A 'Go To' Seat for Special Needs Children.

From the 'Special Needs Jungle' site, I received notice that the charity, Cerebra, is standing behind a seat making it easier for families to go out with their children who require more care, who have some disabilities.

The 'Firefly Go To Seat' is a support seat created in association with James Leckey Design and Cerebra. According to the site, it offers postural support and stability; it is washable and versatile and can be fitted to any dining room chair, supermarket seat or bike. Another great thing is called the 'Magnificent 7': each Go T0 Seat will give 7% of the sale to Cerebra. To see a video, click here.

Ornaments Made as Gift to the City of Providence.

Will came home with an ornament that was made in class for a project that I had no idea they were doing. I am not sure of all the designs but this is what he came home with, one he made to keep.

There was a note explaning the project - these ornaments were made for the Christmas trees on display during Waterfire. His class made about 200 to help.

As the rest of the note reads: 'as a gift to the City of Providence & its residents, Waterfire will host a 2 night Christmas lighting & the First Annual Festival of Trees this December. Not just a gift to the people of Providence, this lighting will benefit the Providence Rescue Mission & their pledge to support the homeless & needy of Providence. To decorate the many trees in Waterplace Park, Waterfire asked local schools, students, classrooms and after school

programs to create ornaments to be put on the Christmas trees at Waterfire. Ornaments can be made in any style to reflect a holiday, tradition, school/group pride, or other festive theme. After the lighting, the trees and ornaments will be donated to local families in need of a Christmas tree.' I thought this was such a nice idea and wish I had known about it earlier. Thank you to our teachers who decided to follow through with this and send quite a lot to make other people's Christmas a little brighter.

A Young Girl Sharing with Her Parents Who are Deaf.

I usually post about adults taking care of special needs children. This post that was on LifeNews.com shows a hearing 5 year old sharing the Christmas songs from her school pageant with her deaf parents. Claire Koch has had American

Sign Language in her life from the beginning, being a KODA - a kid of deaf adults. So she decided to surprise her parents by signing all the songs. She really gets into it; while all the other students are doing their moves, Claire was signing along with great facial expressions -- you can tell she really got into it. Take a look at the video. I'm sure you'll agree she is having a great time entertaining her parents.

A Moving Video from Pro Infirmis - Disabled Mannequins.

I found a wonderful video made by the Swiss charity, Pro Infirmis, a charity for this disabled. "Because Who Is Perfect? Get Closer" documents how mannequins were modeled specifically to several people's physical disability and handicap. It shows the process of how it was done and the great reactions of these people seeing their

'bodies' for the first time. The Daily Mail from the UK ran a story on how these mannequins were put on display in a Zurich store window to “raise awareness of people with disabilities, specifically in the image-obsessed worlds of fashion and retail.” Time magazines article states that this was done in honor of International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd.

The models are radio host and film critic Alex Oberholzer, Miss Handicap 2010 Jasmine Rechsteiner, athlete Urs Kolly, actor Erwin Aljukić and blogger Nadja Schmid. It is interesting to see the process of all the measuring and cutting and shaping to get the exact duplicate figure of the person. You also get the see the reactions of those passing by when one of the mannequins in placed in the window of a store. Check out the video here.

Cheerleading Is Now Special for These Girls.

Apostrophe Magazine online had a post regarding a special cheerleading team in Georgia. There was a pep rally the night before the boys football game and the girls from the Sharon Springs Cheerleading Association were on the field. New to the group was a team called the 'Phenominal Falcons' made up of special needs cheerleaders.

"We started a special needs squad for the girls with some disabilities and challenges that may not have had the opportunity to be cheerleaders," said Maureen Headrick, who organized the squad this past summer. Honestly, at the beginning of the season, we weren't really sure how many cheers they were even going to know." The girls learned quickly and cheered for the teams every Saturday. Some of the girls hope to cheer in high school. They seem to love the team, not only because they have overcome some issues, but they like hanging out with the other girls. In fact one girl, who needs extra help at school, has taken to helping other girls on the team. As Kate Geiger's mom says, "Kate's a very social little girl," Beth said, "very bubbly and very determined. But one thing that it has helped her is becoming more confident with her peers. And she's actually looking at it as an opportunity to help some of other girls on the squad. And she doesn't have the opportunity at school, she's usually the one being helped. So it's been great for her. She'll go over and, if somebody's having trouble, she'll pat 'em on the back or cheer 'em up. She's had a really good time with that." As the organizer of the team says, which sums it up nicely: "It really has brought home the message to me that it's not about winning or losing, it's about the effort that you give," said organizer Maureen Headrick. "The strength they show, the courage they show, to get out here and cheer in front of these crowds like this, it's so incredible.... They have the abilities. We just need to give them the opportunities." To see the video, click here.

