This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Pediatrics, Other  • Exercise  • Rehabilitation Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Abraham B. Bergman, MD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(11):1104-1105.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

During my 45 years of pediatric practice and teaching, I have been involved in the care of numerous patients with serious disabilities, but only in the past 5 years have I really learned of the challenges these children and their families face outside clinical settings. My epiphany, not surprisingly, came from personal experience: I adopted a son with special needs who attended a birth-to-3 developmental center here in Seattle, Washington, called the Boyer Children's Clinic. My son's needs—speech therapy for a cleft palate—were relatively minor and eventually resolved. The disabilities affecting most of the other children attending the Boyer clinic, however, were severe and permanent.

As I came to know the parents of these children, I found that their lives outside home were centered in classrooms, therapy cubicles, physicians' offices, and hospital waiting rooms. Life was a constant struggle; I never heard the word fun mentioned. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION



CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?