Children and People with Special Needs

An inside perspective of special children, their families, volunteers, community members and Friendship Circle coordinators who bring them together.

Correspondence of the Rebbe and Dr. Robert Wilkes, at the time director of the Child Development Center at the Coney Island Hospital, on the subject of assisting children with special needs.

I am the mother of two autistic children. I love them both dearly, but as any parent of children with special needs will tell you, raising them is challenging and can often be full of disappointment, hurt and frustration...

Chaim was born 13 years ago, a healthy child to healthy parents. Then one day, out of the blue, Chaim contracted a "virus" (funny, how when they don't know what it is, they call it a "virus"...)

The following poem was written for my daughter Madison shortly after her birth. Madison was born with Down Syndrome...

I remember looking at the doctor and thinking: "You are not G‑d. That is your opinion, but anything can happen..."

From a young age I remember wishing that I could wake up and it would all be a dream. I remember wishing that none of this happened, that it wasn't my family that was different from everybody elses...

Chana Question: My son was diagnosed with a form of brain dysfunction. Please let me know if his parents or grandparents did something to deserve this punishment. Should we blame ourselves for his illness? Also, how can we help him? Answer: I am sorry ...

As a child I believed I sang very well, and this assumption was never threatened until I auditioned for my junior high-school choir...

This morning, before she went off to school, I said to her, "Sheina, today is your birthday, you are thirteen years old." She showed me thirteen in ASL (American Sign Language)...