Development & Understanding

Recently this article has been floating about in the news and I wanted to post it here in case anyone has not seen it yet. It is an article about preemies, their parent's NICU experiences and how this often lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Most people realize that a baby having NICU experience is tragic, but they often forget what it does to the parents, particularly the mother. It is more than just postpartum depression and can last longer, take longer to deal with and hopefully one day get past. This article is well written and hopefully there will be more reporters and research doing works like this to help battle yet another grizzly aspect of preemie life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/health/25trau.html?_r=2

Also I wanted to take this moment to promote a new feature to the Toys R' Us website called The Toy Guide for Differently-abled Kids. It's great to finally see the internet's biggest toy store resource working to promote their products in ways that help parents decide what toys would be best suited for their children regardless of their skills and abilities and to help promote learning and function. I know I personally have spent many hours searching for toys with the sole purpose of using it as a tool for Cameron and Evan's gross and fine motor skills. Prime examples would be the Fisher Price Sing Along Superstar Karaoke Stage (by far my favorite toy) and the Fisher Price Bongos.

http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3261680