Virginia Child Injury Lawyer » special needs

Can you get your child out of the house if it is burning?

srohrstaff — Thu, 13 May 2010 11:07:40 +0000

I was recently in a hotel room in Norfolk, Virginia, where I was staying while attending a conference of lawyers and judges from all over Virginia. As I often do in the morning when I’m out of town, I turned on the local TV news while I was getting dressed.

The images of a burned-out house appeared, and I heard the voice of a reporter telling the story of how the people who lived in the house, three adults and three children, were saved during the night when the house caught on fire because the house was equipped with WORKING smoke detectors.

How are your smoke detectors? They only save lives if they work.

Are you prepared to get your children out of the house in case it is burning — especially in the night when you are all asleep? What if your child cannot get herself out without assistance? SafeKids USA has a website with all kinds of information to help keep children safe, including information about fire safety that could save your lives.

Here is a link to a video about testing your home’s smoke alarms.

Here’s another link to a video about fire safety for families with children who are visually or hearing impaired.

The same site has another video about fire safety for families with children who are immobile.

Morgan’s Wonderland – A Special Place for Special People

srohrstaff — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:00:07 +0000

A wonderful for children and adults with special needs opened last weekend in San Antonio, Texas. Morgan’s Wonderland was created by Gordon Hartman whose 16-year-old daughter, Morgan, has severe cognitive delay and has faced limitations her whole life. Mr. Hartman, a retired real estate developer, decided to build a fully-accessible park so his daughter and others with special needs could experience the joy of an amusement park.

But, this park is not like other amusement parks. It is not overloaded with rides, rides and more rides. Every activity is wheelchair accessible and designed with its special visitors in mind. There is a carousel, rugged-looking jeeps that give an off-road adventure on a winding track, a fishing lake, waterworks and other sensory activities, a train that goes around the park, and specially-designed playground equipment. (The water activities will be especially popular in the hot South Texas sun.) It’s a place for the whole family. Special needs visitors get in free; others pay $5.

Hartman contributed $1 million of his own and then raised $29 million to create the 25-acre park. There’ll be no long lines, either, because the number of visitors allowed in the park at any one time is limited.

It’s the first of its kind in the world; however, it likely won’t be the only one for long. Hartman has had inquiries from all over the world.

Ask “Who, What, Where, When” when it comes to school bus safety

srohrstaff — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:46:19 +0000

We usually associate the “who, what, where, when” questions to reporters. Traditionally, those are the questions reporters asked and then used as the basis of their reports.

Those four “W” questions are great questions for parents to ask when their young children, or children with special needs, start riding the school bus.

Here are 12 questions by Terri Mauro at About.com from her column about special needs children. The questions are helpful for any parent of a young child or a child going to a new school — or any parent whose child gets on a school bus every day to go to school.