Raising Special Kids Facilitator’s Manual

This eight-session group program offers insights and guidance for any parent facing the unfamiliar challenges of raising a child with special needs—physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional.

The program focuses on:

• Encouraging parents to explore their own very intense emotional responses to raising a child with special needs.
• Helping parents identify their lost dreams, express feelings that accompany loss, and, at the same time, deeply love the child now in their lives.
• Helping parents experience the gifts that their child offers.
• Encouraging parents to practice self-care and appreciate all that they do for their child.
• Strengthening both the parent-child connection and the family as a whole.
• Improving family communication and developing skills to help children reach optimal potential.

The Raising Special Kids program is written to address directly the responsibilities and expectations faced by parents raising children with special needs, whether these needs are physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral.