Hi, I’m Mary and I have a passion for connecting families in our area with resources that will benefit their children. My husband and I have been blessed with three beautiful daughters and never would have imagined the story we would be able to share through our own personal trials.
Being a child-find specialist for Help Me Grow Early Intervention, I get this question a lot. Many people ask how they know if their child would qualify for services. They inquire about how they would know if there was a concern, how to even identify it. These are all valid and good questions.
It’s that time of year when the dead of winter has FINALLY lifted and spring is in the air. The kids can go outside and play a bit more and crafting is at its finest. I get it, having ideas from other people is MUCH easier than coming up with something on your own. So many times I am glued to Pinterest trying to fill time slots throughout the day. I tend to plan things out for the week and decided that I would share these ideas I found and also came up with to celebrate the Easter holiday.
Recently I had the opportunity to talk about one of my FAVORITE organizations with Melissa Andrews on WTOL channel 11 news. So many times I talk with others about my passion when it comes to helping other mommas discover an avenue of help they have so longed for…it was nice to catapult my story for others to hear on a much larger scale.
I get it! You never want your child to be “labeled” special needs, you don’t ever want anything to be wrong with your child and you CERTAINLY wish it was something you could sweep under the rug…right?
The day I found out my child had a sensory processing disorder (SPD) was the end of our search for answers to her strange and “different” behavior. The silver lining was that we FINALLY had an answer for her terrible tantrums, her OCD tendencies, and her “clingy” personality. Sensory processing disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. … Some people with sensory processing disorder are oversensitive to things in their environment. Common sounds may be painful or overwhelming.
Oh Boy!!!! “Now What?” How could I possibly help my child overcome some of her obstacles when the world was telling me to go in a thousand different directions? After much research and trial and error, I had my go-to toys that truly helped her overcome her SPD obstacles.
Our family has been on a road that has taken us so many places and allowed us to meet so many people. Our girls were diagnosed with Hypotonia at a very young age. This just meant that their limbs were very “loose” and doing gross motor activities such as walking, running, jumping, riding a bike, keeping their balance, etc. came at a much slower pace than your average child. As a first time mommy and daddy, this news was awful (and I am well-aware our news could have been worse). We felt alone and unable to put together a plan that would best support our oldest daughter and her needs. A specialist doctor recommended Help Me Grow and I decided to give them a call. I was AMAZED at their professionalism, their quick response to my situation, and their support right from the beginning.
I was just getting home from a work trip and my husband says to me…
“Now don’t get too alarmed…I am sure it isn’t anything BUT…our daughter seems to be experiencing some sort of strange head jerks that she can’t control.”
Of course I flipped out and then quickly witnessed it for myself. It appeared to be a seizure to the untrained eye and with that, we rushed her to the hospital. They hooked her up to every machine, put an IV in her tiny little vein and the process began. She was just 8 months old and as new parents, we were not ready for this…like AT ALL.