Have you ever gone speechless when a friend asks what she can do to help ease your special needs parenting load? Speechless not because you can’t think of a way to help, but because the list is so long you don’t know what to suggest? Speechless because trying to explain how to help would take longer than doing the task by yourself?

How to Help the Parent of a Child with Special Needs

If you’re answer to any of those questions is yes, you’ll appreciate this Huffington Post article by blogger Maria Lin. (If her name sounds familiar, it’s because she was featured in another of her articles featured at DifferentDream.com: 6 Things You Don’t Know About a Special Needs Parent.) Her list isn’t so much a things to do like fixing supper, swapping childcare, picking up kids for school. All those things are good and can be helpful, but Lin’s list contains ways for friends to be supportive.

Here’s her list in a nutshell:

1. Talk about your kids’ personalities, not their accomplishments.
2. Insist on helping.
3. Stop with the maxims.
4. Extend me some grace.
5. Stop complaining about your kids.
6. Ask me how I’m doing.
7. Coercively pamper me.
8. See my child.
9. Support my cause.

To read Lin’s reasons for each item on the list, check out her article about 9 ways you can help a special needs parent at Huffington Post.

What Would You Add to the List?

Maria Linn invited readers to add items to the list and almost 150 of them did! You can do the same either at the Huffington Post or here at DifferentDream.com. Your contributions are always welcome!

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