My 22-year-old daughter has Down syndrome and autism. She’s nonverbal, not potty trained, and has violent outbursts. When her baby brother was born, her behavior became so violent that we ultimately had to place her in an assisted living facility. She’s been there for about 10 years.

But honestly, every day still feels like hell on earth for me. I regret a lot of the decisions I’ve made in my life, and I would really love to talk to other parents of special-needs kids who ultimately became too much for their families to handle at home.

We bring her home for an overnight every few weeks, but even that is still a lot for us to manage. Her brother is 16 now, and I sometimes wonder what life would have looked like if things had been different.

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for context, it was in response to a video of a little girl being embarrassed by her parents (as parents do), but since the parents were white, and the kid was black, she tried to make it out as the adults being racist. When I told her to stop throwing out baseless accusation, and stop assuming the worst of people, she sent me this in my DM’s. I did not gaslights her, she obviously does not know what that means. I am not christian, though I respect all religions. I HATE when people use the R word, so please find this lady and make it known that her actions were ignorant.

Hello,

My name is Nathalia, and I am a doctoral candidate in School Psychology at St. John’s University. I am currently reaching out to Spanish-speaking families of children on the autism spectrum to participate in a free parent coaching study focused on improving sleep routines.

This program offers personalized, step-by-step coaching completely in Spanish to help address sleep challenges and create smoother, stress-free bedtime routines for your child.

If you would like to participate or learn more details, I would love to connect with you! Please contact me at nathalia.benitez21@stjohns.edu.

Thank you!

Hola,

Mi nombre es Nathalia, y soy candidata doctoral en Psicología Escolar en St. John's University. Actualmente me estoy comunicando con familias hispanohablantes con niños dentro del espectro autista para participar en un estudio gratuito de orientación para padres, enfocado en mejorar las rutinas de sueño.

Este programa ofrece una orientación personalizada, paso a paso, completamente en español, para ayudar a abordar los desafíos del sueño y crear rutinas de hora de dormir más tranquilas y libres de estrés para su hijo o hija.

Si desea participar u obtener más información, me encantaría conectarme con usted. Por favor, contáctame a nathalia.benitez21@stjohns.edu.

¡Gracias!

I help students draw better / sharing students authentic work .
There are two branch where one is the art therapy and another is a training for their mind and hands to understand and achieve a goal stages by stages ..
the above artwork is done by one of my special need student .

Please consider supporting my amazing Exceptional Needs students as they grow their success this school year!

Hi everyone,

Full disclosure first: I work with Bestkid, a company that makes child-safety door locks — I'm not a random parent, and the mods here approved me sharing this before I posted. This is a genuine giveaway: no purchase, no catch, nothing to buy, and I'll never ask for a card number or payment.

I wanted to bring it here specifically because of one problem a lot of us know too well: a kid who heads straight for the front door. Elopement and wandering is one of the scariest, most exhausting things to live with — the constant checking, the broken sleep, the fear of the one time the door gets opened when you're not looking. A regular lock doesn't help much when a child can reach it and figure it out.

The lock we make auto-locks on its own (so there's no "did I remember to lock it?") and has a child-proof anti-unlock feature, so it's harder for a kid to open on their own. That's the whole reason it exists.

The giveaway, kept simple:

I'm sending out 5 locks, free, to families here.
No purchase, no forms, no payment info — ever.
If you'd like one, comment below or send me a DM with a quick note about your situation, and I'll arrange to ship one to you. Shipping details stay in DMs, one-on-one — please don't post your address publicly.
Happy to share product details, photos, or a link by DM to anyone who wants to look before deciding — I've left it out of the post on purpose so this doesn't come across as an ad.

If more than 5 people want one, I'll do my best to sort out more — and if this isn't a fit for the community or the mods change their mind, just tell me and I'll take it down, no problem.

Thanks for letting me share this, and thank you to the mods for keeping this space safe for these families.

