Category Archives: Special Needs Children

Tuesdays With The Angels-Special Needs Children-Angels Unaware

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My life would change years ago while in high school. It was  during the days when kids with special needs weren’t allowed in public schools. My gym teacher asked me to monitor four girls with special needs because they had swimming lessons at our high school. I was to help them get ready for their lessons. Why was I asked? I was a teenager with low self esteem and an underachiever academically. But the teacher asked me and I obliged. Did my teacher find a way to help me feel good about myself? Did she see something caring in me  I didn’t see? I had a heart for the kids ever since I was little and saw a child bullied outside of the school.

After college I had two thoughts. One was  to pursue acting and the other was teaching kids with special needs. I decided acting wasn’t for me  but I didn’t have a degree in education. But miraculously or shall I say with synchronicity, I was given an opportunity to work with the children again in a private school setting in a church.

I loved my job. I learned by interacting with the children as I had no training. I was blessed with two fantastic assistants who knew more than I did about the diagnoses and behavior. But I learned. As I went  on,  I learned more by getting a masters degree then by raising my own children. I went  back to work when my kids were in school.

Instinctively, I knew the children were my teachers. They were like angels to me. Their love was uncondiditonal. There was never an agenda but mostly kind souls navigating their own lives. Some had supportive families while other did not. I found they brought out a gentle nature in me, a calmness. There was always a  kindred spirit  feeling when I was with them. I knew they were the most important teachers I would ever have.

When sadness came and my daughter passed away, these children with special needs were kind and empathetic . Like my own children, they needed me and I needed them. They were comforting, caring and seemed to have a wisdom about the needs of the emotions of others. 

Years later, my sister encouraged me to write a memoir about my experience teaching them. I realize I am the mother and grandmother I am now because they  taught me about life, loving  the now, forgiveness and finding joy in all  accomplishments as well as the little things. The students embraced learning and loved succeeding. They seemed to know instinctively who were their advocates.

It is with such gratitude toward heaven that their grace glowed around me. The shy girl with self esteem issues changed the day when I first volunteered. I thrived, and had goals for the future. Helping them helped me mature and grow.  For twenty-five years I was blessed to have the privilege of teaching Special Needs Children The Angels on my Shoulder.

 

 

Tuesdays With The Angels-Bullying and Our Children With Special Needs

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Bullying is always a theme in my novels and was  part of my memoir, Special Needs Children The Angels On My Shoulder. Recently, a seventeen- year- old boy, whose father is running for our vice president, was bullied by a person in the media.  For me and many others, this cruel commentary was unacceptable in our supposedly civil society.

For twenty-five rewarding years I spent the school days with children with disabilities and special needs. Many now are considered neurodivergent. As I wrote in my memoir, my encounters with these children filled my soul. They were my own teachers giving unconditional love to all with many having no agenda except to be accepted into family and friendships.

These children and adults with special needs don’t choose their life’s path, this is their life experience and they should be respected. How do we handle such bullying in the media where some have become like the typical school yard bully? We need to  teach our children and all children self respect and respect for others while protecting and caring for them. How sad this media bully must be who didn’t apologize as of this writing.

When the loss of my daughter overshadowed my life, I remember how my classroom of children with special needs cheered me onward with warmth and gratitude. They changed my life,  they were my own teachers. They showed me respect, sympathy as caring attitudes came natural to them. The Bully Never Wins because most of us thankfully don’t have bullying inside our hearts. I pray that this bully and others  someday realize what most of us know, that truly children with special needs are our angels unaware.

Tuesdays With The Angels- Angel Inspirations- Being Champions For Our Children

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I was a special education teacher for twenty-five wonderful years. When I retired I wrote my memoir, Special Needs Children The Angels On My Shoulder. I’d always had a heart for children, animals, the earth and those in need. Where did it come from?As a child I remember being around nine and witnessing bullying. A little girl with special needs, who would be diagnosed as a child with Down’s Syndrome today, rode her bike past school each morning. She was not allowed in regular public school in those years. Other children were laughing and calling her names and it made me hurt for her. Wondering why she wasn’t in school and why they were  mean to her was embedded in my heart. I knew even then I would never be mean like those kids were.

Now that I am a grandmother, and a writer, I reflect on the makeup of people in our world. Some have the hearts for others and some are the bullies of the world. Why? The bullies teach us how not to be, I know that for sure. Yet, why can’t they change or can they? In our warring world today, where bullying by politicians  and others is accepted as near normal, . we must keep loving, keep caring and keep on. The children of the world are watching how we handle life day by day. There is a theory that those  bullying adults have been bullied themselves and their jealousy and rage come from childhood experiences and the lack of love.

When I write my novels there is always a bully character who has an awakening  and changes his or her ways to good in the end. This is what I pray for. This is why I write. Because as I say and write frequently, the bully  never wins. Loving our children and helping them learn how to treat others, that’s the winning way. Being a champion for our innocent children, this is love’s triumph! Ask the angels because even the thought of them inspires me with hope and determination.

Tuesdays With The Angels-Summer of Angels

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November 1st from 4 to 5 pm  I will be speaking at Desert Foothills Library in Cave Creek, Arizona. My topic will be my writing journey I call, The Angels on the Writer’s Shoulder. I will emphasize the journey of synchronicity I’ve been on since my late daughter passed away twenty seven years ago. My talk will include how it all transpired and I’ll read a few paragraphs from my memoir, Special Needs Children The Angels On My Shoulder. It’s a passage about Ned, of one of my students, and his interchange with me that changed my life for the better. All my students transformed my life on this incredible journey of mine. Five books in the Mystic Bay Series tell the secret story of  angels living as humans where no one knows the secret. Besides my memoir and Mystic Bay Series, I will speak briefly about my children’s book, When The Angels Sent Butterflies. I just completed my sixth in the Mystic Bay Series, Summer of Angels which will be published early 2023.

I’d love for my books to reach more readers because the thought of angels and writing about them inspires me each day to keep on the path of positivity and love. I walk the path with the angels, it’s my calling.