Parenting Impossible – The Special Needs Survival Podcast

Adult ADHD or Attention -Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder where a person has difficulty concentrating, is hyperactive or restless and displays impulsive behaviors. This previously recorded podcast is one of our favorites and offers some effective ways to manage Adult ADHD.

In this episode, Annette has a conversation with David Greenwood, author of the book, Overcoming Distractions-Thriving with Adult ADHD. The book profiles many entrepreneurs around the country who have ADHD and have created successful businesses.

Annette and Dave talk about how in some cases, a parent of a child can get frustrated and even lose hope when they have to work around or deal with challenging behaviors. And by reading the book that Dave wrote, they can begin to understand that there can be a successful person under all those ADHD challenges.

Annette and Dave also take time out to chat about some of the funnier aspects of having adult ADHD such as forgetfulness and being time blind. While these can get in the way of running a successful business, sometimes we just have to have a little laugh at our own expense.

Annette and Dave talk about some of the more effective ways in which successful adults with ADHD manage and thrive such as regular exercise, proper sleep, nutrition, and the topic of meditation. They chat about managing your time and your environment and best practices about managing procrastination and productivity.

And they chat about the positive aspects of having ADHD such as creativity, risk-taking, energy and having an entrepreneurial mindset.

Learn more about Dave Greenwood, his book and the popular podcast by the same name at: Overcoming Distractions

For more information on this and other topics, please also check out Special Needs Companies. For legal advice, inspiration and other resources, visit our blog here. Similarly, you can always listen to previous podcast episodes (and be sure to leave us a review), or download our free eBook here. We are always looking for podcast guests as well so please let us know if you or someone you know, has a special needs or disability topic you would like to speak about - Contact Us!

You can also join our free Facebook community for the disability community, the "Circle of Care," or watch the webinars and other speaking events on YouTube. We are also on Facebook,

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Communication is key, and being able to communicate with your loved ones and friends when they may not be able to use their voice can create challenges. We wanted to release this extremely helpful, previously recorded podcast again to remind listeners there are alternate ways to communicate other than just speech and voice.

In this episode of Parenting Impossible, Host Annette Hines speaks with special needs mother and inventor Randi Sargent. Randi created the website SayitwithSymbols.com, the only source dedicated to taking the guesswork out of caring for adults with cognitive/communication challenges by offering easy-to-use, picture-based communication aids designed specifically for adult caregiving.

Randi was inspired to start Say It With Symbols after the birth of her son who was born with severe communication and intellectual disabilities. Despite years of specialized programs, Randi's son never developed the ability to speak, read, write, or walk independently. Through her own experience, she realized there was a need for communication devices geared towards adults.

In 2008, Randi created a line of products designed for adults that are based on best practices supported by academic research. Her communication devices can be used by anyone from adults with disabilities to people who have lost their ability to speak after a medical event such as a stroke. Randi's products have been field-tested and improved by caregivers striving to communicate with their loved ones who cannot speak.

Annette and Randi also discuss the importance of making sure people have the ability to communicate using tools like Talking Mats and the need for more transition tools for non-verbal adults.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

The negative impacts of the pandemic have been talked about over and over for the past year. Let's talk about the positives, the good things that the pandemic has brought us. In this episode Annette discusses the three positive lessons she has learned from the pandemic, the three positive changes that have happened: 1 – Observation, 2 – Collaboration, and 3 – Innovation.

Annette starts off the episode with a mini review as to what this podcast is all about, why she created it. Annette says, "I started this podcast as a way to connect and bring information to the community." Years ago, as a single parent raising 2 daughters, Annette faced many challenges and struggles. Her daughter Elizabeth, who would have been 25 years old May 31, was profoundly disabled due to mitochondrial disease. Annette found it hard to get the supports needed as well as information as the internet back then was not what it is today.

Elizabeth passed away 7 and a half years ago and Annette felt she needed to do more. She wanted to help the community get even more information, to help other parents, families, and disabled individuals. She wrote a book about her experiences raising her daughter Elizabeth Butterflies and Second Chances: A Mom's Memoir of Love and Loss, she blogged, she wrote articles for various publications and then the podcast was born. The podcast has become a tool to bring even more information to everyone all over the world.

