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Raising a special needs child can be extremely rewarding, however, it presents unique challenges. Parents may worry about affording their child's care or stress about their future. The stress this brings is significant. For instance, one study indicates that mothers of autistic adolescents or adults actually have stress hormone levels comparable to those of Active Duty soldiers. Your fears may become even more profound as your child gets older and starts to carve out a life of their own. You want to ensure your kid is making healthy life decisions as they get older. UCP of Central Florida understands that parents never stop learning, so they are happy to present you with some additional tips and tools to help give your teen the tools they need to make healthy everyday choices. Create a Healthy Home Environment Healthy habits start at home. Create a soothing space filled with positive vibes where your entire family can feel at ease. One can start by removing clutter, which Mayo Oshin notes can incite feelings of anxiety, and adding more greenery. Plants are proven to reduce anxiety and can help clean the air and reduce stress levels. Ensure to explore non-toxic options so that you don’t have to worry about any incidents. Keeping stress levels low at home can be challenging, especially when we're juggling multiple responsibilities. However, using an online tool to design a weekly schedule can help to stay organized and reduce stress. By mapping out our tasks and assigning specific times for them, we can prioritize our workload and ensure that we have enough time for self-care activities as well. Whether it's work-related tasks or household chores, having a clear plan in place can make all the difference in terms of productivity and stress management. So why not give this a try? There are numerous free online tools available that can help you create a customized weekly schedule that suits your needs and preferences. Make Healthy Eating the Norm in Your Household Special needs children often face nutritional challenges. As Abilities.com explains, kids with limited mobility due to conditions like Down syndrome may struggle with obesity.Moreover, kids with Autism may have negative reactions to foods with certain textures. Navigating your child's relationship with food while ensuring they get the nutrients they need is tough. Try setting family meal guidelines and making nutrition a collaborative effort. You can prepare recipes together. To help make healthy eating an easier choice, look into adding some cooking tools and gadgets to your kitchen. Just be sure to check out unbiased online reviews first. You can find great ideas for things to help you out at home. Find Ways to Make Exercise Fun Exercise is essential for people with special needs. Physical activity can support healthy weight loss, boost energy, and enhance mental health. Motivating your teen to get moving isn't always easy. The key to success is finding a form of exercise they love. Encourage your child to try different styles of exercise. Kids with physical disabilities might be able to take part in modified baseball, soccer, or flag football, or other sports. Discuss Temptations Like Drugs and Alcohol Your teen will inevitably be confronted with drugs and alcohol. Don't try to shield your special needs child from this reality; instead, talk openly about drugs and alcohol and the negative impact they can have on your child's health. This is especially important if your child takes any kind of medication that could interact negatively with drugs or alcohol. Discussing these tough topics with teens requires special handling, but if you go at it properly, you can see positive results. It’s best to bring the subject up sooner rather than later. Avoid making accusations, don’t catch your child off-guard, and avoid scare tactics. Give Your Child Positive Role Models Giving kids positive role models is a great way to inspire them to make healthy life choices. Look specifically for role models for differently-abled kids-- covering both real-world personas and people portrayed in film and television shows. You can also connect your child to resources that might put them in contact with role models, such as the Special Olympics. Try discussing your child's role models and having them identify what qualities they admire. Speaking of role models, don’t forget that you yourself can be the best role model your child will ever have, whether that’s demonstrating good day-to-day behaviors or pursuing lofty goals like going back to school for that healthcare degree you always wanted. If it’s something that you always intended to do but didn’t make time for it, look for a program that offers flexibility so you can meet your other obligations. There are online colleges that allow you to do anything from becoming an IT professional to earning your accounting degree. Look for opportunities to show your child that with perseverance, it can be done. Watching your special needs child become a teen can be bittersweet. However, knowing you've given them the tools they need to make healthy life choices can bring you peace of mind. Follow the above tips to get started, and remember -- you can do this!

