Poll Spinoff: What can be considered "special needs" and what can't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I posted in the other thread that my child was born with congenital cleft lip/cleft palate. However, she is NT and has no other additional mental/emotional SNs (as far as we know). So, I did hestitatedto list my child as SNs, b/c it seemed like the other posters had children with diff. things. Shrug. I don't know.

Not to be disrespectful or exclusive but if your DD's cleft lip/palate was corrected by surgery, I wouldn't consider her special needs. It doesn't impact her activities of daily life which is general one of the thresholds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I posted in the other thread that my child was born with congenital cleft lip/cleft palate. However, she is NT and has no other additional mental/emotional SNs (as far as we know). So, I did hestitatedto list my child as SNs, b/c it seemed like the other posters had children with diff. things. Shrug. I don't know.

Not to be disrespectful or exclusive but if your DD's cleft lip/palate was corrected by surgery, I wouldn't consider her special needs. It doesn't impact her activities of daily life which is general one of the thresholds.

No problem. She has some hearing problems b/c it affected her Eustacian tubes, but you wouldn't know this if you did not know her well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know. I posted in the other thread that my child was born with congenital cleft lip/cleft palate. However, she is NT and has no other additional mental/emotional SNs (as far as we know). So, I did hestitatedto list my child as SNs, b/c it seemed like the other posters had children with diff. things. Shrug. I don't know.

Not to be disrespectful or exclusive but if your DD's cleft lip/palate was corrected by surgery, I wouldn't consider her special needs. It doesn't impact her activities of daily life which is general one of the thresholds.

No problem. She has some hearing problems b/c it affected her Eustacian tubes, but you wouldn't know this if you did not know her well.

And it won't be fully corrected until she is 18 or so; there are repeated surgeries as her face grows, along with the ordontia. For example, once her baby teeth start growing in, there will be a bone graft surgery in her gumline, where they take bone from her hip to build up the gum where the cleft came through (currently, there is a gap there, which you can't see unless she smiles). So, this bone will fill that gap and provide a foundation for the adult teeth to anchor onto. At this time, they will also do probably the first of a few nasal/lip revisions, b/c as her face grows, the earlier repairs need to be tweaked as well. AT this time, they will insrt a bone in between her two nostrils, which is not there yet. So, she has s soft squishy little nose right now, with no bone in the middle to hold up her nose, like you and I do. She also goes to private speech therapy one time/week b/c it's hard to articulate w/o her teeth in the proper place.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if my child is considered "special needs" by people here on this forum or elsewhere -- he's been diagnosed with ADHD, he has some sensory issue stuff that hasn't been diagnosed but that affects him, especially with regards to eating, and I'm the poster who posts on the zinc supplementation thread b/c my son has had a hard time gaining and maintaining his weight due to various issues, probably not related to ADHD. But who the hell knows.

But the reason I post here is that if I post on the general parenting thread about a child who is a sever picky eater, chances are I will get a lot of responses that are good and useful for your typically developing child, but yet just not appropriate at all for a child who is outside the norm in terms of development. People here just seem to be more knowledgable and less judgmental.

[Anonymous]

I agree that it's an internet forum term, but I think of "special needs" as something that applies at the times when those needs actually come in to play.

So, if a parent is posting about how to get their child to eat, and said child has Type 1 diabetes and insulin on board then that needs to be covered, then in that area they're a special needs child, even if they are otherwise typically developing.

I have a child who is typical in many many ways, but had some medical issues as a young child that impacted sleeping and eating among other things. Parents of younger kids will sometimes ask me "how did he learn to sleep through the night?" and I'll explain that I might reply that I our situation was different due to some special needs. But, I wouldn't refer to my child as "special needs" in another context.

So, if your child has sensory defensiveness then it might be totally relevant to ask for swimming teachers experienced iwth kids with special needs, because in that situation he fits the description. Or to ask for suggestions for feeding a child with sensory based food aversions. But if the post is about strategies for teaching your child the alphabet, it's irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Okay, here's my take. My son is definitely special needs; he has a rare chromosome issue and is medically and developmentally complex and always will have very, very significant issues. He will probably never be able to live independently.

If I had another child who had sensory issues or a learning disability, such as ADHD, dyslexia, etc, I would not call them special needs. I think I would say they have learning challenges or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's my take. My son is definitely special needs; he has a rare chromosome issue and is medically and developmentally complex and always will have very, very significant issues. He will probably never be able to live independently.

If I had another child who had sensory issues or a learning disability, such as ADHD, dyslexia, etc, I would not call them special needs. I think I would say they have learning challenges or something like that.

But if you had a dyslexic child and had questions about therapy - where would you ask the question. General parents? Older kids? Special needs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay, here's my take. My son is definitely special needs; he has a rare chromosome issue and is medically and developmentally complex and always will have very, very significant issues. He will probably never be able to live independently.

If I had another child who had sensory issues or a learning disability, such as ADHD, dyslexia, etc, I would not call them special needs. I think I would say they have learning challenges or something like that.

My child is in the same boat, and I agree, it's hard to look at children with these types of challenges as special needs. But I remind myself that if a parent has a battle to fight, that's their battle. My child's cousin has ADHD and it is very, very draining on his parents. To us he seems like a perfectly normal child and we really enjoy his company -- my DD loves his "upbeat" ways. But we are not there when he takes the television apart, gets suspended from school, or has other exhausting episodes. So it's really not fair for me to say, well, my child is special needs and your child is not. I don't live in your house.