Financial Planning for a Special Needs Child.

I am not a legal professional and laws may vary from state to state. Please speak with a professional in your area for the rules and regulations that would apply. The following is just general information that I have come across which may or may not apply to your family situation.

Frank & I have been going over what to do, planning for Will as he starts into adulthood and adult services. We have consulted with a local attorney since we heard of 'special needs trusts'. I found out about it from another mom during a workshop. She gave me the name of her attorney and we met. Trusts, as far as my understanding goes, do not affect SSI payments or any services the special needs child/adult is getting. Social Security Administration said the same when I asked - it is not counted in their assets, even if you have a large sum of money there. The thought was that a 'pooled trust' is best. From the website of "Plan of Massachusetts and RI" (which is the group she suggested had the best plan for us) comes the definition: There are two different types of pooled Special Needs Trusts based on who “owns” the money that funds the trust. If the money belongs to the trust beneficiary, it will go into the MARC Special Needs Pooled Trust. The MARC Special Needs Pooled Trust is funded with assets belonging to the disabled individual, often obtained through an inheritance, personal injury settlement, or personal savings. If the money belongs to someone other than the trust beneficiary, it will be put into the PLAN of Massachusetts and Rhode Island Third Party Special Needs Pooled Trust. The PLAN Third-Party Special Needs Pooled Trust is funded with assets belonging to families or other third parties to benefit a person with a disability. The third-party trust can be funded immediately or in the future through an estate or life insurance. A trust with a group of people as trustee was the best plan since that way, our other sons (especially if they are not in the area) do not have to worry about paying Willie's bills that are not covered by his services. The group overseeing this trust would also take care of any paperwork, tax filings, etc., of course for a fee. What has stopped us at the moment, is that while we can set this up and not fund it, once it is funded then the fees start. Taking a look as to who may be putting money into this in the future, we fear - in our situation - that the fees would eat up the money in a short period of time. So right now, we are holding off doing this. Another website, "M & L Special Needs Planning" out of the Washington, DC area, offers some areas of concern that you may want to investigate for yourself, talking to a local professional. At my meeting, we did not address # 3. 1 - A Comprehensive Special Needs Financial Life Plan 2 - Government Benefit Counseling 3 - Insurance Needs Analysis Planning This website also provides some interesting statistics: Reasons for Special Needs Financial Life Plans -- Nearly 54 Million Americans cope with special needs and the rising associated expenses, according to the National Organization on Disability. Nearly one-fifth of all Americans—more than 54 million men, women and children— have a physical, sensory or intellectual disability, according to the National Organization on Disability. More than 41 million Americans, or almost 15% of the population age 5 and older, have some type of disability; according to 2007 Census survey data. Some 6.2% of children ages 5 to 15, or 2.8 million kids, have disabilities, the Census Bureau found. The U.S. Census Bureau says about 20% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 64 suffer some form of physical, mental or emotional impairment. Many of them are outliving their parents thanks to improved care medical technology. Over 75 percent of special needs adults are without employment (Grassi, S.G. Special Planning is Needed for Families with a Special-Needs Child. Journal of Practical Estate Planning, 39-51) Households containing at least one family member with a mental disability are also marked by the highest poverty rate, 32 percent, within the U.S. (Erickson, W., & Lee, C. Disability Status Report: United States.) The need is there to plan, this is something we can all agree on, but what type of plan is best will be best determined by a discussion with a professional who is familiar with looking long term and who knows the laws. As the attorney I spoke to said, if we wanted to speak to someone else - no problem; just make sure that person knows the rules and regulations and most of all the language that is used to set the trust up. It is specialized, especially since you do not want it interfering with any income and/or services that are being provided to your son or daughter. If you do set a trust up, anyone wanting to give money to the trust does exactly that -- writes the check, leaves an inheritance or life insurance money TO THE TRUST, not to the person. Even birthday money has the trust's name on the check. This trust plan is a good idea - make sure it is a good idea for your family.