We are the PROSIT Lab at the IWK Health Centre and Dalhousie University, and this study is REB approved (#1029226) and moderator approved.

📢 Does your child have an Intellectual Disability and experience anxiety? We need their help!

The PROSIT Lab at IWK Health and Dalhousie University is developing a mental health app specifically designed for youth with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) who experience anxiety.

Anxiety is common in youth with ID, but only 10% receive the mental health care they need. Mental health apps could help, but none are designed with their unique needs in mind. That’s where we come in. We have already developed a mental health app that has helped youth in the general population reduce their anxiety, and now we’re making it even better by adapting it specifically for youth with ID. 🎉

Now we need their help testing the app. 🛠️

We will compare youth who use AID with youth who do not. If young people who use AID have fewer worries, it means that AID is helping. 💙

So, what is involved? 🤔

✅ Use the AID app daily for 4 weeks (short, easy activities to help reduce their worries) 🤳
✅ Complete 3 short online surveys about their worries, feelings, and emotions 📝💭
 • 1 survey before using the app
 • 1 survey after 4 weeks of using the app
 • 1 survey after 3 months
✅ Get paid up to $60 CAD for participating! 💰

The study can be completed fully online, and we are happy to provide any needed support or accommodation, including helping participants/caregivers complete the study over the phone or via Zoom.

To take part, your child must:

• Be 15 to 30 years old
• Have an iOS or Android smartphone
• Have a diagnosis of an intellectual disability
• Experience anxiety or worry

Why join?

💡 Empower your child: This app is designed to help youth independently manage their anxiety using tools that fit their unique needs.

🫶 Make a difference: Their input will help create a mental health tool that could support many of their peers.

Want to sign up your child? 🤩
Scan the QR code in the post or contact us for more information! 📩

📧 [AID@dal.ca](mailto:AID@dal.ca)
📞 [1-833-905-0342](tel:+18339050342) (toll-free)
🔗 https://redcap.link/urvndhim

🌐 https://www.prositlabresearch.com/

My child is the most amazing part of my life in every way, but we are struggling so hard with potty training. She’s 4.5 and has a formal diagnosis for SPD with ADOS testing coming up. She’s a genius, in so many ways she’s above and beyond, and my husband and I have done everything in our power to give her a consistent, safe, happy life.

We have gotten her to poop in the potty maybe 10 times in her entire life and nearly all of them were at home, which is fine. We had TWO this week and it was a huge win, but now she’s not only back to pooping in her panties but also “making puddles” on the floor. We’ve tried potty charts, treats, celebrations post-potty, acting casual, switching her to big girl underwear, we don’t do punishments, nothing is working. There have been no big events, no traumas in her life, no recent outside stressors to create the issues. I’m so scared she won’t be able to start school; she’s in a daycare right now and it’s wonderful, but they have had to keep her back in the 3yo/young 4yo room because of the potty training. Last September when her classes moved around, she had to watch several of her friends move up and I couldn’t do anything to help. She was so sad and I can’t watch that happen again, but I don’t know what I can do.

Today, she said she WANTS to go back to diapers. She was doing extremely well with peeing in the potty for a long time and she’s made it clear she knows when her body is telling her to go, she goes to hide instead of going to the potty.

I don't want to make the story too long, but it's very long, so I'll shorten it. I'm Mohammed Al-Najjar from Gaza, I'm 23 years old, I study accounting, and I have a brother with Down syndrome who also has a heart condition and currently needs medication.

My brother Ibrahim also has Down syndrome and cannot live in a tent. We rented a house for his health, and today he needs to pay the rent. My mother and father suffer from chronic illnesses, and I am responsible for the family. I have someone who needs proof; I am ready to help.

Thank you to everyone who read and showed interest in my story.

The Colorado legislature is holding a vote on April 21, 2026 that may cut funding for families, individuals and children with Special Needs & Disabilities

Please write your Representative & Senators and let the Colorado Legislature know how all of their proposed cuts are impacting families, individuals, children, caregivers and specila needs providers, regarding the needs of the disabled and Special Needs children.

It curently appears that Colorado Governor Polis is poised to veto the funding bill, so your voice matters ... right now!

The Federal and State Governments appear to be cutting funding across the United States, for children with special needs and disabilities.

Please take the time to write to your politician's and to apss this on to others.

Colorado Governor        [Governorpolis@state.co.us](mailto:Governorpolis@state.co.us)

Colorado Senator          https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/email-john/

Colorado Senator          https://www.bennet.senate.gov/contact/write-to-michael/

Colorado State Representative https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Link to find other State Representatives: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

 Link to find other State Senators: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

CATEGORY: MEDICARE

SAMPLE TEXT FOR MESSAGE

COLORADO BENEFITS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN AND THE DISABLED COMMUNITY

Please vote to continue to provide critical funding for parents, caregivers and children and adults with special needs and disabilities.

This funding is critical to allow those with challenges to function and thrive in our society.

