• While a diagnosis of mental or physical disability can cause enormous stress on a family, you don’t need to see it as a life sentence. Here are five things every parent should know about life with a child with special needs

• Teaching self care skills is a process that begins at birth and goes on into adulthood. Children with disabilities find these skills difficult to perform for various different reasons. However, they will need to acquire these skills as best they can to live as independently as possible.

• With 20 million plus families in the United States parenting a disabled child or a child with special needs, more children with such challenges are being mainstreamed into America's public schools. Unfortunately, too often those without special needs feel uncomfortable around a classmate who seems out-of-sync. Helping youngsters become more sensitive is always important. Here are some specific ways to make kids feel more comfortable.

• Grandparenting and playing with the grandkids. Whatever it is that you're playing, there are two things you have to take seriously: being together, and the sheer fun of it all. No game is more important than the experience of being together, being joined, being equal - governed by the same rules, playing for the same purpose. And no purpose is more uniting and freeing than the purpose of being fun with each other.

• The aging process can wreak havoc on physical, mental, and emotional faculties. Caregivers must create a safe environment for seniors that engage the mind and stimulate the senses. One of the most effective methods of doing this is through simple craft ideas.

• Parent support groups are a terrific way for parents facing similar, challenging situations in life to offer each other encouragement, share ideas, and generally reduce the stress of a trying time. Unfortunately, parent support groups are often started and lead by moms who may have little experience organizing and managing a group. This can lead to poor outcomes for individual group members and great frustration for the group leader. If you are struggling to get your parent-community support group up and running, here are some tips to help your group really take off!

• Many families still embrace quality time with their senior relatives yet living in such a fast paced society this can sometimes be a challenge. These 5 fun activities to do with the seniors in your family will expose them to fun technology while still offering an old school approach that holds traditional merit for everyone involved.

• Seniors are stereotypically known for an old-fashioned mentality and an ignorance of technology. It surprises us when the older generation defies our expectations – by being wise during conversation, in great physical shape, or socially unconventional. When it comes to smartphones and other modern technology, however, some may argue that seniors not only frequently use such devices, but also that they benefit from them in special ways.

• Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia affects the entire family, but given that its onset is often gradual, there are opportunities to continue enjoying activities together and time for planning future care. If you have a patient or loved one who is suffering from dementia and other memory loss problems as a result of age, find out the health benefits of humor.

• Smartphones do add value to our lives, but many people are beginning to see an emerging trend of Smartphone addiction as well as other of the many conveniences offered by mobile devices.

• Every bride wants her wedding day to be the perfect day, the day that she's dreamed of since she was a little girl. Brides with disabilities are no different. Although a bride with a disability may worry about how her wheelchair will fit into her perfect day, she need not have those worries. With just a little creativity and imagination, her wedding day can be just as spectacular as she has always imagined. Here are wedding planning ideas for special needs couples and their guests.

• Quality family life consists of five components: 1. family interaction - relationships among family members, 2. parenting - activities that adult family members do to help children grow and develop, 3. emotional well-being - the aspects of family life that address the emotional needs of family, 4. physical/material well being - the aspects that address the physical needs of family members, and 5. supports for family members with a disability.

• No child who has experienced trauma is going to heal and learn to use different ways of coping without first feeling secure. The importance of environmental interventions is essential, in terms of providing the stable and safe place from which therapeutic work can be undertaken. Dissociation is a common component of the complex trauma response. Amongst those committing the most serious of crimes, over 90% experienced childhood trauma in the form of abuse and / or loss and frequently both. A link has been found between sexual abuse and the occurrence of drug abuse, juvenile delinquency and criminal behaviour a few years later.

• Clearly, one way to create a loving family is to be a loving parent yourself. This article offers other ways to create and sustain a loving family. Communication is an effective tool and an effective means to develop and maintain a strong relationship with your child and a loving family atmosphere.

•Achieve your dreams - We all need our dreams and our hope for a better life. My greatest wish for you is that you will realize some of your fondest dreams in your lifetime.

