Early Intervention II

All of the children in the group were challenged in some way, either through a physical handicap or through cognitive delays. But no matter the disability, these children still seemed to grasp the ideas of “play” and “group.”  The boy with cerebral palsy crawled across the floor for contact and was able to engage his [...]

Welcome to my Blog!

Greetings! On this blog you will find companion pieces to the poems in my last book of poems WhenThey Tell Me, as well as tips for families raising children with special needs and news about the literary arts and arts in health care.  When They Tell Me narrates my experience raising a daughter on the [...]

Early Intervention Playgroup I

As the months went by, my daughter’s issues added up. First the developmental delays to the failure to thrive to the speech delay.  In addition, there was the troubling fact that she showed no interest in toys or play and very little curiosity in the world around her. She was receiving therapies, but was there [...]

Mother’s Support Group at TEACCH

On October 19th, I will speaking to the Mother’s Support Group at the Chapel Hill TEACCH Center. I will read from my latest book of poems, When They Tell Me, which narrates my experience parenting a child with autism. I will also talk about how writing might help us deal with the challenges of supporting [...]

Her First Word II

For me the most disconcerting of the whole situation was my daughter’s speech delay. Muscle tone could be developed. One might work to forget trace amounts of methylmalonic acid, no matter how terrifying the first revelation. But who could ignore a child’s inability…stoic refusal…to speak? No amount of desperation in our voices phased her as [...]

Her First Word I

Her First Word Funny thing. For both my daughters, their first word was “uh-oh.” A less confident mother  might fret over this coincidence. Who am I kidding? I remember my first daughter’s “uh-oh” as I dropped a tomato in the garden and how I laughed at her succinct commentary. That very same afternoon she chortled [...]