Special needs kids transitioning to middle school face some unique challenges. So do their parents. One of those challenges is staying sane when parents send their adolescents into the great, big middle-school world.

6 Sanity Savers for Parents from Katy Dran

Kate Dran is an autism advocate and parent of 2 sons, one with autism, one developing typically. She’s also the founder of Adaptive Solutions Analysis, LLC. In an article for Special-Ism, she offers 6 sanity saving tips for parents sending their kids with special needs to middle school. Here’s what she suggests to ease the transition for both parent and child:

1. Realize you can’t protect him from every difficult social situation anymore. Trust that the relationship you built when your child was young is strong. And remind your child that you’re available to talk whenever he comes to you.
2. Don’t freak him out with memories of your middle school experience. Instead, keep things positive without sugar-coating the hard stuff.
3. Communicate openly and positively with school personnel. Make sure they know that you’re there to help them.
4. Give your child room to learn. Even from his mistakes. Remember, he’ll be an adult in just a few years and needs to start learning independence  now.
5. Trust him. So your child will learn to trust himself.
6. Don’t Panic. You made it through middle school, and your child will, too.

What Sanity Savers for Parents Do You Recommend?

So how about you? How did you stay sane when your child with special needs entered middle school? What did you worry about and how did you rein in those worries? What worked and what didn’t? Leave your suggestions in the comment box.

Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop-up box and the second at the bottom of this page.

Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net