Your Child is Special: Journeying Through School With a Special Needs Child

Every parent wants the absolute best for their child. When your child has special needs, it can be difficult to adjust your dreams for your child, and even know how to help your child be successful. Please keep in mind, every child whether they have special needs or not, learns differently and certainly every child with special needs from Asperger’s to dyslexia, or from ADHD to gifted, will learn differently. While tutoring and special instruction are crucial, you the parent are the most important factor in their future success.

Learning Disabilities Can Be Overcome
Life is full of obstacles and that is a lesson every child needs to learn. You as a parent can teach your child how to deal with the obstacles of their special needs. Be their cheerleader and help them keep moving forward. One of the best ways to help them move forward is by observing and learning how they learn. Your child may learn best by seeing or reading. Or, (s)he may learn best by “doing” or “listening”. A visual learner may need extra videos to help in the process, a “doer” or kinesthetic learner may learn by creating models, crafts, or other hands-on projects. Your tutor or teacher can point you towards materials that can help your child’s particular type of learning style and, there are retail stores that specialize in providing materials that cater to different learning styles as well.

Seek Out Information
As you make a “study” of knowing your child and how (s)he learns, what strengths and weaknesses (s)he has, you can build upon the strengths. There are many blogs, websites, and videos that can provide information about your child’s particular special need. Keep abreast of new and innovative resources, and don’t be afraid to try new techniques with your child. Keep consulting with your child’s teachers and tutors and have open disucssions about what you see and believe are their strengths and weaknesses; as well as any learning information that you find, since they may be something your child’s educators can add to their teaching repertoire.

It’s a Journey, not a Short Race
You probably did not discover your child’s special needs overnight and those needs won’t be overcome overnight either. Each grade will bring new challenges and with every progress you make, it may feel like (s)he regresses a little at times. However, remember that success is not linear, and some ups and downs are to be expected in any area of life, not just academics. Pace yourself and help your child pace themselves. Reflect on past successes and keep moving forward. Your child will be looking to you as their main cheerleader so keep a steady pace, keep cheering, and keep enjoying the mini successes along the journey.

Your child’s successes may also be different from other children too. Good grades are fantastic, but if your child learns to accept every challenge, do their best and be adaptive to change while having less than stellar grades; those skills later on in life maybe just what they need to have the career that is right for them.

Your support for your child with special needs is so very important because your influence, cheerleading, and guidance outweighs what everybody else inputs into their lives. Your child is watching you and your optimism, encouragement, humor and strength are things that they will likely adopt in their own lives. They are reflections of you and though they may learn differently they can succeed in academics and in life with the strong foundation that you lay for them today.