There are a few important life skills that children can learn through play. If you have kids on the spectrum, you can turn fun games into teaching strategies that will help them with socialization, interaction, and communication. Here are five activities you can do with your young ones to keep them entertained and educated while you’re at home. Play Pretend Entrepreneur Get your kids’ minds active and engaged by asking them to come up with an original idea for a small business. They can use free online tools to help you design an eye-catching logo, create infographics detailing their company’s activities, and make flow charts explaining the ins and outs of their processes. Pretending you’re in business is great for your children to learn the basics of entrepreneurship, leadership, managerial skills, and finance. And who knows? Perhaps you’ll decide to pursue their business idea together! Imagine how excited your child would be to learn that their idea had value in the real world. Create a Comic Strip Have your children think up a storyline and turn it into a comic strip or mini graphic novel. Start by engaging them in a brainstorming session so they can come up with a setting for their story, the characters involved in the plot, and the events that will be unfolding. You can find some comic strip templates online, but you can also easily create your own with a few pieces of paper, a ruler, and pencils. Character development and storytelling will help your child hone their socialization and communication skills as they develop their own scenarios and resolve conflicts between their imaginary characters. Write and Play Silly Songs This entertaining activity is also great to introduce new words into your child’s vocabulary as you both try to come up with funny rhymes, gestures, and dances for your silly song. If your child is passionate about a subject, let that be the theme of your new opus, whether it be cars, trains, computers, or dinosaurs. You don’t have to be a musical prodigy to come up with a catchy tune, and you will create wonderful memories as you and your child work together to craft the most perfect - or funniest - ode to their favorite topic of interest. Solve Puzzles and Mysteries Develop your child’s problem-solving skills by having them solve jigsaw puzzles and arrange blocks following a certain pattern. If your child has a hard time interpreting facial expressions and other nonverbal language cues, you can play imitation games where your little one will mimic you, which can also help him or her master daily tasks and routines. You can also play charades to help them build on their nonverbal communication skills. Or play a fun round of Pictionary and have them interpret what they see, which will help with their social and emotional skills. Get Your Hands Dirty Slime is a sensory activity that the whole family can partake in. Just like you would experiment with a new dinner recipe, you and your kids can mix an assortment of ingredients and make slimes of different colors and textures. Modeling clay is also very popular among kids of all ages. Modeling compounds allow your children to unleash their creativity as they come up with fanciful sculptures, and these playful doughs will keep them entertained for hours. If you live in a walk-friendly neighborhood (a Walk Score over 70 is ideal), you can also throw on some galoshes and go for a walk in the rain. Lots of things change during a storm! As you explore your neighborhood, encourage your kids to touch things like tree trunks, worms, mud, and fences to see how they are different in the rain. Get Creative and Have Fun! Rainy days don’t have to be dreary for children stuck at home. There are many activities that will keep them engaged and even teach them some new skills, and you probably already have most of the materials you need at hand. Whether you’re writing a play, researching business ideas, or taking a walk in the rain, you can enjoy some creative fun together! UCP of Central Florida is dedicated to empowering children with disabilities. Learn more about our events, programs, and services.

UCP Charter Schools have created a new kind of learning community where everyone has access to individualized learning and every student is encouraged to participate in our community learning model! Inclusive education is the practice of educating students with disabilities and students without disabilities side-by-side. The practice is based on the idea that students with disabilities can be full participants in their classrooms and their community. Some students are accelerated learners and some students may need more time or strategic intervention. We strive to engage all learners through an inclusive model that focuses on the potential of each individual child. The mainstream instruction model doesn’t always work for every child. We recognize that every child learns and retains information differently. Therefore, our inclusion model utilizes individualized education inside the inclusive classroom environment to provide each student with the necessary support to unlock their potential. OUR INCLUSION MODEL UCP of Central Florida’s first venture into academic inclusion was bold. We challenged the idea of the special education classroom by raising expectations drastically. We began with a philosophical belief that ALL kids deserve a high-quality and accessible education. Studies show that there were benefits for both sets of students in an inclusive classroom where 50 percent of the students had disabilities and 50 percent of the students did not. The most obvious benefits from this setting were the removal of preconceptions about students with disabilities and the addition of a compassionate learning culture. However, the success of the model did not end there. The inclusive education model also broke down preconceptions about learning in general. When learning takes place in an inclusive setting it is no longer solitary, boring, and stressful. Instead the learning becomes communal. Learning takes on a whole new power when a child realizes their knowledge can be shared with others, when a gifted child is able to teach a peer they begin to cultivate a more well-rounded connection to their instruction, when a child without a disability and their colleague in a wheelchair prepare for a book report they are more efficient, collaborative, and begin to learn at a level of maturity that is not passive, but immersive and practical. BENEFITS OF INCLUSION There are many benefits to an inclusive classroom environment, including: a positive view of individual worth, a sense of belonging, social skill development for all students, and increased awareness of needs and diversity. Inclusion also helps students without disabilities engage in tasks at a higher and deeper level.