• Can an apple a day keep Alzheimer's away? Maybe not exactly...but it can’t hurt. According to research, a brain-healthy diet is just one way to reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer's. Physical activity, too, plays a key role in the health of your brain.

•Coping with stress for parents with children with disabilities. Parents of children with disabilities had very elevated scores on the Parenting Stress Index, signifying that they perceived far more stress in their role than did parents of children without disabilities.

•Safety during pregnancy - smoking, eating, drinking, self medicating, exercise and physical activities concerns. Special tests detect fetal defects during a special needs pregnancy.

•Children can have strokes, often caused by birth defects, infections (e.g. meningitis, encephalitis), trauma, and blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. Children’s strokes are often caused by birth defects, infections (e.g. meningitis, encephalitis), trauma, and blood disorders such as sickle cell disease. Children who have suffered a stroke may often have problems with speech and communication (aphasia and dysphagia) as well as visual problems such as trouble with visual perception.

•Early intervention refers to services that are delivered to children three years of age or younger, who are discovered to have or to be at risk of developing a handicapping condition or other special need that may affect their development.

• Pregnancy books tend to gloss over special needs pregnancy and prenatal classes frequently choose to ignore the possibility that you might give birth a baby with special needs. Depending on a mother's risk profile, special fetal tests may be ordered to detect fetal birth defects.

•Support groups are made up of people with common interests and experiences. People who have been through, or are going through, a similar circumstance can do more than sympathize with you — they can relate to what you are going through and keep you from feeling like you are alone.

• Parents who are considering homeschooling their special needs child want to know where they can find the information, tools, and support to be an effective educator for their child.

• In the United States alone, more than 110,000 families with special needs are waiting for permanent homes. Traditionally, special needs children have been considered harder for child adoption, but experience has shown that many families with special needs can be placed successfully with families who want them.

•Divorce and children with disabilities - If your marriage cannot be saved, there is still a good chance that you can negotiate a divorce that is fair to both of you without an angry and destructive battle.

• Essential to baby development, your baby responds best to a warm, loving environment. Holding your baby and responding to cries are essential in building a strong, healthy bond with baby.

•All children can benefit from appropriate sensory experiences. For children who have sensory integration disorder, the world can be a scary and challenging place. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), sometimes referred to as Sensory Integration Disorder affects approximately 5% of the school age population. Children with SPD may have difficulty learning and performing everyday activities including: eating, dressing, receiving a hug, or sliding down a slide. These children have an inability to correctly interpret sensory information that our bodies receive through touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing.

• To provide, your child with the most stimulating environment possible, it's important to understand speech-sound disorders. With this knowledge and speech therapy, you will be able to find the best ways to help your child learn.

•Motherhood and maternity - there is no more magical moment than when a newborn baby is laid in a mother's arms. What was for many months a dream and a mystery is now a miraculous new person.

•Childhood is often thought of as being one of the happiest times in a person's life - a time where a carefree attitude and a worry-free life provide the environment in which a child grows and develops. For youngsters with childhood disorders, however, this isn't always the case.

•Especially for teens with a disability or chronic illness, adolescence is a time of teenage stress and rebellion. Parents and teens need to communicate to stay connected or to reconnect.

•Becoming a teenager brings new independence along with new responsibilities. The teen years bridge the gap between the innocence and freedom of childhood, with a very different kind of freedom that adulthood offers.

• Are you having trouble finding effective ways to overcome your fears and anxieties. When your fears and depression have the best of you, it is easy to feel that things will not get any better. The best treatment to overcome your persistent fears is to find those coping skills that effectively manage the fear.

• For too long, people with disabilities had been told that having families of our own was not an option. The truth is, though, that there have always been parents with disabilities, and as our society evolves, more and more of us will have access to that opportunity.

• Giving care to a disabled or special needs family member can bring stress into a family. It changes the family system and roles. It changes family relationships and how each family member relates to all other family members.