GOLD STAR: The author's son, Aaron, stands at the front of his classroom, receiving an award and smiling triumphantly.

SET YOUR CHILD UP FOR SUCCESS WITH A VISION STATEMENT

BY KELLEY COLEMAN

Parents of disabled children are no strangers to paperwork. With so many forms, assessments, intakes, and applications, I’ve had to ice my hands on more than one occasion because they hurt from filling out the latest stack of paperwork. My son (who has multiple disabilities) is amazing. But the paperwork? Not so much.

While much of the paperwork can’t be avoided, there are ways to make it feel like less of an uphill climb. Enter the vision statement. We first crafted a vision statement to accompany our child’s IEP, and soon found that it informed the extensive future care plans we were mapping out for him. It also helped us when filling out the application for his service dog, determining the best therapy goals, and even making the most of our child’s free time. We built on his strengths, and found ourselves using the same language, as we filled out many of the forms – language that best suited our son’s journey of working towards a meaningful future.