Special Travellers Website: http://www.specialtravelers.org/location.htm

Overview:
Our founder, Meghan Mulvenna, has ten years of experience serving children and adolescents with special needs and has seen the tremendous benefit of traveling support. Recognizing the uniqueness of each child with a disability, we are eager to work with you in determining an individualized plan of support for your child, leading to a productive and enjoyable vacation. While we have provided a highlighted Caribbean location, we are willing to travel to the destination of your choice and welcome suggestions of places that meet your family’s interests. Having fun is a big part of a family vacation and that should be no different for your child with special needs. We have included some activities in the description of services that have served families well in the past, and are open to further suggestions that fit your child’s interests. Our dedication is to helping you create a successful travel experience and we welcome any of your questions and thoughts toward achieving that goal.

Here is cheap and easy bubble recipe :

Bubble Recipe
1/2 cup of dish washing liquid (Dawn or Joy)
2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar

Add your choice of food coloring if you like.

Bubble recipe courtesy of Lifelearning.org
Here is more information about cerebral palsy therapies.

Camp Barnabas exists to offer childhood experiences to Nicky and many other children and young adults who have been robbed of them by disease or disability. For one week, these young people are able to shift their focus away from sterile medical environments and the language of their disability or illness to focus on activities that build their courage and expand their belief in themselves. Many people with special medical needs endure unthinkable pain and isolating treatments for diseases or disabilities such as cancer, hemophilia, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy and AIDS. Their need for acceptance is overwhelming!

Tuition $600

Registration Fee $40

Camp Barnabas offers limited sponsorships to help offset this burden.

More resources for children with cerebral palsy in Missouri.

Find out more information about “adaptive equipment” and products for children with cerebral palsy.

More information about therapy and treatment for cerebral palsy.

Pattison’s Academy will be a year-round school where students, 5 to 12 years of age will receive an individualized quality education and therapies from some of the area’s top professionals. Pattison’s Academy is projected to open in the fall of 2008. After researching funding sources in the area and across the state, Pattison’s Academy is going to pursue charter school status. It is the intent of Pattison’s Academy to provide services to children in Charleston County as well as Dorchester and Berkeley Counties.

If you would like more information, want to know how you can help then please contact:

Name: Cindy Dodds
Title: Director of Physical Therapy
Email: cindy@pattisonsacademy.org

Name: Debbie Lamb
Title: Director of Occupational Therapy
Email: debbie@pattisonsacademy.org

Name: Kimberly Wilson
Title: Director of Education
Email: kimberly@pattisonsacademy.org

Name: Pam Sloat
Title: Executive Director & Business Manager
Email: pam@pattisonsacademy.org

More information about cerebral palsy resources and special education for cerebral palsy.

Known as The Audeo, the new technology uses an electromyographic-type sensor to detect electrical signals on the throats of people who are attempting to speak, and then processes those signals into text, synthesized words or commands for an electrically activated wheelchair. Ambient Corp., developers of the new system, said that it hopes to use it to help individuals disabled by such diseases as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), cerebral palsy, and traumatic brain or spinal cord injury.

“Our mission is to give back communication to those who have lost it through disease or diability,” said Thomas Coleman, chief technical officer of Ambient Corp. Coleman and Ambient CEO Michael Callahan demonstrated the technology to an audience of about 2,000 engineers during a keynote speech at NIWeek here yesterday. During the demonstration, Coleman controlled a motor-powered wheelchair by giving it silent commands on stage.

“When you speak, your brain sends a signal to the muscles in your throat,” Coleman explained. “We detect the electrical activity at the throat, convert it, and then use it for communication.”

Ambient’s electromyographic-type sensor, which fits around the user’s neck like a tiny scarf, picks up the electrical signals from the nerves near the surface of the skin. It then uses an A/D converter and an on-board 16-bit Texas Instruments microcontroller, along with software algorithms in a separate PC-based microcontroller, to process and understand the incoming signals, and then send them to an output.

“Once you convert the signals to words, you could do a transcription, or create a synthesized voice, or send commands to a wheelchair,” Coleman said.

Coleman, who co-founded the company while studying engineering at the University of Illinois, said that he was aided in his product development effort by the use of National Instruments LabView software. Although he started school as a computer science major, he was initially overwhelmed by the task of implementing the control algorithms in hardware, and needed LabView’s graphical techniques to help him through that process.

“Without LabView, I probably wouldn’t have finished this,” he said. “It would have taken too long.” Even with LabView, he said, the product development took approximately three years.

Coleman noted that the ALS and cerebral palsy sufferers, in particular, could benefit from the new technology. Many such patients can still use their throat muscles but cannot squeeze enough air out of their lungs to generate audible speech. As such, some ALS patients are ultimately forced to communicate by blinking their eyes.

By reading the signals from the appropriate throat muscles, however, The Audeo could enable such patients to communicate in an audible fashion.

“We’ve worked with patients from a number of different medical categories, and this helps them,” Coleman said.

Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor — Design News, August 8, 2007

From her blog “Shannon lives near Seattle with her husband and two daughters. Darsie was born in 2004 at 28 weeks and has right hemiplegia cerebral palsy. Elise was born in 2007 at 33 weeks. ” You can follow Shannon’s journey since 2004 from the birth of her first daughter.

Do you have a blog you like to share? Please post in comments section and I will post.

From the Makaton Site:

This might surprise you, as you would perhaps think that signing would prevent speech developing. But research suggests very strongly that this is not the case. In fact the opposite occurs, as signing seems to positively encourage speech development. Many hundreds of thousands of children and adults have been helped significantly in this manner.

Many families of children with cerebral palsy have found the technique extremely useful and a better solution than sole use of communication boards.
Have you had experience with this program? Please share your success (or not!) with us. Just post in the comments section!

Find out more about therapies and treatments for children with cerebral palsy.

They sell software that allows you to make your own personalized communications boards and communication aids as well as traditional aids.
Visit their site at www.mayer-johnson.com to ask for a catalogue or browse their products online. Some of their products, particularity the software, is expensive. It is a good value but pricey.

You may be eligible for Lifetime Benefits which will pay for item like these contact
one of our 4MyChild Care Specialists now to see if your family is eligible.