For those of year who celebrate the holidays with gifts, is your child getting anything that can help with their Special Need? Or anything that you purchased with their need level in mind? Sharing info here may help another person, including a parent, loved one or a friend, give presents.

My son has always had motor skill issues. I recently realized Operation will help his skills. He got the game last year, but had no interest, so we will try using it now. He is a very energetic child, but due to coordination, balance and motor skill issues, doesn't enjoy bike riding or other things a "typical" six year old likes. We will try harder with his bike now, but this Christmas, he's getting his first scooter (he's shown some interest) and the plasma car. The plasma car is a car that moves on a smooth surface simply by moving the handle bar back and forth. Great physical exercise that requires no batteries.

As I've posted before, he is obsessed with Bionicles. They add up, but it has actually been good for him. It has helped his motor skills so much, along with his creativity. He combines his Bionicles to make new creatures and has been featured on Lego's page where they choose the best ones! One of their choices included a (YUCK!) tapeworm he built. These are rated for 7 and 8 yr olds, but he's been into them since he turned 6. Now, he can build a new one, for the first build, within 3-5 minutes. Very useful.

He will also get a tape recorder to read into. Lord knows what else he will pick up. He is always creating movies, acting out roles, so he's getting an inexpensive video camera. They say Steven Spielberg has Aspergers, so we'll see how our little guy does.

The Learning Store has many amazing "science" things that will help kids create and learn about science. What a treasure trove that place is. Wish I had $100 to just drop there!

Please share your ideas and Happy Holidays!!

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Hi Carol,

I gave our case worker the list of things needed with a picture and description along with a letter of need from the OT person, oh about a month ago. She gave it to the special equipment person at sometime and now we haven't heard a thing! So Hunter will not be getting his time telling or numbers for Christmas because the State doesn't think that learning is important. They rather just give me a babysitter and have him do nothing all day. Urg.

I have bought him a Thomas the train table with tracks and trains. I also got a few other little things but that is it. We were hoping on getting what we needed for the new programs thru the waiver.

Merry Christmas, April