A conversation with NBRC’s Executive Director, Bob Hamilton

From the day they learned that Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC) was to be shuttered, the parents and loved ones of those who live there have been anguished over what will happen to their charges. They have made it abundantly clear that they do not expect SDC residents to receive the same level of care they have enjoyed at the 125-year-old institution situated on a thousand acres of lush Sonoma countryside outside of Glen Ellen.

“Some people think we are the devil,” Bob Hamilton said, smiling but semi-serious. Read more.

SAN JOSE — Like many autistic children, Julian Brown has trouble reading emotions in people’s faces, one of the biggest challenges for people with the neurological disorder.

Now the 10-year-old San Jose boy is getting help from “autism glass” — an experimental device that records and analyzes faces in real time and alerts him to the emotions they’re expressing. Read more.

It happens to every child in one form or another – anxiety. As parents, we would like to shield our children from life’s anxious moments, but navigating anxiety is an essential life skill that will serve them in the years to come. In the heat of the moment, try these simple phrases to help your children identify, accept, and work through their anxious moments. Read more.

Most of us go about our day without giving much thought as to how we operate. Tasks like grocery shopping, cooking meals, doing laundry and figuring out transportation come somewhat naturally.

For those living with developmental disabilities, it can be a much different story; one where daily chores can become huge challenges. Read more.

Fireworks may be fun for some people, but overstimulating for others. Flaghouse Resources gives some important tips (click here) about helping your child enjoy this celebrated tradition.

A Galt brewery that sparked online outrage for its name, slogan and merchandise appearing to mock developmentally disabled people was vandalized this week, even as one of its owners said he was considering a name change. Ed Mason, the co-owner of Special Ed’s Brewery, said two rocks were thrown through a window at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, shattering it completely. Mason said one or more vandals also tried to throw more rocks but missed the window. Read more.

GREAT FALLS, MT – Katie Hill is remarkable in the same ways that thousands of other 11-year-old girls are. She likes to giggle, laughing at the silly things the kids in Leia Lins’ fifth-grade class at Morningside sometimes come up with. She loves reading — math, not so much. Katie is a talented writer and comes up with funny stories about haunted houses and meeting up with space aliens. She likes to swim and ski, is learning to play drums and the piano, and if it were permitted, she’d probably eat all her meals served with a large side of ranch dressing

At the end of the long list of the things that make Katie the remarkable young lady she is, there remains her “hard thing,” as Katie’s mother describes it. Katie is one of the approximately 500,000 adults and children in the United States living with cerebral palsy, and though the neurological disorder undoubtedly complicates her life, it does not define who she is. Read more.