Annette then discusses the three positive lessons learned from the pandemic. Number one is "OBSERVATION". Through the magic of Zoom, the window to the world, we have been able to observe classroom learning and exercises in both school and adult services and programs. This has allowed us to view where things are going well and not so well as well as the response level of our loved one to the programs and classes.

Lesson number two is "COLLABORATION". We now have access to teachers, administrators, directors and staff for schools and programs, everyone that is working with and caring for our loved ones. We have the opportunity to be an equal member of our loved one's "team" and work with them one on one.

Lesson number three is "INNOVATION". We have grown tired of the same old services that have been offered for so many years. We have now seen so many exciting things happen and so many new processes that were created and are working. We d

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Dyslexia is a common disorder that challenges your ability to read, spell, write and speak. This neurological disorder is of particular interest to Annette as she discovered as an adult that she was dyslexic. In this podcast episode, Annette speaks with author Elizabeth Trudeau about her daughter's journey with dyslexia which inspired her new book "Brilliantly Dyslexic".

Elizabeth's daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia as a very young age leading to many learning challenges as she began school. Elizabeth says, most children with dyslexia are "just as smart as their peers, and they just struggle with processing language."

The idea for the book Brilliantly Dyslexic came from a car ride home from school one day when her daughter proclaimed, "I'm just stupid". This of course broke Elizabeth's heart. She responded with no you are not stupid, you are dyslexic and there are amazing people out there who are dyslexic - artists, inventors, people who have done amazing things.

Inspired to find these amazing people with dyslexia, Elizabeth researched and created a binder of stories just for her daughter. This project eventually became the book Brilliantly Dyslexic. As the book's website states, "These diverse stories encourage kids to dream big, play to their strengths, and never let challenges define them."

Elizabeth leaves us with a few tips for your dyslexic child or any child for that matter. Make sure you see your child and really believe in them. Find your child's strengths and support them as much as you can. Allow them to find something they are good at, allow your child to find and build their own story, to surmount their challenges and find their own version of success.

You can follow Brilliantly Dyslexic on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and keep an eye out on the Brilliantly Dyslexic website for the book pre-order which should go live in a few weeks.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Annette LOVES all the questions she gets because she LOVES doing these question and answer podcasts. Making sure the disabled community has access to all the information they need is key to Annette. This is one reason why in addition to being a successful attorney, Annette is a podcast host, speaker, author and blogger.

As an attorney, Annette does have an ethical responsibility though to not engage in a client /attorney relationship with someone who is not a client. Since each case is vastly different, she is not able to give legal advice on a personal level. These question and answer sessions allow her to give general information on a specific topic. In this episode Annette discusses Foster Care and Social Security payments, putting Real Estate in a Special Needs Trust and Stimulus Payments regarding Social Security and Medicaid.

The first topic covered is the foster care system and Social Security payments. 10% of children in foster care are entitled to Social Security benefits but it has been discovered that they are not being told about this. The foster care agencies are collecting these payments and are supposedly using the money towards the child's care at the facility. NPR did a great investigations article about this just recently which you can read here. Do you feel this is right of the government to decide who gets to be the representative payee of a foster child that is entitled to Social Security benefits? Please Contact Us and tell us your thoughts.

Annette next goes into some estate planning decisions – should you put your house into your Special Needs Trust? This often comes up as you will want to make sure your disabled child or sibling has somewhere to live once you are no longer around to take care of them. But what if you have multiple beneficiaries? Can you leave either half or one-third of a house in a trust? Will this cause too many challenges or be unfair for a trustee and/or beneficiaries?

Annette's final topic of the podcast revolves around stimulus payments or economic impact payments. How does Social Security and Medicaid view these payments in regards to a person that collects their benefits? Are the stimulus payments considered income or part of the $2,000 asset limit? Also, what if you received a stimulus payment but you passed away?

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Growing up deaf is a challenge, but what if you grew up deaf in a small area of India where there was no access to any disabled supports or facilities? What if there was almost no support for your education as a disabled student? Our guest this week is Tanisha Dayal , a young deaf woman and masters student. Tanisha, who now lives in Ireland, speaks to us about growing up disabled in India and her education challenges, as well as the disability challenges of traveling internationally.

