NoFlyingSolo

A little about our family: In June of 2003 our son, Joseph, was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome. I think we were in a daze for about two days, grieving for what we thought was our loss and then we simply realized that there are no guarantees in life, and we were just going to go down a different path than we expected. We had so much to learn about his disability and have found as the years have passed, that this need to learn is an on-going process as Joseph moves from one stage of development to the next. What we learned early on is that we were unbelievably lucky to have been given such a gift, the value of which cannot be explained in words. Joe has broadened our horizons and led us down paths we would have never explored if not for him! He has the power to impact the world in ways that we can’t even imagine.

Joe was the most profound gift that we never knew we needed.

Certainly there are times of fear and frustration, but if you let it, the world will open up to you and allow you to see it in ways that you would have never seen it before. The world has proven to be a far kinder place than we could have imagined. We’ve learned to take our time and not be ashamed of any feeling or fears we experience. It is all part of the gift – even the hard parts.

A year and ½ after Joe was born, we welcomed his baby sister, Jessica to our family. Jessica is now 4 ½ years old and she is beginning to ask questions, like “Why doesn’t Joe talk”? We explained that some people need help learning how to talk, just like babies do, and that is why Joe goes to therapy – so they can help him learn how to talk. I wonder if she’ll grow up to be a therapist or a teacher because I see how she plays with Joe – prompting him to say words, showing him how to do something, etc. She has grown up going to therapy clinics every week and doctors offices. Her brother has been in the hospital for short stays and she wonders why he is there. One day, Dan said “I feel so bad sometimes that Joe has to work so hard for everything that he does.” That really made me think. What we realized is that we can’t impose our perceptions on Joe. For him and his younger sister, therapy and work at home, and doctor visits is just part of normal life.

Jessica and Joe have the most phenomenal bond! Jessica has told me numerous times that she is going to marry Joe because she loves him and he loves her. Joe also has Apraxia and says very few words, but it amazing how she knows him and understands what he says and wants. It is easy for those of us who know him well despite the speech delays. We started Sign Language with Joe when he was a baby so Jessie has grown up doing Sign Language. I am so thankful that we have given them these tools. I watch her with him and realize what an incredible person she is going to grow up to be because of Joe and what he teaches us. She is incredibly patient with him (and she isn’t in most other things), she is very smart for her age and we attribute a lot of this to the fact that all of the work we do with Joe at home, she is exposed to – sight reading, sign language, handwriting programs, learning tools, and the list goes on. I never realized how much thought goes into what kind of toy that we buy for the kids. So for now, they are simply brother and sister with all of the normal dynamics that occur – they fight over who gets to sit in which seat in the truck, take toys from each other, and all of the usual squabbles that siblings have, but under it all, I know that they watch out for each other as I’ve seen it so many times. Joe even “introduces” Jessica to people at times. One thing that Dan and I are very aware of and try to focus on is that Jessica should not be given any “responsibility” for taking care of Joe. She picks that up naturally in the scope of being a family with a member with special needs. We don’t want any added pressure to be put on her. I think this may be a difficult task, but we are going to try our best to not let her feel that way and to enjoy her relationship with him as sister and brother.

The Special Needs Store - Where No Kid Flies Solo:

THE SPECIAL NEEDS STORE

Our Goal: Making the lives of parents, therapists, and educators of children with special needs and developmental delays easier by enabling them to find a wide variety of resources and products in one location.

How the Special Needs Store got started: One day, I spent a couple of hours on the internet, researching various items that I needed to get for Joe. I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated at the amount of time that I spent looking for just the right thing. There are a lot of terrific products out there, but I found that sometimes I would have to “stumble” across them while surfing the net or hear about them from another parent, teacher or therapist. It was time-consuming to have to go to so many different sites to find what I needed. Speech therapy tools in one place, toys and mealtime in another, potty training, DVDs, and the list goes on. Not to mention the cost of shipping orders from so many stores. Unfortunately, the vast majority of special needs products are not found in mainstream stores.

I thought, “There must be an easier way! Wouldn’t it be nice if I could go to one place that offered a wide variety of products and resources?” The more I thought about it, the more excited I became about the potential benefits that we could offer other parents.

As a parent of a child with special needs as well as a B.S. degree in Exercise Science/Athletic Training, I felt I had a unique perspective into what other parents are looking for. We rely heavily on recommendations from parents, teachers, and therapists as these are the people who are using these products. The Special Needs Store allows you to consolidate your purchase from one location, with one shipping cost, and reduces the amount of time you have to spend searching for these items! We are adding more products every month to help ease this burden.

Many of our children are in therapy, but the reality is, this is such a tiny chunk of time in our kid’s life and we need to make our home as educationally “rich” as possible. Each new developmental phase is a whole new set of products and information and it can be very expensive for families. With that in mind, we try to think outside the box in order to give our customers low cost alternatives that work well for kids with disabilities as well as offering many well-known products such as Talk Tools, Signing Time, Kid’s Express Train, The Writing Claw, eReadingPro, and much, much more. We offer products related to daily living, speech and language, oral motor therapy, special education, physical and occupational therapy, holistic, general health, books, DVDs, augmentative speech devices, visual aid, toys, Asthma and Allergy Friendly, and more!

The Special Needs Store Classified Section is a new addition to our site. We invite you to come take a look at www.http://www.thespecialneedsstore.com - Classifieds. Post an ad, or pass along our information to a business you think would be a good fit for what our customers are looking for. If our customers don’t find what they are looking for in our store, we want them to be able to find it in our classified section. Be sure to check out the Gently Used section – offering free ads for you to resell some of the items that you no longer need! When people visit our website, they are looking for something; whether that is products, services, or simply information. We are continuing to work toward creating a site that offers a wide variety of all to help ease the burden for caretakers of these special kids.

Where are we going from here: The Special Needs Store is an ever-evolving project as we grow and learn from the many people that we have met on our journey. We recently had a booth at the MN State Fair and met hundreds of people with children of many different disabilities. I have also been speaking at some local Parent Group meetings and talk to parents and therapists all over the country. One thing that has really stood out to me is that it really does not matter what the disability or diagnosis is. Yes, there are medical needs and specific tendencies with different disabilities, but when you really break it down, we all deal with the same stresses and joys in our family life, our kids are, many times, in therapy, whether it is Speech, Occupational, Physical, etc., and we all want what is best for our kids. A diagnosis is simply a label to help us understand the needs.

As we continue to grow, we are always looking at new products to add, new resources and businesses to contact for the Classified section, and new ideas to help our visitors with their choices and searches. We do what we can to make a difference in other families life. We would, of course, like to do more, but if we fill a need in someone’s family, school, or clinic, we are proud to have contributed.

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Send us your FORUM, suggestions, and product ideas. Nothing is too small. If you are looking for it, someone else is too!

The Special Needs Store is not only a place for you to find many products to meet your child’s needs, but a place for you to learn, share, and be a part of a community that is dedicated to making the lives of our special kids enriched and brightened!

Warm Regards,

Kelly Savage