Special Needs

Colorado family camp for children with serious illnesses

Summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean the magic of camp has to end! While there are year-round camps, most aren’t an option when you have a child with a serious illness like cancer, sickle cell disease or chronic GI or neurological conditions. Typical family camps can’t accommodate regimented medication routines, fix full meals that meet the dietary needs of kids with chronic GI or kidney conditions, or provide 24/7 onsite care for urgent medical needs.   Roundup River Ranch’s family camp in Gypsum, Colo. offers all this and more, allowing families to create memories as they explore camp, enjoy nature and rejuvenate through the power of play, long after the official end of summer. The incredible combination of exuberant play and incredible medical care. With full medical, ph...

Water World’s Sensory-friendly Accomodations

Did you know: Since being awarded the Certified Autism Center accolade in 2020, Hyland Hills Water World has expanded its accessibility efforts to ensure all guests can enjoy the water park? Recently the team completed the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) Certified Autism CenterTM recertification process which requires 80% or more of all public-facing staff to complete a training and certification program to better understand and welcome autistic or sensory-sensitive guests and their families. With 1 in 6 people having a sensory need or sensitivity and 1 in 36 children diagnosed with autism in the United States, the demand for more trained and certified options like Water World is at an all-time high. Water World’s Sensory-friendly Opti...

Kindness counts: A thank you from a special needs mom

To the mom in the baby water park, I talked to you about your kids. Their behavior struck me in such a way that I did something I normally don’t do, and I asked your son where his mother was so I could have a word with her. We spoke and I don’t think you fully understood how your children and their behavior affected me, so I am writing this.. maybe it will find its way to you and you will know who you are. Maybe it won’t but other moms will see it and maybe take something away from it as well. It may not seem like a big deal to other people. But I do know that there are some people who will really get it.   I was at the park with Baylee, my 5-year-old. She is autistic and mostly nonverbal. We were practicing very hard on waiting in line, and she was doing well for th...

New ‘Storybooks Club’ makes books accessible to special needs kids

Winnie-the-Pooh & Storybook Accessibility, too!  Children’s illustrated books like Winnie the Pooh have not been fully accessible to over 5 million children with special needs in the U.S., until now. Children ages 3-8 who are vision or hearing challenged or have a learning disability have been limited by books not made for them. The new “Storybooks Club“ from Denver Nonprofit ImaginationStorybooks.org is bringing the magic of books to all children in three different ways: Professional narrators describe all the pictures so blind and low vision children can enjoy the whole story. Videos include sign language and captions that include picture descriptions for deaf children. Both video and audiobooks have pictures richly described, so children who are dyslexic, autistic, ...

Colorado autistic boy receives $15,000 piano from stranger

Late last year, 11-year-old Jude Kofie from Aurora received an incredible surprise. Whoever said the best things come in small packages has never been gifted a grand piano.   The piano just showed up at Jude’s house one day.  “All for free,” said his father, Isaiah. “Who does that?”  To understand how we got here, we have to go back a year-and-a-half, when Isaiah heard a noise coming from the basement. There was an old keyboard down there, but no one knew how to play it, certainly not his autistic son — or so he thought. Jude had never had a lesson. No one taught him how to play. But Isaiah got Jude a larger keyboard to see what more he could do.  “It’s a miracle,” Jude said of his musical talents.” -Steve Hartman, C...

Does your child struggle with math? How to identify Dyscalculia

My daughter has long struggled with math. I still remember when she was learning to count to 20 in preschool and would always get hung up in the teens. Her problems augmented over the years and we spent a lot of money on tutors and additional aides. It was a joyous day when she took her final math class (for her and us!) It wasn’t until she was almost finished high school that I had a lightbulb moment when I attended a work event dedicated to learning about dyslexia, a learning disorder in reading. There was a brief mention of Dyscalculia, a learning disability to makes it hard for kids to understand and learn to do math.  So, when do math difficulties mean something more? A tremendous resource we used is The Dyscalculia Toolkit which helps leaners ages 6 to 14 who have difficul...

