What You Should Say to a Special Needs Parent

"If I have another one of my children with me and I am attempting to get their special needs sibling to calm down, it would be extremely helpful if you attempted to distract my other child with questions about how old she is, or what sports he plays at school, or what her favorite TV show or board game is.

"We all do our best, but there are some times that those other children need to wait for us to deal with their siblings — it would help to assuage our guilt and improve their self-confidence if someone showed them a moment or two of attention during those times."