I Am Special Too

Picture the life of a child with special needs. What do you see? Frequent trips to the doctor? Simple everyday activities made significantly more difficult by irreversible developmental delays? A young boy or girl struggling to navigate the world, weighed down by a disability over which they have no control?

Now visualize the daily struggles of that child's family members. Is the child's mother or father forced to leave the workforce to raise their son or daughter? Is the other parent, therefore, left to provide for the entire family on their own? To say that the lives of the parents of children with special needs are difficult would not do them justice.

But you're forgetting someone very important: the child's siblings. And I don't blame you for forgetting; it happens all the time. In fact, the parents of a child with special needs are often so preoccupied with the care of their special child that their other children are left feeling ignored, abandoned, alone.

Such is the story of this book's main character: Liam. Throughout this impactful book, Liam is forced to deal with a situation that is all too familiar to the siblings of special children: his parents' lives are consumed by the care of his special needs brother, John, at Liam's expense. Liam finds himself growing resentful, not only of his parents, but of his brother, too. He buries his feelings of envy and isolation deep inside, until he cannot contain them any longer.

When Liam finally decides to speak up for himself, his life - and his relationship with his parents - is transformed.

Here lies the purpose of my writing this story: I hope that, in seeing the impact that a single discussion with one's parents can have, the siblings of children with special needs will be empowered to speak up for themselves, and will see their lives take a turn for the better as a result.