BLOOM combines real family stories with the best expert advice, plus the latest news and opinion on disability.
Workshop explores tensions between clinicians and parents
'They said they were trained to be hyper-positive, but sometimes the parent isn’t in that space. Often there is a big, gaping hole of despair that no one wants to look at.'
'I'm ashamed to be jealous:' A special-needs dad
Yesterday this candid piece about being a special-needs dad on LinkedIn blew me away. It's such a rich account of the many emotions exper...
It's hard to tell when special-needs parents are 'drowning'
By Tina SzymczakIn 2010, our darkest times as a family, I began to use the analogy of a swimming pool to describe the difficult parts of ...
Sister turns step-by-step picture stories into life-skills app
Growing up Nadia Hamilton drew pictures and instructions to help her brother Troy, who has autism, do things around the house. “These w...
Wanted: Dads raising kids with disabilities
Matt Swan has been raising his daughter Leah, 16, on his own for over seven years. Leah was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and ...
This time my husband used a new line: 'He has a brain injury'
By D. Christine Brown We were sitting in a nice Italian restaurant in Kingston, Ont., en route home from our vacation. Our son Lucas was ...
Happiness is parenting a special-needs child
By Val LustedI never thought I'd be writing my very first blog with this title!However, when 2015 appeared on the horizon, I decided to s...
What do you read most on BLOOM?
Almost 200 people responded to our 2015 BLOOM survey earlier in the summer. We will report more fully on the findings, but I wanted to sh...
Think other special-needs parents have it 'together?' Think again
When Autism Comes To Roost: A Family's Journey From Denial to Acceptance is a new parent memoir out next week. Canadian psychologist Alic...
'I felt so small:' Parent tips on speaking up with specialists
By Sue Robins and Isabel JordanWhen my son was diagnosed with Down syndrome 12 years ago, our family was thrust into a world of medical s...
When you wish
Yesterday a colleague mentioned that she had seen my son in the distance at a park."He touched my heart merelythrough my quiet observatio...
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