Website design By BotEap.comIf your son, or, let’s face it, your husband, has recently been diagnosed with special needs, you may be worried that life is more difficult to manage now. The truth is, it’s about to get a lot easier. The diagnosis doesn’t change anything about the problems you have today, except that it gives you an entity to blame, disability, and gives you great insight into how to change your current habits to adapt. Here are some classic examples:

Website design By BotEap.comPut everything in writing and in public

Website design By BotEap.comLearning and attention disabilities affect both children and adults in a predictable way: It causes their memory to malfunction, most often for things that interest them the least. You’ve probably heard the term “selective memory”: For people with these disabilities, that’s a horrible truth, because your memory really is selective…it’s just not under your control! So posting reminders of what who (and when) is supposed to do in a common area like the refrigerator or bathroom mirror should become a habit for everyone.

Website design By BotEap.comLeverage each person’s strengths and admit each person’s weaknesses

Website design By BotEap.comEach disability is slightly different and leads the person dealing with it to behave slightly differently. The big challenge here is getting the disabled person to admit that no, they really don’t have the ability to handle money (or detailed work like folding laundry, or sustained effort like rearranging the pantry, or whatever). Once each person is able to relinquish control over those areas for which they are simply not equipped, tasks can be reassigned based on strengths and tasks that do not have a ‘strong’ individual can be assigned to the family instead. set to be supervised collectively.

Website design By BotEap.comAllow everyone to be self-sufficient

Website design By BotEap.comEach person in a family with special needs will need their own tools to take as much control as possible. In a family with a hyperactive child, an inattentive father, and a physically disabled but executively strong mother, for example:

Website design By BotEap.com• The child can have a set of refrigerator magnets to move around indicating which tasks are done and which ones remain to be done.

Website design By BotEap.com• The parent may have a phone or other device loaded with a calendar app, an alarm clock app, and a list-keeping app that allows them to keep track of daily tasks using alarms, one-time tasks using the calendar, and things like lists shopping using the list application.

Website design By BotEap.com• The mother can have a walker that can be used as a stool and a chair, to allow her to do basic work around the house while maintaining the ability to sit when and where needed and reach high shelves for any necessities. increase.

Website design By BotEap.comWhen each person is given the tools they need to function without constant assistance, the expectation of self-sufficiency becomes the culture and everyone benefits.

Website design By BotEap.comDon’t take anything too seriously

Website design By BotEap.comThis is probably the most important piece of advice for a family with multiple different disabilities who interact on a day-to-day basis. Learning to recognize when your disability has appeared, point it out, and laugh about it is the most powerful tool to improve your chances of long-term success, whatever your definition of success.