Hiya parents! As school has been in session a little over a five weeks, I wanted to share some tips to help your special needs child in the classroom. One of the biggest challenges parents of children with mental illness have is dealing with issues in the classroom. How can you possibly work on something with your special needs child if you're not even in the classroom? Well, these are tips that can help you help your special needs child.

As a professional in mental health counseling with a strong background in Behavior Modification, I can tell when my patterns change. In the infamous words of SpongeBob SquarePants, I'm a crabby patty. For two weeks a month, premenstrual syndrome and menstruation (aka Aunt Flo) affect me and in turn, Bob.

In my last post I shared three tips for having tough conversations with loved ones about your child’s mental illness. If you haven’t had a chance to read them, check them out. Here are my final three tips on how to advocate for your child and get support from others. Tough conversations are hard, but with these tips, people can come around.

Hiya readers! Mental illness advocacy is important and can take place even in the context of your own family. I recently shared some of my challenges in giving my father the talk about Bob's ADHD diagnosis.  It wasn't easy. For a few reasons - the biggest one being that I was afraid of how my father would react. For someone like me who wasn't allowed the freedom to feel all of my feelings (including anger) towards my father, I grew up thinking that I couldn't ever be upset because it was SO scary for me. So you can imagine advocating for my son's mental illness didn't come easy to me. I grew up thinking that my heart was going to jump out of my chest anytime I thought about asserting myself much less confronting someone. Before having my child, I didn't. I was more passive in showing my feelings. They existed, but in a roundabout way.

Parenting a child with mental illness requires a team. Parents, extended family members, friends teachers, therapists, etc. can all be a part of the team. In my case (and Bob’s), Bob’s father is around, but sometimes dealing with him is more of a hassle than a help; especially in the years of schooling before Bob’s evaluation and diagnosis.

Time-out - that time honored tradition that hasn't been around very long, but used in schools and homes everywhere (though not by everyone) is a blessing in disguise for me. Bob has been too old for time-out for quite some time. I don't even remember the last time I used it with him or why. But, I do know that it has a very unusual effect when used in a different way.

A little hope can go a long way. In my parenting journey with Bob, there were many times when I lost hope. On days when all I wanted to do was cry - cry for Bob who was brilliant, but couldn't focus long enough to complete a test; cry because it took him three to four hours a day to complete homework. Or cry simply because I was his mother and felt helpless.

Homework was a touchy subject with Bob, pre-ADHD and treatment. Bob hated it and so did I. I dreaded coming home to help Bob with his homework. I knew a battle would come because Bob never wanted to do his homework. It was boring to him.

Hiya readers! According to Brownielocks, January 4th, 2013 was Trivia Day. So I wanted to share more about Bob's (and mine) journey with ADHD by sharing some ADHD trivia. Hope you enjoy it!

Happy 2013! Hopefully, the new year will bring many positive things. For me, this new year will bring more awareness. 2012 taught me so much; not only about Bob's ADHD diagnosis, but also about myself.