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  • On My Mind  • Alert me on articles by topic

Julie Nikaitani, BA

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(5):401-402.

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

There are things that radically redirect our lives, things that fall outside the script for a normal life, things we never envisioned happening to us or our families. Having a child with special needs is one of them.

We never get the children we might have imagined when we set out to have them, but most of the time we do get children who will go through life pretty much as we have. They will eat, grow, walk, talk, play, go to school, make friends, and learn many of the same things we have learned. Later, they will study, work, fall in love, find partners, have families, and enjoy the things we have enjoyed. Even the difficulties and failures they face along the way will probably be like our own. But occasionally, something unforeseen—or even random—happens at conception, in utero, during birth, or later on and we . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION