The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine 3rd Issue | Page 29

Karen Franco, Author
highly recommend this book. It gives you
such an awareness of what our children experience just by sitting in a room. What we
all take for granted can throw their lives into
a whirlwind.

but it’s also helpful to the parents to meet
other people and possibly make some great
friends.
My husband and I attended quite a few special needs resource fairs in our community. You can learn about them through your
child’s school. When you go to these fairs, it’s
a “one stop shop” so to speak because there
are usually a variety of agencies that help in
different ways. That’s how we learned about
the next steps once our child turned 18 because there are a lot of things (i.e. guardianship, social security insurance) that need to
be in place before that happens.

Share one tip on how you
advocate for your child to help
ensure them a better tomorrow.

There are family agencies within the city
that I live that provided in-home behavior
therapy which was very helpful for Jacob. It’s
another support system just by providing a
“think tank” with other people who can help
find ways to help your child cope with his or
her behaviors. The behavior therapists also
helped with creating social stories as well as
visual schedules to help Jacob get through
his day. Jacob, like many children with special needs, are “visual learners”, and having
those tools in place guided Jacob to know
what was coming next in his day.
Local support groups are beneficial for your
family. It’s good to know that you aren’t
alone with your challenges and struggles.
Support groups are a great way to communicate and get ideas on how to help your child,
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Never give up on what your child is capable
of doing. I think some people put limitations
on their child who has special needs, and
sometimes these kids are the ones that surprise us the most on what they can do.

Always be that
support and voice
for them to help
them succeed .
What motivated you to
start your business?
Writing has always been a passion of mine
ever since college when I graduated from
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with
a degree in Journalism. Granted journalism
is a different type of writing from children’s
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