fall still fit her this fall.
• You view toys as “therapy”.
• You cheer instead of scold when they blow bubbles in their juice while sitting at the dinner table (that’s speech therapy), smear ketchup all over their high chair (that’s OT), or throw their toys (that’s PT).
• You also don’t mind if your child goes through the house tooting on a tin whistle.
• You compare ER’s instead of grocery stores.
• You have been told you are in “denial” by at least 3 medical or therapy professionals.  This makes you laugh!
• You have the incredible sinking feeling that you’ve forgotten SOMETHING on those few days that you don’t have some sort of appointment somewhere!
• You get irritated when friends with healthy kids complain about ONE sleepless night when they’re child is ill.
• Your vocabulary consists of all the letters OT, PT, SP, ADS, VDS, IFSP, etc.
• You keep your appointment with the specialist even though a tropical storm is raging because you just want to get this one over with…you waited 8 months to get it…and besides, no one else will be there!
• Fighting and wrestling with siblings is considered PT.
• Speech therapy occurs in the tub with a sibling.
• You discuss your child’s oxygen saturations with other moms.
• When potty training is complete, you take out a full-page public notice in the Washington Post.
• The Doctors/Specialists/Hospitals etc. all know you by your name without referring to your chart.
• You keep a daily growth chart.
• You phone all your friends when your child sits up for the first time, at age two.
• With a big smile on your face you tell a stranger that your four year old child just started walking last week.
• Her medical file is several inches thick and growing.
• You never take a new day for granted.
• You have a new belief…that angels live with us on earth.

 

USDF, The Advocate, October 2007