Telling Your Story Over and Over

Ideas, Tips and Examples

Make it Easier

Telling your story.One thing is for certain as you work to get help for your special needs child and that is you will be telling your story over and over again. Being prepared ahead of time will save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

What can you do to make it easier? Write down what you do know so far. Even if it is only family and developmental history, or a list of symptoms or observations, write it down. You can just make a reference list for yourself, or you can put together a pamphlet of your child, a child information sheet.

Make at least two versions. A long, extended version with everything you can think that may evenly be remotely helpful and room to add things as you go along. The other is the short version. Take what you have written and pick out the most prominent, important, or pertinent information and write a brief paragraph with this information.

Depending on the situation and the need for additional information, pull out the version that applies and use that as a reference as you are telling your story. You can even memorize the short paragraph as the introduction and then refer to the long version if you are asked for more information.

One thing that you can do that we have found to be very helpful is to write an introductory pamphlet on your special kid. One or two pages, (more if needed), with your child’s picture on the front, and is very easy to do with even the most basic desktop publishing software. This can be very useful for providing your story to teachers, child care workers, friends, even doctors.

So what would you put into an introductory pamphlet? Always start with your special kid’s strengths. What do they enjoy doing? What can they do? Always start with the positive. Trust me; it really helps in how you and others look at your child. You do not want to define your special kid by their disability, and you don’t want others to do it either. Start with the positive.

Then introduce a brief explanation of the disability, and any accommodations or situations that require a non-standard approach. If there are medical, dietary, or other restrictions or needs, list them here as well as what to do about them. You can certainly go over things with anyone who spends time with our child, but having the functional details written in makes it a great reference for after you leave!

Optionally, you can include a specific history page. This can be very helpful when working with professionals. You can always use it yourself when you have to constantly fill out all those history forms as a reference for dates and things. Hmmm, was it 1996 or 1998 that happened? Now you know for sure.

Finally, you could include any tips that you have learned that help your child. It could be things that help keep focused, redirects, provides a sensory or emotional outlet. Things you know through experience works or help your child.

You can make this as simple or as elaborate as you want; the idea is that whoever reads it will have a pretty good idea of who your child is, and what they need to do to be successful with them. Keep a few copies with you all the time, just in case. Put a couple in the glove box, in your purse or wallet, in your desk drawer at work. We also keep a separate spreadsheet with the current medication listing that we can print off and take with us to doctors’ appointments.


Here is an example of the one we use with our daughter, followed by another example for a child named Jacob.

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