Here's the latest article from the Children with Special Needs site at BellaOnline.com.

Camp Prime Time Family Camp
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172738.asp
Camp Prime Time is a family camp in the Wenatchee National Forest near Clear Lake and Yakima, WA. Children, teens or adults with a developmental or physical disability or serious health condition and their families can enjoy a relaxed, supportive and inclusive community in a beautiful setting.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172738.asp

Please visit specialneedschildren.bellaonline.com for even more great content about Children with Special Needs.

We are already halfway through the month of October that we celebrated as National Down Syndrome Awareness Month the first weekend at the Puget Sound Down Syndrome Buddy Walk. We spent four amazing hours in the company of people with Down syndrome, meeting darling babies and charming adults, families of all kinds, and many friends. Those who plan and carry out events like the Buddy Walk may not realize what the experience means to each person who participates, so if you get a chance, just say, "Thanks." You or your child may inspire another family just by being there, celebrating the true diversity in any population. This week's article about Camp Prime time reminded me how important it is to spend time in the company of other families who are on their own journey with a diagnosis or undefined host of symptoms.

If you have a chance to be 'in community' no matter what diagnosis or advocacy event you attend, I hope you will enjoy your time as much as I enjoyed that Sunday afternoon. It is important that families of babies and young children understand that the history of meaningful opportunities for children with developmental disabilities began in a significant way 40 years ago at the early intervention program at the University of Washington and we know everything we need to know to give every child a good start and the support they need to show us who they are meant to be.

Reading the 'student profiles' at http://www.anewera4ds.org/profiles.php I recognized two of the older adults we chatted with at the Buddy Walk. All of us should be looking back as well as looking forward to the brightest future we can build for each of our sons and daughters. Most of all, we should be enjoying every day as it happens because we are not living a dress rehearsal for life, we are all in the midst of our own. Just as every person with the same diagnosis is as different from the next person with their diagnosis, each of our children will grow up to be unique individuals living lives we can barely imagine.

We work so hard in parenting, advocacy, and the mundane matters of each day, we deserve the luxury of falling short of our own and everyone else's expectations of being superhero moms and superhero dads who keep it all together all the time. Our kids deserve for their lives to be 99% childhood and less than 1% about a disability, and so do we. Even though my son's challenges from his diabetes adventures can easily crowd 72 rocky hours into a day for a week or two, his time is 99% regular life and less than 1% diabetes. It is very hard to see from the outside, but from the inside out it works very well for him.

Every family and every member of a family has something going on that can be delightful, distressing, or both. Hopefully we can accept this and go forward in friendship, sharing our cares and lifting one another up no matter how complicated our lives become. There are so many of us it is a wonder we don't find one another everywhere we look.

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Have fun passing this message along to family and friends, because we all love free knowledge!

Pamela Wilson, Children with Special Needs Editor
http://specialneedschildren.bellaonline.com

Access to Communication and Education Technology
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art171844.asp

Halloween Costumes for Children with Disabilities
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art63629.asp

Halloween Safety Tips
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58864.asp

Costumes for Children with Special Needs
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art36415.asp

Down Syndrome and Type One Diabetes Dual Diagnosis
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art32543.asp

Inappropriate Remarks from Other Parents
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172227.asp

Advocating for Inclusion - Unexpected Benefits
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172131.asp

Sharing a Prenatal or Newborn Diagnosis
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172192.asp

The Disability Hierarchy, Equity and Advocacy
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art61355.asp

Children and Sign Language
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49898.asp

Encouraging Late Talking Children
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art55867.asp

Is Diversity Like A New Box of Crayons?
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art5144.asp

Feeding Therapy for Children
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art56207.asp

Food and Eating Issues - Childhood Disabilities
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art170411.asp

Mental Wellness in Pregnancy and Motherhood
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art170925.asp

Mothering Babies with Special Needs
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art50678.asp

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Use a link in any article or click on these links to our Amazon aStores:

Children with Special Needs
http://astore.amazon.com/specialneed0e-20/

Down Syndrome Advocacy
http://astore.amazon.com/downsyndrome-20/

Sensory Integration and Children
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art48942.asp

Welcome to Holland - Today and Yesterday
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172314.asp

Traumatic Birth and Motherhood
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art170924.asp

Future Sibling Support and Down Syndrome
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172126.asp

School Bus Rides - Children with Special Needs
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art45298.asp

Raising Awareness About Disabilities
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172361.asp

Kindergarten Transition
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art49718.asp

Transition Planning for Teens w/ Disabilities
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art57505.asp

Encouraging Friendship - Childhood Disabilities
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art171290.asp

Inspirational Mothers - Down Syndrome Advocacy
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art172101.asp