Children With Special Needs

During July 2004, my life changed. Me and my ex-fiance, Johan, went out for dinner and we were on our way home. That whole day I kept thinking about the terrible dream I had the night before. I woke up 11 times, almost screaming. It was strange, all I could remember was this strong, cold wind blowing against my face, it took my breath away. We had just picked up our daughter who was almost a year old and we were halfway home on the R573 to Kwa-Mhlanga. We were living on a smallholding with his parents at the time. I remember having Xaynee ... Read Full Story

THE TITLE MAY BE AFRIKAANS FOR "SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN," but I think such relates to a couple of interesting stories of late from across the world as relate to just how cruel and sadisto children can be subjected, especially when "discipline" is expected to be the object. First off, there's the strange and sickening case of a onetime corrective school/orphanage in the Channel Islands enclave of Jersey by name of the Haut de la Garenne ("rabbit warren heights" in the Norman French patois known locally as Jerriais), until recently a youth hostel: Over recent weeks, some 160 former residents thereof came forward to the ... Read Full Story

What if, the day you were born, instead of rejoicing in your birth, your family connected your birth to a horrific event that happened at around the same time? What if they thought that your birth caused that horrific event, and that you must be cursed? What if they threw you away, and left you to grow up alone, hated and feared by everyone around you? That horror story is reality for many children in India. Many of them are young girls. In India, it is a widespread belief that, when bad things happen to a person, that person must have done bad things ... Read Full Story

Yeah, I know its not Saturday yet, but I'm going to Michigan this weekend with Diana and the crew, so I thought I'd post Smarty Saturday early for your reading enjoyment. Even if you're not a big fan of the Chicken Soup For The Soul series, you may want to check out this treasury of true stories about children with special needs . All of the stories in this book are different, but in many ways they are all the same, showing that children, no matter what their special needs are, are children. For instance, when little Evan was born with Down syndrome, his ... Read Full Story

Today is National Depression Screening Day... a day for everyone to consider whether they or someone they love should be screened for depression. It is one thing for someone to go through grief after a bad experience, or to have the "blues" occasionally... but if a person experiences a degree of sadness or "down-in-the-dumps-ness" on a regular basis, so much that it interferes with their lives, they may have depression. True depression can be a debilitating illness that can even leave people unable to get out of bed! Luckily, there are many ways to treat it... but first it needs to be diagnosed. It ... Read Full Story