We find that we often excel in our endeavors when we are
passionately connected to them. We care
about child development and special needs because it plays a significant role
in our lives.
In the summer of 2005, we received a call asking us if we
would ever be willing to adopt a baby that had been abandoned by his birth
mother from a tiny island in the Caribbean called Dominica
.
Being as blessed as we are and feeling as though we had
parenting 101 mastered, we prayed about it and felt a peace that it was something
we should do. After three months of
working through piles of paperwork, home studies, and a trip to the Caribbean
that made the movie, “The Pirates of the Caribbean” look boring, we flew home
with our little Caribbean son, Kurt.
The next six months made everything we ever new about
parenting look wrong. We tried all of
the parenting tricks we had perfected on our other six other children and none
of them worked. Kurt really threw us
off our game.
We have always cared about normal childhood development as
it relates to learning, but it is at this point that we really developed a
passion for helping families dealing with special needs and learning
disabilities. We have and continue to experience
the challenges ourselves. We know what
it is like to go to bed at night utterly exhausted and in tears and dread the
coming of the next day when it starts all over again. We also know what it’s like to walk in God’s
grace as He directs our steps through the journey.
At a year when Kurt started walking, he would walk a few
steps then fall. That is normal enough
but it continued for much longer than it should have taken. Then as he started being able to make a few
step without falling, he would walk head first into things. Then stand up and
walk into it again. Add this to the fact that he wasn’t sleeping
at night and that he didn’t comprehend even who mommy or daddy were, and we
figured we had a problem.
Knowing that Kurt’s biological mom was an alcoholic, we
began researching the possibility of him having Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
(FASD). Through the assistance of a
genetics doctor specializing in FASD, it was confirmed that Kurt did have
FASD. Our doctor is very careful to say
that a diagnosis is not a prognosis. It
simply gives us a starting point.
Since that time we have endeavored to learn about the brain
and development. What we have learned so
far:
- Play is very important to optimal child
development.
Click here to read "The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child
Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds". A clinical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
- There is hope! The brain and central nervous system can be “organized” and connections
can be made between
the countless number of neurons/brain cells found in
the central nervous system.
Click here to read an "Introduction to Neurodevelopment" by Toni
Hager of KidsCanLearn.net
- Targeted
gross motor physical (large muscle), fine motor (hand/eye), and thinking skills
(memory and sequencing) activities can actually help make the brain stronger,
almost like weight lifting for the brain.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, we would
love to hear from you! Please complete
the contact form below or give us a call at calling (716) 532-1888.
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