[Richard Kimball]

Just a couple of thoughts. American sign language qualifies as a foreign language skill and wouldn't be a bad skill for her to pick up. I have one daughter with CP and one with Tuberous Sclerosis. The one with CP teaches math at the same college where I run a fire academy. Funny thing is, she was awful at math when she was ten. Because she struggled with math so much, she became very good at understanding why others were making mistakes. She teaches a lot of remedial math, and the students with learning problems identify with her, because she's much more approachable than the average teacher. She's also got acres of patience, because it took her so long to reach a lot of landmarks that other kids reach easily.

The funny thing is, many times our weaknesses become our strengths.

The two biggest things for me with my daughters was to understand that they weren't going to hit landmarks at the same pace as other kids, and that we couldn't ever let them give up and feel sorry for themselves. We threw out the time table and said, "are they doing better today than they were last year?" Saved us a lot of insanity, and I think, saved the girls from ulcers, without letting them fall into the "poor, poor pitiful me" trap. Looking at my post, it sounds way too easy. Lots of tears and prayers greased the wheels and I screwed up more than any parent has a right to. My wife home schooled the youngest one to keep her from getting pigeonholed in a special learning class. Our daughters both worked hard, hard, hard, and have made raising them a joy. Stay in touch, and let me know how your daughter is doing.

[luckystarmom]

I'm already looking into American Sign Language. There's a private Christian high school that we like, and it teaches American Sign language. I think she'll enjoy learning it.

We just put both of my daughter in a private Christian school because we were having so many problems with the public school. The public school said my daughter was doing okay even though she was reading below grade level. They didn't want to alter their approach.

In the private school, she gets a multi-sensory language arts program. It looks like it's working.

My special needs daughter is actually the hardest worker of my 3 kids. She never feels sorry for herself. We've always pointed out the things that she does well, and we point out that other people need things also (glasses, blind, deaf, wheelchairs, etc). She sees other more needy people, and she is thankful that she only has speech problems.

I agree about the time table. I've actually heard that a lot of special needs kids do better in college than in high school because of the flexibility that college allows. You pick how many and which classes to take, their times, etc.

Congratulations on your kids. It's an interesting journey with kids, but even more so with special needs kids.