Guest post by Stephen Gallup
(The Kikay Mom note: I initially published this guest post last year on my now-defunct blog. At that time, my own Wonder Boy was still less than two years old and it got me thinking how blessed I was that he turned out so healthy, so intelligent, and so loving. Steve is the author of the book What About the Boy? A Father’s Pledge to His Disabled Son; I will be republishing my review of the book next week because I still feel then, as I do now, that it was a good read, containing interesting insights in between gritty anecdotes of a family dealing with a special child.)
Sooner or later, all parents deal
with unexpected crises. Worry is just part of the adventure of raising kids.
However, a surprisingly large number of parents also discover, usually sometime
in the first three years of their child’s life, that a developmental disability
is also part of the picture. Their child could be given a label like Down
syndrome, cerebral palsy, ADHD, or autism. Or perhaps no diagnosis is offered,
despite obvious problems.
My son Joseph was one of those who
with no useful diagnosis. His birth in 1985 started our family on a very long
odyssey in search of help. Here are a few lessons I learned along the way.
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| Steve with son Joseph at 3
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