Hi all, my brother has special needs and it bums me out how he doesn’t have many friends. It’s just me and my brother engaging with him. We’ve been trying to network to find any groups, platforms, volunteer opportunities, etc anything really to help him be more social with anyone else other than me and my brother.
He’s 18 years old and had Prader Willie Syndrome. He’s a chill guy, he’s more of a listener and he’s on the shy side but once he breaks from his shell he’s a good ball.
If anyone can offer some support or suggestions, I’d greatly appreciate it.
My brother is willing to drive him around to be friends with someone so if you have a special needs brother or sister that’s down to hangout lmk! 😊

I know that this has been posted here before, but since I have not received enough respondents yet, I was hoping I could get more through a repost! Thank you to all who respond!

This study has been posted for approval by the moderators of this subreddit previously, as well as the Kean University’s IRB.

Hello again my name is Peter Bardys and I am a Doctoral Candidate at Kean University! I am seeking qualified participants, for my study titled “Examining Parental Needs and Perceptions of Support in the IEP Process: A Quantitative Survey Study”, IRB Protocol Number: IRB-FY2026-222. My study focuses on parents of high school special education student’s experiences in their child’s IEP process. If you are interested in participating in my study, please click the link here: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/ZPSBx7A57y, participation is completely voluntary and all responses are anonymous and do not collect any personal information whatsoever. At the end of the survey, there is a box which you can enter your email if you would like to be entered in a drawing for a $30 Digital Amazon gift card as compensation for your time. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through direct messaging, or via email at [bardysp@kean.edu](mailto:bardysp@kean.edu).  

Any help will be greatly appreciated, please share your opinions, or if you don't qualify but know someone who does, feel free to forward this study to them!

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to share a new resource for the coming school year by Closing The Gap - They are one of the top 3 assistive tech conferences in the US.

They just published their Back To School resource booklet with different solutions and discounts for the 2026-2027 school year:

https://online.flippingbook.com/link/102377](https://online.flippingbook.com/link/102377...

(including AAC resources)

I hope that this is helpful

(I am not part of Closing the Gap)

Title: [Research Study] Parental Stress, Self-Efficacy, and Mealtime Strategies in ASD

Researchers at Texas Woman’s University invite primary caregivers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to complete an online research survey exploring how caregiving stress and parental confidence relate to daily mealtime routines and dietary patterns.

Who Can Participate?

• Primary caregiver (makes meal decisions for the child)
• Child has a medical diagnosis of ASD and is aged 6–12
• Able to read and speak English
• Exclusion: Children with severe medical conditions significantly affecting digestion or requiring tube feeding.

Study Details

• Task: 15–20 minute confidential online survey (stress, parenting confidence, 24-hour food recall).
• Voluntary & Withdrawal: Participation is entirely voluntary. You may stop or close your browser at any time without penalty. (Note: As with all online transactions, potential internet confidentiality risks exist.)
• Ethics Approval: Reviewed and approved by the TWU Institutional Review Board (IRB #IRB-FY2026-378).

How to Join & Contact 👉 Take the Qualtrics Survey Here

We welcome questions in the comments or via direct email:

• Principal Investigator: Nirali Patel, Graduate Student Researcher (npatel32@twu.edu)
• Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kathleen Davis (KDavis10@twu.edu | 940-898-2651)

One thing I keep running into is how different things can be between school and home.

A strategy might work well in the classroom but by the time my child gets home everyone is tired. The afternoon routine is completely different. There are also people involved. Teachers, therapists, support staff, family members. And each one seems to have their own way of doing things.

I’ve found myself having to explain the things over and over again. Every time someone new comes into our lives. A substitute teacher, a therapist, a relative helping out. I have to go through it all again.

The frustrating part is that sometimes the best strategy isn’t clearly written down anywhere. One teacher explains it one way. Another person remembers half of it. A days later the original approach has changed or gotten lost entirely.

I’ve tried keeping notes. I’ve used shared files. I’ve sent emails and texts.. It’s surprisingly hard to keep everything consistent over time.

So how do you handle this in your family?

Do you have a system, for keeping strategies, routines, communication methods or useful resources all in one place? Something that everyone who works with your child can access easily?

What has actually worked for you term?