A Special Needs Parenting Resource Guide

Step-By-Step Solutions for Families of Children with ADHD, Autism, Depression, Bipolar, and Other Behavioral or Developmental Problems

Welcome to the Team Up for Your Child idea center for parents of children with behavioral and developmental needs. I’m Wendy Lowe Besmann, mother of teenage David, who has autism and bipolar disorder.

Wendy Lowe Besmann, author of Team Up for Your Child

This site is dedicated to families like ours—families that deal every day with the frustration and confusion of seeking help for an estimated ten million American kids with behavioral health disorders. (“Behavioral health disorders” include ADHD, autism, depression, bipolar disorder, or any other problems affecting thoughts, behavior, or emotions.)

When a child has one of these problems, a parent’s world is turned upside down, inside out, and changed forever. The ordinary rules for raising kids don’t seem to work. We feel stressed out, angry, confused, and scared. We lay awake wondering when the next crisis will happen, and what the future holds. We worry about the effect on other kids in the house. We begin to cut off from “normal” families whose children act in ways that other people can understand.

Meanwhile, we trudge through a bewildering, disconnected health and education system full of unfamiliar language and endless paperwork, where every professional works on a piece of the problem and nobody seems to look at the whole kid. It’s easy to feel completely overwhelmed.

This process is never going to be easy—but it can be a lot simpler than it looks. There are dozens of tips, tricks, and techniques that a special needs parent can use to break up that big sticky awful mess into tasks an actual human can handle. That’s what Team Up for Your Child is all about.  (This month, find tips on managing that most overwhelming of monsters—health insurance benefits—by clicking “Newsletter” at left.)

In this special needs parent resource site you will find:

• Plain-language translations of jargon, special education laws and treatment procedures.

• Simple, family-tested techniques for keeping track of a child’s medications, progress, and school services.

• Low-hassle tips to ensure that the right questions get asked and vital treatment details don’t get missed.

• A chance to share your best keep-it-simple ideas for staying on top of this process.

This fall, Team Up for Your Child will be available for the first time in Spanish!  Watch this space for details.

  Meanwhile, I love to hear from parents and child-serving professionals with comments, ideas, questions, advice, and general ventilation on the topics we deal with every day.  Contact me at wendy@meltonhillmedia.com.