For those of you that are with those of us with special needs every day, we know you have a whole different playbook and that sometimes the playbook calls for a new play. We admire your creativity and ability to adapt. It is what we have to do every day too.
Many of us rely on you in ways that typical kids do not and sometimes we do not even know how to express our needs.
Many of us may not look very different than the typical kids and you may not know what our diagnosis is, or you may not even know that we have a special need. We really appreciate you taking the time to look into this before criticizing us or assuming we are not complying.
We know that our IEP has so many pages that you cannot easily locate the most important immediately and again, we thank you for working with the team and asking questions to help figure out what we need.
Thank you for remembering that many of us hear all you say and that it is hurtful and kills our spirit to have others doubt our abilities or put us down. We thrive with the support and praise.
Thanks for those sensory breaks too, isn’t it nice sometimes to just walk and breathe and get away from the routine. I wish everyone could have them!!
Thank you for not giving up on us, thank you for being the voice we may not have, thank you for believing we are more than a standardized test. Keep finding clubs and groups for us to be a part of. We love that sense of community.
Please always fight for us, please continue to think out of the box and try to break the barriers to show the world our capabilities. Challenge us and cheer with us when we accomplish our goals!
Without you, we cannot shine.
You are making a difference every day.
Keep on believing in us…
PS- if you read this and it was familiar in how you go about your day, KUDOS to you. If you read this and realized you have some work to do, then, let this be the year that all of the above becomes your everyday routine!!
With Gratitude,
A Special Needs Star & His Family
( If my son could write these thoughts out, this is what I would want them to be .)