Gillian Marchenko

March Home Staging, Jooniper Design, Author & Speaker

Where are you headed as a special needs parent for school?

 Where are you headed as a special needs parent? I’m talking about school. On Facebook yesterday, parents were posting pictures of kids lined up by the front door, or at the bus stop for the first day of school. School doesn’t start for my kids for a couple of weeks, but today I somehow managed to take all four of my children to Kmart to buy backpacks and tennis shoes (and I must say, we

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She’s enough: Parenting a child with “low functioning” Down syndrome

Parenting a child with low functioning Down syndrome is tough. I have two children with Down syndrome, and they are very different. Just six months apart in age, Polly (who is six) is counting, she knows her ABCs, talks a mile a minute, and is learning to read. Evangeline (adopted from Ukraine in 2009) is non-verbal. She signs more, bye, and sing. To many, she would be considered low functioning. I hate to put kids in a

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Siblings of children with Down syndrome

Siblings of children with Down syndrome (or other special needs) don’t typically see their brothers and sisters as disabled. They see them as brothers and sisters. That’s not to say that it’s always easy for siblings. Here are a few resources to help those relationships: The Sibling Support Project A Wish Came Clear, a community of parents, friends, siblings, and caregivers of people with disabilities who celebrate things that others overlook. The International Down Syndrome Coalition

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