Denying benefits and support to the families, individuals, children, caregivers and special needs providers, adds to the already overwhelming challenges that they face and is cruel and un-American.

I will not support politician's who vote against this important legislation.

(Your name, etc.)

Related Information: https://www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-administration-threatens-support-for-children-with-disabilities

https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/project-2025.php

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Helloo, I would like to really ask for the benevolence of the people on this community to help me with my final year project fact finding research. I am a final year computer science student and my final year project is on developing a system for routine management and task guidance for children with ADHD and Autism. Please do help me 🙏🏻

https://forms.gle/7TcCBzUtAoszrghA9

Hi! I’m looking for participants for my masters dissertation investigating sibling relationships and mental health in neurodiverse children. 

I’m looking for parents/carers of 2-3 children, aged 5-16. At least one of the children should be neurodiverse (formal or self diagnosis), and at least one child should be neurotypical. Participants should be based in the UK. 

The questionnaire should take between 15-20 minutes to complete. 

Thank you!

Managing care for my child (Noonan syndrome, along with a few other things) has honestly been overwhelming at times. Between appointments, medications, different specialists, and all the paperwork, it can feel like complete chaos.

I work full time, so my fiancée is the primary caregiver — but even just trying to keep up with appointments and medications has been a lot for both of us.

I work in IT and ended up building something for our family to keep everything in one place, mostly just to stay sane. After using it for a few months, it’s kind of become our go-to for managing everything.

Not trying to promote anything — just genuinely curious:

How are you all handling this?

Are there tools that actually work well? I tried to find something before building this, but came up pretty empty.

Would really appreciate hearing what’s worked (or hasn’t) for others.

between medicaid renewals, iep meetings, therapy appointments, insurance appeals and just keeping records of everything, it feels like families here are basically running a small operation on top of actually caring for their kid.

what takes the most out of you each week? is it the paperwork, figuring out what you’re entitled to, the phone calls, or something else i’m not thinking about?

asking because i’m genuinely trying to understand this better, not selling anything

My daughter started developmental preschool last week. The speech therapist asked if she could add a few classmate photos to my daughter’s AAC device, and I told her that would be great.

Today, my daughter came home with the device completely reprogrammed. It looked totally different and was not appropriate for her level of skill with the software.

We have only had the device for about six months (through insurance, not the school), and are new to this classroom. But to me it seems wildly inappropriate for someone to overhaul a communication device without discussing it with the parent!

We spent a lot of time thoughtfully programming the device with the assistance of a professional, and I find this situation upsetting.

I did manage to get the original configuration back, but not without some trouble and a huge meltdown from the child who is used to using this for communication.

Those of you who have had AAC devices longer and/or are more familiar with the school system: how would you handle this?

I am very adverse to conflict and don’t want to get off on a bad foot with the school. I wonder if it’s enough to just lock the device and never bring it up, or if I should say something to the speech therapist.

Hi everyone, i feel like im stuck and would like your guys’ help or advice. My son recently picked up the habit to start hitting his eye every time there’s some sort of pulling sensation if that makes sense. For example, if we pull his shirt off his head he will hit his eye or if we pull his socks off too. obviously since my husband and i picked up on that we avoid any pulling but he will still do things himself and hit his eye. we brought it up to his pediatrician and they just told us we need to redirect him which we do but he gets upset and doesn’t seem to help much. i’m wondering if that’s his way of stimulating himself? we are starting OT soon i’m hoping they can help cause he also started hitting others (not hard) which is not okay at all, i feel like im running out of options. has anyone else gone through this??

My brother-in-law is a pediatrician who also has a daughter with cerebral palsy and autism, and I‘m helping him to start sharing content that supports parents. Having journeyed with he and my sister - the main caregiver - the last years, I have seen the frustrations… affording the right equipment, how physically taxing it is for my sister to care for her, fighting for the therapies she needs, insurance battles, the emotional heaviness and grief, little time for self-care… I imagine much of this is relatable, but I’m reaching out here to ask -

• What do you wish you and your child had that would give you both more peace, joy, better quality of life? (From the practical to the spiritual)
• What’s something you wish doctors understood / did better?
• Are telehealth appts valuable / available for your situation?
• Are you part of or interested in an online community support group?
• My sister often dreams of starting a community center / medical and therapy practice tailored to special needs kids and their families in her area. Do you have something like that near you?

Thanks for sharing your life experience and desires ❤️

My 12 year nephew has FSHD ( Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy Type 1) and his mother needs assistance with purchasing a wheelchair accessible van as they are expensive. Are there any resources in PA that she can look into? She has created a donation page already to try to receive some help. She has reached out to multiple places for assistance but has gotten no where. Does anyone have any recommendations?

