Parenting Podcast – Episode 37: Parenting Special Needs Kids with Jessica Temple

For the full show notes, visit: https://growingourfamily.com/s02e37/  

Today we have Jessica Temple on the show to talk about special needs parenting. Jessica is a board-certified adult clinical neuropsychologist. She has two children who have special needs. She and her husband, Lewis, host a podcast called Thriving in The Midst of Chaos. 

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Show Notes

Finding out about Alex

High risk pregnancy, hyperemesis gravidarum, severe preeclampsia and inducement

35 weeks, cord wrapped around neck, stalled labor

Alex had trouble feeding right away and was delayed in milestones, so we knew early on he had different needs

– We found out about Benji’s extra needs when the baby was about 8 months old

What are some of the resources you used to educate yourself?

I took to the internet to see what these disorders meant and what to do about it

For Alex, all I really did was make sure to advocate for him and get him into every possible therapy, and to see the developmental pediatrician

I used the resources from the therapists

For Benji, I utilized the autism society, autism speaks, pathfinders, googled for every possible grant I would, looked into the DDA, Medicaid, and SSI. I utilized resources from major children’s hospital’s websites. I joined tons of facebook groups and reached out to people there. We also listened to lots of special needs podcasts, and created my own to learn from other people. I also found other parents through his school to learn from them.

How did you find support?

This was the hard part.