Tall and slender with a wide smile, brown hair and pale blue eyes, Connor is a movie-star-handsome seventeen-year-old high school junior that girls his age would typically want to date. Because Connor has Cerebral Palsy, cannot walk, and uses a...
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We’ve all seen the news stories on TV of professional athletes committing crimes or demonstrating other reprehensible behavior. We’ve also read about multi-millionaire professional athletes charging their fans $50 or $100 to sign an...
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BELOW READ WHAT SOME NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS SAY ABOUT THE NEW BOOK “SPECIAL STORIES…” WHICH FEATURES CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGES “In life you meet a lot of very interesting people. Some are takers...
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PART 2 During my next visit to Charleston the following December, I was once again contracted by Lindsay’s parents to help their daughter with a new project. Her parents reported that she was still working well with Carly at The Market, but...
Read More PART 1 Due to the flexibility of my job and my wife’s work—combined with our desire to travel and embark upon new adventures—I was able to build a small caseload of students in Charleston, South Carolina each winter. During my work in the...
Read More I realize that we have to give names to things, but I’m not sure that “disability” or “disabled” should be used to describe human beings. Read the below story about one teen I worked with and let me know how...
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The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that roughly 1 in 7 American children have a developmental disability—over 3 million kids nationwide. Because of that number, one would think that there would be many books prominently...
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Over the last fifteen years, award-winning transition educator Mike Kelly has worked with hundreds of young adults with a wide range of disabilities living in Idaho, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. During that time he has served as...
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A few years ago I was wandering around a large chain bookstore, looking for books that told the stories of individuals with disabilities. Since I was working with kids with disabilities for a living, I was curious to see what was out there. Not...
Read More While at dinner with a group of friends one evening, a buddy of mine began prattling on about how hard his job was as a pharmaceutical salesman for a multibillion dollar global drug company. He described how the cold calling, the rejection, and...
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A seventeen-year-old high school senior with a winning smile and short brown hair that throws off reddish glints, Donald (not his real name) has Down syndrome. He is a young man of few words and, like most guys, keeps his feelings to himself...
Read More It’s rare to see a fourteen-year-old working these days. The times have changed and priorities have shifted along with the times. A combination of unmotivated and/or overindulged youth coupled with protective parents keeps too many teens...
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