CP Information

We spend so much time and energy cooking meals. We even spend a lot of time in grocery stores and planning our meals for the week. Children want to be involved in cooking and they like helping out in the kitchen. In the last couple months, we have had several posts with recipes, tips and even utensils that can help you involve your special needs child in cooking. We hope this overview can get your mind stirring again and help you find ways to include your child in the cooking process.

MyChild, part of CerebralPalsy.org network of assistance, is dedicated to helping children living with Cerebral Palsy, as well as their parents. Beyond our extensive website, we have amassed a wide assortment of resources and information related to assistance for children with Cerebral Palsy. As this information continues to change over time, the best way to access help available for families just like yours is by calling 800-692-4453!

The holidays are always an exciting time, especially for children. They see their parents working extra hard to decorate or bake special treats. The holidays present the perfect time to try to get your children more involved. Baking can be challenging for a lot of kids. However, this doesn’t mean they don’t want to be involved; recipes will just have to be adjusted to fit their needs. Knowing how hard is it to find ways for children to help, we put a list together of a few holiday bakes that your child may be able to help with.

Technology is now taking over our lives and while this is a good thing, it can also be bad. Children are now using phones and iPads to entertain themselves and not leaving much to the imagination. Children need less screen time to foster their imagination and creativity, but they may not know what to do with themselves to fill the technology hole. Parents also may find themselves stump as to what to suggest to their children. Knowing that, we came up with 5 activities that children can do that won’t require any technology.

Music therapy is becoming more and more important to the special needs community. It can help with memorization, speech, motor coordination, and with transitions from activity to activity. For students in school, music therapy can be added to improve and enhance their education. Adding music therapy to your child’s IEP is something to consider and can become possible depending on your child’s needs.

For any child, getting dressed can be a frustrating, long process. This can be especially true for children with special needs. They may feel a lack of independence because they can not dress themselves or they may give up when trying to dress themselves. There are products and adaptive clothing that can help your child get dressed and may ease the frustration. We put together a few items that may help your child get dressed on their own.

When we watch TV, we probably don’t see a lot of characters with special needs. Breaking Bad is an example of a show that has a character with special needs, but this is nothing we would put our children in front of. Rather we like to admit it or not, TV is now a huge part of children’s lives and can be very influential. Shows or movies should illustrate special needs, but these shows can be hard to find. We found five shows/movies that showcase special need characters and can be a positive influence on your child.

Finding an activity that we can enjoy is important to help balance our life between work (or school) and play. Participating in activities can create passion and allow us to escape the daily duties we may face. Children with special needs can find it hard to participate in activities for various reasons. They may pick activities that they may not be curious about because they lack the resources for the ones they want to pursue. Every child needs an enjoyable activity that can they can escape too and become passionate about.

Anyone with a busy life knows how hard it is to keep track of medical information. As parents, we aren’t only responsible for our own, but for our children’s medical information. Even the most basic information, such as when and how much cold medicine your child got, can easily slip through our minds and we are left wondering if the child can even have more when symptoms are re-occurring. A daily medical log can lessen the questioning and even provide more benefits.

Cooking is such a huge part in our everyday lives and we spend so much time either preparing a meal or eating one. Imagine how much quality time you can spend with your child if you included them in the process. Children love helping and it makes them feel important and one of the grown ups, but it can be difficult to find a recipe that allows participation.