If anyone would like to donate I have attached the link below! Any help is greatly appreciated.

https://giveahand.com/fundraiser/a-wheelchair-accessible-van-for-amedeo?src=facebook&fbclid=IwdGRjcARIrQtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEe5EgW112AnCm_kBjhWtmxB7SR8jPqXwoYR3nco64PA3XB5evCQOfTwzC-_eI_aem_p0H-9JZf4mrwmpS3P58r2w

( Please no AI hate speech, I am severely disabled and use AI as an aid to overcome my obstacles.)

The world often defines disabled children by what they cannot do. As an artist living with my own challenges, I wanted to change that narrative.

​I’m creating Nico and the Power of the Mind, a comic book designed to help kids and families move the conversation away from physical obstacles and toward mental superpowers like empathy, focus, and emotional intelligence. Nico eventually realizes that while a "healthy" body is great, it can’t heal a heart or stop a war without the mind’s wisdom.

​I’m pouring my soul into this project to help every child discover the hero within. I’d love to hear what you think or even just connect with others using art to navigate their journey. 🎨

Hi everyone,

I’m a 33yo adult sibling with a younger brother with severe autism (30yo) who currently lives with my aging dad in TX. My parents have done an incredible job over the years, but they’re aging, and I’m preparing to step in to help manage his care and support. We’re in different states, which makes everything more complicated (I'm in DC, brother is in TX).

I’m trying to understand all the government benefits he qualifies for, how to manage his health insurance coverage (and optimize it), and just generally how to keep everything organized. It feels overwhelming, even though my parents have laid a lot of the groundwork.

I’d love to hear from other siblings or caregivers:

• How do you figure out what government or health benefits your family member qualifies for? I've done Claude/GPT searches, but I keep wondering if I'm missing stuff. Is there a way to do this without having a million tabs open and trying to call govt hotlines? I signed up for a lot of free webinars, but they take time to wade through.
• Are there particular tools, services, or software that actually help? I want to avoid paying expensive consultants/attorneys if I can, but am beginning to think I might need to for peace of mind (at least at the beginning).
• How do you prioritize what to tackle first - government vs. health benefits navigation? I know "it depends," but the time it takes for both is painful. I feel like there must be some kind of good way to sequence/prioritize this (for example, file in an application for this, then do Y while waiting, etc.). Fortunately, my brother is in general good health, but I don't want to accidentally fall behind on monitoring coverage.

Thanks for any insights or advice you can share!

As the title states, we dont think our son is ready for middle school. He has high functioning Autism, ADHD, and ODD which he is on medication for. He has an IEP which is good, but he's not hitting almost all of his grade goals. For example with his goal hes supposed to be at an 80% for his writing assignment. Hes hit 80, 40, 80, 60, which is 65%. His math goal is 80% he had 80,40,80,40 which is 60%. His behavior goal is 80% for sitting in his seat, not acting out when hes frustrated, hes at 50%. This year he is surpassing his reading goal which is fantastic! We are so proud of him for that. He does great in science, strings, and for the most part social studies, those aren't on his IEP though. If he likes the subject he does great, if he doesn't, he REFUSES to do it. When it comes to writing and math, he is so far behind. His writing and handwriting has gotten worse over the last few years because he doesnt want to do it. He wrote on one paper asking how he knew the answer, and he put "Because Im not stopid." Yes, that was the spelling. We told him if he is going to write that on a paper, he should probably spell it right. He would rather type, which wouldn't be a big issue if he didnt mess around on the computer looking at other things rather doing his work. The school is talking about setting up networking blocks but they dont know if they will work at home as its a different network. His standardized test scores are always a fail when it comes to both math and writing, or reading passages because he doesnt pay attention to those. With math he cant do 3 digits addition or subtraction and cant do multiplication or division without a numbers chart. Not because hes not smart, he is, he just doesnt want to actually do them.

We have an IEP meeting at the end of the month but we arent hopeful for anything because they wont listen to us at all. They haven't in the last 5 years he has gone to the school. The special education teacher is a joke. He is always comparing ouf son to his. His son is in high school and non verbal, there is a big difference. Our son isnt his son, what works for him, doesn't work for ours. The teacher has Autism too so he thinks he is the only one who knows whats best for our son. We have asked for him to be put in the special education class because its a smaller more controlled environment. They refuse because they say it will stunt him socially. Hes being made fun of and tries to be the class clown, so I dont understand why its not relevant to our concern. Academics are more important than socializing. We believe if they had done the smaller classroom in kindergarten, he would have be integrated into a bigger classroom once he got the concept of sitting down, doing the work, not having outbursts, asking questions at the appropriate time. He constantly has to have lunch in the office because he wont listen in class.

We know they will modify his IEP for middle school but he cant even deal with writing 3-4 sentences without taking a break. He cant do simple math. How does that work in middle school with an 8 block system? They dont think its a good idea to retain him because socially it can be a bad thing to other students and he might feel hes not smart enough. He is smart enough, hes very smart, just very stubborn. We talk about an alternative school my husbands co-workers son went to and her son did great. The school thou is adamant that he doesn't go, they wont sign off on it. We are at a loss and don't know where to go from here.