The challenge with this rideshare for Colorado’s disabled kids

HopSkipDrive provided the solution when Jerene Petersen was struggling to find rides for foster youth who had been placed in homes far from their regular schools. At the time, she was the deputy executive director for the Colorado Department of Human Services. She knew that getting students back to their home schools would increase their chances of graduating high school and building stable lives. It’s also required by federal law — but drivers were hard to find. HopSkipDrive — a rideshare service similar to Uber or Lyft that specializes in transporting children — now contracts with more than a dozen Colorado school districts, as well as human services agencies, to provide rides for vulnerable children: homeless youth, those in foster care, and students with disabilities whose sp...

Sensory-friendly Easter bunny and Easter egg hunt in Denver

Easter comes with many Easter traditions so why should all children not be able to participate, regardless of their circumstances?  Listed below are a special needs Easter egg hunt and also a sensory-friendly bunny in Denver. Be sure to check out our guide to Easter egg hunts and brunches in Denver.  Looking for something a bit different this year? Don’t miss these 10 fun alternatives to Easter egg hunts including a fun fitness hunt for kids and a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt (get your mini glow sticks here). Also, don’t forget to stock up on your plastic eggs and bunny potato sacks! Castle Rock Special Egg Hunt (Quiet Hour) Saturday, April 9, 4:30-7 p.m.  This is an amazing community event at Philip S. Miller Park designed for kid...

Denver Summer Camp Guide 2022: Denver’s Best Camps and Programming

See Denver Summer Camp Guide 2023!  Denver Summer Camp Season is upon us! And thankfully, this is the first summer in two years where it looks like we will have a return to normalcy (mostly). We’ve teamed up with Denver-area summer camps in our Denver Summer Camp Guide to include features of fabulous summer camps below (some are even offering discounts! ) From Denver STEM camps to Denver sports camps to investments camps for teens to Denver outdoor camps to a Denver theatre academy to even a Renaissance camp or pediatric camp for picky eaters, movement and school readiness.   In addition to this directory, we will be featuring a variety of Denver camps over the next few months that give a more in-depth glimpse of camp life so keep checking in.  Also, don’t pr...

Get Free Tickets for Denver Museums & Attractions at the Public Library!

Denver has world-class attractions and museums but visiting them is not always affordable. That’s why we recently published Denver Free Days for 2022 with free access to your favorite family-friendly Denver attractions. Don’t want to battle the crowds on Denver’s free days? We don’t blame you! Here is how you can use your public library card to reserve a day at Denver’s best museums for free. Participating cultural institutions include the Butterfly Pavilion, the Denver Trolley, Denver Zoo, History Colorado Center, the Colorado Railroad Museum, DMNS and more.  Bonus: Love Denver? Keep exploring with the Essential Denver: Discovery and Exploration Guide (many attractions are free!)  Also, scroll down to see our top picks for Denver’s best playgr...

Grieving and finding support after my son’s devastating diagnosis

Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance. As a former Victim Advocate, I knew this cycle well, but I only linked it to death. In death, there’s time. Time doesn’t heal the loss, but it does give the opportunity to ease the pain. So what happens there’s no space from the loss? When the loved one you’ve lost is still sitting right in front of you, living and breathing? Where does that cycle end for me? Does it end for me? When our son was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at nine months old, our whole world came crashing down. We began mourning the loss of the life we thought we’d have with and for our family. We mourned the loss of his possibility for a “normal” life. It was the death of dreams. I began the cycle. It would take five years of bouncing around, stuck in the cycle of denia...

Could a Paralympic arena open in Denver?

Parents are all-too-familiar that it can be tough sometimes for people with disabilities to find a place to play sports in Colorado. A new business in Aurora wants to make it easier. FWD Mobility opened this year. They work on power chairs, mobility devices and sports equipment for people with disabilities. “Pretty much anything to get people back to their life,” said John Vcelka, executive vice president of service outreach. “Just because you use a mobility device doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your life and have fun.” Vcelka didn’t hold back after a skiing accident paralyzed him from the waist down. He plays wheelchair lacrosse, table tennis and archery. Now he and two partners want to give others that chance with their business in Aurora. FWD Mobi...

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