This Crazy Quilt: Parenting Adult Special Needs One Day At A Time

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This Crazy Quilt :
Parenting Adult Special Needs

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About Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

The Blog: Parenting Adult Special Needs

"Jill is a wealth of experience. A treasure trove of knowledge. Witness"

Welcome. If you’re just discovering my blog and want to catch up to my series of daily posts about Parenting Adult Special Needs: One Day At A Time, this is the place to start. The series chronicles, from a parent’s perspective, our daughter’s transition as she aged out of her school system into the adult special needs phase of her life. Almost two years have passed since I began recording this process and with great satisfaction I can report that our daughter’s adult life is everything we have wished for her.

SPHERE – Celebrating Thirty Years Enhancing the Lives of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

Jill Edelman M.S.W., L.C.S.W, 10/18/2017

SPHERE, a non-profit that provides programming for adults with intellectual disabilities in the Ridgefield, Connecticut area, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary on November 4, 2017. The anniversary provides an opportunity to tell the story of a …

The Reflex To Protect Meets The Need To Emboldened: Pushing the Envelope of Adult Employment

Jill Edelman M.S.W., L.C.S.W, 03/08/2016

At many points while raising children, we come to crossroads where directional choice is complicated, when a parent's impulse to protect their child collides with the necessity of launching their offspring into adulthood. Parents of …

2015 Review – Adult Special Needs & Alchemy

Jill Edelman M.S.W., L.C.S.W, 01/16/2016

2015 has been a year of accomplishment for our daughter. She has been employed at The Prospector Theater three days a week as an usher and gourmet popcorn baker. Her volunteer work at Pegasus's Rider's Closet, a charity founded by Georgina Bloomberg, …

Pixar’s Inside Out and The Special Needs Universe

Jill Edelman M.S.W., L.C.S.W, 07/16/2015

July 4th weekend I took myself to see Pixar’s Inside Out, the animated film about, of all things, how feelings work. (For a non-special needs oriented take on this subject, see my post on The Couples ToolKit.) The main characters are Joy, Sadness, …

About Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

Specialist in Individual and Couples Therapy

Hello. I’m Jill Edelman, and, counting clinical practice, training and education I’ve been a therapist for over four decades.

My practice focus is on couples therapy which draws on my skills and experience working with individuals and couples with a wide range of issues. Some of the problems presented to me have included significant child-parent strains, divorcing parents, step-family adjustments, post-divorce parenting, mid-life confusion, loss of a family member, betrayal and affairs, children and gender orientation, same-sex relationships, gay and lesbian adult children, dealing with mental illness, cultural differences, special needs parenting and the impact of extended family members and family business on a couple’s relationship.

As a parent of a special needs adult, I experience daily the complexities and joys of that role

By Jill Edelman, M.S.W., L.C.S.W.

This Crazy Quilt: Parenting Adult Special Needs One Day At A Time is a collection of daily blog posts chronicling our family’s process as our special needs daughter turned 21 and “aged out” of her school system. It’s all here: our steps, missteps, failings, successes, emotional highs and lows, bureaucratic bumblings and staff saves.

The series of posts that became this book were an outgrowth of my professional blogging as a couples psychotherapist as well as a serendipitous confluence of conversations with friends and colleagues. One friend proffered, “This is a story that nobody is telling.” As the speaker was herself a journalist the comment gave me some pause.

My hope is that by extending my hand to you and guiding you through the pages of our family’s journey, you will feel less alone; that perhaps something in the pattern of our footsteps will offer guidance in your family’s quest to find a safe and satisfying adulthood for your special needs child.

The book includes illustrations by our daughter and an extensive list of post-secondary and other resources for parents of special needs children.

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"I am the mom of a 20-year-old with special needs. My son’s challenges afforded me the opportunity to venture down roads that I would not have otherwise endeavored, including Past-President for many years of our local Special Education PTA (SEPTA). These and other roles allow me to express with knowledge and personal experience my gratitude to Jill for sharing in detail, so poignantly expressed, daily aspects of her journey. Parenting a child with special needs transitioning into adulthood is NOT easy. Jill’s emotions, her daughter’s emotions, the nuts and bolts of the journey all come together in Jill’s new book Parenting Adult Special Needs. As you read the book you will come to know that you are not alone and you will find actionable tips Thank you to Jill and to her daughter for sharing and making the journey that much easier for the next young adult taking flight."

Amy Lieberman

"It is refreshing—no, exhilarating—for one who has spent her entire professional career with special-needs children—and the literally libraries of academic works on ways to help them—to encounter this delightfully personal, frank, and endlessly insightful chronicle of Jill’s daughter at age 21 launching into adulthood. Jill is right there as she leads us on the journey with vividness, humor, and relentless honesty. It will be eye opening and exciting for educators to enter that world with Jill and her daughter—daily, intimately, to see “where it is all heading”–our own work to prepare the child for this very passage. I can think of nothing else like this that has been written; nothing can replace it. It belongs in the hands of every participant at support team meetings in every school. Jill has pulled back the curtain on the future we all try to discern. I love it!"

Robin Shepard, M.S., M.A.
Learning Specialist
Little Red School House, N.Y.C.

"Jill has navigated the waves of young adulthood searching for the optimal recreation, leisure and vocational life activities that could focus on her daughter’s talents. The balance of activities of daily living, community program participation and meaningful evening leisure options is a hard puzzle to put into action. Jill, passionately dives into and discovers roadblocks can be overcome. Masterfully creating meaningful life experiences and tackling structured living. Jill is an inspiration to all people who are involved in the special needs community. We are grateful to be included in this much-needed ocean of clever conversation, humor and dignity for all of our children with all of their abilities."

Cindy Freedman CTRS, OTR
Co-owner, Angelfish Therapy.com

This book is a must read for all parents facing the challenge of raising a child with special needs. It is informative, highly relatable, and often heart warming. As an educator and mother, I found each entry to be full of valuable insight and information. I am sure that Jill’s keen ability to share her very personal journey will be helpful to so many parents who will be taking similar steps to helping their special needs child move into their own adulthood.

Jennifer Soodek, M.S., M.S.Ed.
Founder of Almost Home Childcare and Head4Success.com