The love languages and special needs families are a really good idea. Such a good idea that the love languages guy, Dr. Chapman, and I collaborated on a book called Sharing Love Abundantly in Special Needs Families: the 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities.

It was released in August of 2019. Caregiving families responded to it enthusiastically. They began sending emails and direct messages about how they were implementing its ideas for adapting the love languages for their unique circumstances. Disability support groups formed book studies about it.

Then COVID happened.

It’s been seven months since the pandemic first complicated our lives. Since then several things have become increasingly clear.

• The pandemic is going to be with us a while longer.
• Caregiving families need support and resources to survive and even thrive during the pandemic.
• The easiest ways for families affected by disability to find resources is online.

This once-a-month series featuring ideas from Sharing Love Abundantly is my way of reaching caregivers and their families. My way of passing along information from the forty families who, by trial and error, devised amazing love language strategies while raising their own children with a wide variety of special needs and disabilities.

Here’s an overview of what’s to come in the next few months.

• A guide to the love languages and how to determine them.
• How the love languages counteract seven threats to caregiving marriages.
• Speaking love to your caregiving spouse.
• The unique needs of children affected by disability.
• Speaking love to children with disabilities and special needs.
• Speaking love to typical siblings.
• Ways extended family and friends can speak love to caregiving families.
• How to communicate love language information to professionals.
• Wisdom from experienced caregivers.

I hope the strategies you’ll learn in the next few months convince you that the love languages and special needs families are a good combination. I hope they help you and every member of your family survive and thrive during this pandemic and long after it fades away.

Other posts in this series:
Basic Love Language Concepts to Ease Stress and Increase Joy in Caregiving Families

Threats to Caregiving Marriages and How to Fight Them

Fostering Communication and Connection Between Caregiving Parents

Love Is a Child’s First Language

Determining the Love Language of a Child with Special Needs or a Disability 

Ways to Speak Words of Affirmation and Quality Time to Kids with Special Needs

Speaking Healthy Physical Touch to Kids with Special Needs

Using the Love Languages with Siblings of Kids with Special Needs and Disabilities 

Extended Family Members Can Use the Love Languages to Encourage Caregiving Parents

Communicating Your Child’s Love Language to Medical Professionals

Communicating Your Child’s Love Language to Educators 

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