At UCP Charter Schools, we use a combination of arts (visual, performing, music and dance) to reinforce and enhance learning for all students! Arts integration is an innovative teaching strategy that fuses the arts curriculum—dance, music, visual arts—with standard curricula. Visual and Performing Arts Integration Specialists work collaboratively with our education staff to develop and implement projects that utilize art to reinforce the academic core standards of the age & grade level of our students. Research shows that rich art experiences can lead to increased academic, social, and functional skill development and knowledge. For all students, knowledge and skill development gained through the arts can play a crucial role in their overall success. Beyond skill development, arts integration is a powerful tool to help engage all learners in our learning community. Children need to be engaged in ways that can hold their attention. One effective way to do this is to make learning fun and interesting! Our local art community also gets to interact with our students through various partnerships with local partners, VSA Arts, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and other art groups! Artists-in-Residence are placed at the school to work with all students and broaden their exposure to a variety of art forms. DID YOU KNOW? Research shows there’s a positive relationship between arts education, particularly in drama, and young children’s literacy and language development. Dramatic play provides pre-readers and writers an active context for learning about literacy, using literacy skills, and exploring new and abstract concepts. In addition, drama instruction where students act out a structured plot increases success in measures of oral language development and contributes to word fluency - keys to early literacy. Studies have found that music skills correlate with phonological awareness and reading development. Young children who participate in arts instruction, specifically music and dance, are better able to self-regulate their emotions compared to those who do not participate in arts programs. *Work cited: Anvari, Trainor, Woodside & Levy ,2002 | Catterall, 2009; Deasy, 2002 | Hillier, Greher, Poto, & Dougherty, 2012 | Podlozny, 2000

The community-based learning experience that our schools have created for our students is unique to UCP Charter Schools in Central Florida. In comparison to traditional schools, our smaller class sizes with lower student-to-teacher ratios allows the instruction to take place in a community setting. Our classrooms mirror the real-world learning model where knowledge and innovation happen by engaging with the world around you, collaborating with colleagues, and leaning into things that we do not know. The community-based learning experience that our schools have created for our students is unique to UCP Charter Schools in Central Florida. In comparison to traditional schools, our smaller class sizes with lower student-to-teacher ratios allow the instruction to take place in a community setting. Our classrooms mirror the real-world learning model where knowledge and innovation happen by engaging with the world around you, collaborating with colleagues, and leaning into things that we do not know.

We value academic results as much as we value the process of learning. We motivate and challenge our students to think in new and interesting ways, teaching our students that learning can be fun and empowering. Students in our schools want to come to school because the academic atmosphere is optimistic, challenging, and supportive every day. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! In addition to passion, the culture in our schools is truly attached to a philosophical belief that students can and will achieve great things when given great opportunities. The access and daily interactions that are created to support the learning environment for all our students create a superior education option in Central Florida. Our consortium of schools works tirelessly to raise not only the achievement bar for our students academically, but also socially through living the practice of inclusive learning. Our Elementary Programs are nationally accredited by Cognia (Formerly AdvancED/SACS).

Technology integration is part of what we strive to implement in order to prepare students for a life in a technology-driven society. A variety of technology devices are utilized, such as iPads, tablets, Kindles, SmartBoards, desktop computers, laptop computers, mobile and stationary tech labs, as well as interactive platforms for individual, small, and whole group instruction. UCP Charter Schools intentionally use a variety of technological tools to better prepare our students for the future. In a world where the impact of technology is ever growing, we prepare our students for authentic access to different technology platforms and implementation methods. For example, we have implemented a 1:1 individualized iPad program in our elementary schools. Technology integration is more than tech support and is an integral part of education for high-quality teaching and learning! It has the potential to help our students access curriculum, learn new information, and fully participate in learning, which makes it a crucial component of our curriculum. Our t eachers and integration specialists work together to find creative and effective uses of productivity tools that can be interwoven throughout the many different content areas that we teach. Integrating different tech tools unlocks traits in our students like becoming information seekers, analyzers, problem solvers, and decision makers. *Work Cited: (Alper & Raharinirina, 2006; Jackson, 2009; Puckett, 2004)