What Can You Leave Behind? Making Space for What Matters This School Year
Penny came downstairs the other day. We were packing up to go home. She said, “Mom, I’m doing fine with time, but I need some help with space.” What she…
2012
If We Can Fund War, We Can Fund Special Education
We received an issue of Connecticut Magazine with a cover story about the cost of special education in our state: “Schools face cost, staff constraints.” As kids across the country…
Raising Capable, Confident Kids: Disability + Parenting • David Thomas, LMSW
TAKE THE NEXT STEP PODCAST E27 — How can my child with a disability learn and grow? What does it look like to cultivate capability while honoring their limitations? When…
A Good and Perfect Gift Turns 15: How Our Down Syndrome Story Still Offers Hope
Penny in 2011 with a copy of A Good and Perfect Gift Penny and I walked into a local clothing store over the weekend, and a woman stopped us and…
Why We Shouldn’t Wait to Celebrate Joy: Disability and Family Life
One of my favorite moments at Hope Heals Camp happens at the banquet Thursday evening. After days of being together, we all gather for a meal where we start with…
What to Do When Parenting Feels Overwhelming: Take One Next Step and Ask for Help
I’ve taken to calling it my whiteboard of shame. When Penny was a toddler, and we had four therapists coming to the house on a weekly basis, I kept a…
What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To: August 2026
TV Series: The Bear We finished the fourth and final season of The Bear. It wasn’t my favorite season, but I will say I deeply appreciate this show’s refusal to…
Be Unapologetically Impatient: Disability + Parenting • Christina Cipriano, PhD
TAKE THE NEXT STEP PODCAST E26 — When your child needs support now, “just wait” isn’t good enough. Chris Cipriano, mom and developmental psychologist, helps parents of children with disabilities…
The Necessary Untethering: Learning to Let Go as Our Children Grow Up
In the past two weeks, William turned 18, applied for his first credit card, and registered for a language immersion program in Spain that starts in January. (He’s doing a…
Your Family Matters • A New Season of Take the Next Step!
TAKE THE NEXT STEP PODCAST Trailer — Parenting a child with a disability can feel overwhelming, isolating, and uncertain, but you don’t have to figure it out alone. Take the…