Tanisha grew up in India in a time when cultural values were different. There was a stigma to being disabled as well as even just being a girl. Tanisha's parents and younger brother were very supportive and fought for her right to study in the same school as everyone else. Unfortunately, she was the only deaf girl in school so often felt alienated. Teachers and students often seemed to forget about her needs due to her disability, making learning and making friends challenging. There were no special disability programs or accessibility options available to her.

In her late teen years, Tanisha felt she was rejected by both the hearing and the deaf communities. Deaf students were shocked that she did not know sign language and she was labeled "too disabled" by the hearing community. Tanisha often had to advocate for herself and navigate between both the deaf and hearing communities.

Tanisha has also done quite a bit of international travel which raised her awareness on the disability challenges of traveling. Not all aspects of travel are set up to assist disabled travelers. There were multiple supports for wheelchair and blind travelers but nothing for the deaf. Deaf travelers must be much more aware as their chance of missing flights due to not hearing boarding announcements is much higher. There are also language and accent challenges for those deaf travelers that read lips. Tanisha feels from her own experiences that the travel and hospitality industry needs to raise their accessibility levels for disabled travelers and offer more assistance and services.

Something Tanisha would love to see more of in the future is disability leadership – for example, a CEO of a large corporation who is disabled. She feels that disabled individuals are sometimes given limited opportunities in the corporate world. They are often only allowed limited resources and face challenging corporate environments. There also needs to be a more inclusive

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Language is often something that is debated in the disability community – do we use the term "Disabled", or do we use "Special Needs"? Should someone be shunned or shamed because they prefer to use one term over the other? Is there too much emphasis on the language and not enough focus on allyship and effecting change together as one group?

In this episode, Annette brings back mom and author Julie Falcone to discuss how to talk to a special needs family, the language debate of using the terms disabled versus special needs and allyship and how to invoke change.

Julie starts off the podcast with a few tips and highlights from her recently released book "DEAR LOVED ONES: An Honest Guide to Helping the Special Needs Family You Love". Julie humorously offers ways to respond to family members and friends that may mean well but often comment or offer "advice" that may come across as uncaring or hurtful.

The language debate is something that Annette has brought up in various podcasts and blogs in the past. Medium had a great article recently also on this topic called "An Open Letter to Parents Who Use the Term "Special Needs"" . Annette and Julie discuss their views using Disabled versus Special Needs within the community and how we use language as "labels". Julie says, "I feel like there's a lot of emphasis on the right and wrong way to say things, when in reality we're all on the same page, we all want the same things."

We also all want change within many disability areas including laws, regulations, and benefits, but we need to realize we are all stronger together rather than pushing ahead to effect change alone. If we can come together as a group, ally together, we can make changes happen. If there is a problem or an issue, don't feel you have to handle it alone. Annette says, "Let's get together and see what we can accomplish!" and leaves us with the question - what are you doing to effect change?

Let us know what you are up for, what you want, what you would love to do, what one thing you would love to change? Send us your comments or questions here at Special Needs Companies - let's talk and ally together!

Annette would also love you to join her Circle of Care Facebook group. The Circle of Care group serves to bring together members of the special needs community – parents, siblings, caretakers

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

Most assistance offered to disabled children and adults is for the disabled individual. Not everyone may realize that their families may need assistance as well. Parents and siblings can suffer from anxiety, fear, stress, and a host of other issues related to their loved one's disability.

In this episode, Annette speaks with Don Grothoff, a behavior transformation specialist, family coach and father of three about his personal experience dealing with "invisible disabilities" within his family and how they developed a program to help other families like theirs.

Invisible Disabilities are those disabilities and disorders that show no outward or physical signs though they can limit or challenge a person's movements and/or senses. This can lead to misunderstandings and judgments from those that can't immediately see a disability.

Don and his wife Gina, who is an occupational therapist, had a drastic change in their lives one night when one of their daughters abruptly displayed signs of sudden onset OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), an invisible disability. Their once happy, bubbly daughter suddenly became a fearful, highly anxious child at the flip of a switch. While she appeared physically fine on the outside, mentally she was distressed and suffering. They spent years researching the disorder, trying everything they could to get their daughter to a manageable point. Don and Gina's own anxiety and depression levels became so high they almost divorced.

The turning point came after Don had a heart attack and realized he wanted to do something he was more passionate about and to help others in similar situations. He wanted to let other families know that they are not alone when dealing with loved ones with invisible disabilities. Don and Gina began Focused Healthy Family which developed programs to help the family as a whole, understand and communicate with each other. Don says, "our idea here is to be able to help other families that are going through that (anxiety)". They want to be a resource for people to help guide them through their issues revolving around their disabled loved one.

Don also lists his three tips for dealing with anxiety and invisible disabilities:

1 – Pay attention to the whole family, parents and siblings can be suffering too

2 – Take care of yourself

3 – Ask for help if you need it

Don also has his own podcast (which Annette will be on this summer) called The Invisible Wheelchair where he discusses anxiety, OCD and other invisible disabilities.

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

As adults, most of us generally understand what being anxious or having anxiety means and how it feels. Adults may understand what another adult, therapist or a doctor may tell them about anxiety, but what about your children? How do you tell your children about anxiety in a way that they will understand?

Summer Batte, an author, magazine editor and mother, faced her own challenges with this for many years. Summer's daughter displayed signs of anxiety early on. As a parent you realize that while professionals are great, they don't live with your children on a daily basis. They don't see or speak to or have to work through the daily changes in a child's behavior. Parents need to become the expert – the professional so to speak.

Summer spent time through the years researching and compiling every bit of information she could on anxiety and how she could help her child. This research and witnessing as a parent how adults spoke to her child about anxiety, led her to write her own book "Name and Tame Your Anxiety".

"Name and Tame Your Anxiety" is written in a language for kids. It details how parents can speak to their children about anxiety. How parents can let their children know there is nothing wrong with them for feeling the way they do – but on the child's level, not using only medical terms and clinical language.

Part one of "Name and Tame Your Anxiety" discusses "Understanding Anxiety", what it is, what causes it and the types of anxiety a child may have. Part two, "Taming Anxiety" discusses how to not let your anxiety take over. This section also explains therapy and what a child may expect in a therapy session as well as medication and what can be expected if medication prescribed. Part three discusses "Talking About Anxiety" and how you can help your child self-advocate for themselves as they grow into an adult.

In this podcast episode, you will hear Summer and Annette discuss the book "Name and Tame Your Anxiety" and how it came to be as well as the best tips to help your child with anxiety.

Order your copy of the book "Name and Tame Your Anxiety" HERE

Annette Hines has been

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.

The questions have been piling up in Host Annette Hines' inbox so it is time to do a Q&A session. Making sure the disabled community has access to all the information they need is key to Annette. This is one reason why in addition to being a successful attorney, Annette is a podcast host, speaker, author and blogger.

As an attorney, Annette does have an ethical responsibility though to not engage in a client /attorney relationship with someone who is not a client. Since each case is vastly different, she is not able to give legal advice on a personal level. These question and answer sessions allow her to give general information on a specific topic. In this episode Annette discusses Social Security, Transitions and Supported Decision Making.

The first topic covered is Social Security and how your payments can be impacted by work. Annette discusses SSI and SSDI, and how they are impacted differently by work income. Annette also discusses how you can use supports for work as well as how to possibly avoid getting kicked out of program eligibility. If you are looking for additional information, the Social Security website is a great resource.

Annette next goes into the topic of transitioning a young person with a disability into their next program. Covid created a huge problem last year when all programs went to a virtual format. Annette discusses how find and get a sense of a program and how it may work for your child when you are unable to visit the program in person.

Annette's final topic of the podcast is Supported Decision Making, which is very timely due to the state of Massachusetts recently reintroducing a statute regarding this. Annette discusses "Dignity of Risk" and how a disabled person may be able to use a Supported Decision Making agreement to retain his/her legal rights.

For more information on these and other topics, please also check out Special Needs Companies . For legal advice, inspiration and other resources, visit our blog here. Similarly, you can always listen to previous podcast episodes (and be sure to leave us a review), or download our free eBook here.

You can also join our free Facebook community for the disability community, the "Circle of Care," or watch the webinars and other speaking events on

Have you been searching for a law firm that understands the unique challenges of your family? We can help you at Special Needs Law Group put legal planning in place to protect you and your loved ones now and in the future. Book a free call today with our team or contact us via our website: specialneeds-law.com/contact.