Me and my beautiful children

As this is our first blog, I think we had better introduce ourselves. Little Hiccups is a support group for families who have children with disabilities or special needs.  We are 100% volunteer run but we are incredibly passionate about our group and the support that we provide to families.

We are currently in the process of updating our website to reflect the expansion that Little Hiccups has currently undertaken. We started off roughly five years as a small Stay & Play for under 5’s. Our families are important to us so to prevent us from losing touch this has grown with our children as they started school into a monthly outing for the whole family. Now we offer an Outreach service and are also currently fundraising for a Kandoo Buggy and an annual supported short break for our families.

The world of Little Hiccups can be amazing as we see a child with complex needs achieve a task that has eluded them for so long. This can be as simple as sitting up, or hitting a button to start a song playing or maybe range interacting with the other children. Our children are all different. We celebrate their differences and the joy that they bring us.

Sometimes however, we suffer alongside the families. The times when they hear a diagnosis that they did not want to hear. Or when one of our children simply decide to rest and we lose them. We suffered a heart-breaking loss recently and it has brought home to me just how important Little Hiccups should be. It is our role to ensure that these fantastic children have the best time of their lives. They deserve it. Every single one of them.

My own personal experiences with special needs are somewhat minor to some of the amazing families that I meet on a day to day basis. My children and I all suffer from hearing impairments ranging from severe (me) to mild/moderate loss (my children) but I am fortunate enough that this impinges on our day-to-day life in only small ways. It is a genetic loss so none of us have known any different. I think my neighbour probably suffers more than me due to the loud TV and the shouts in the house as we try to get each others attention. But I am again fortunate that I have understanding neighbours that have never complained!

There is a very human side to Little Hiccups so I want to use this blog to give an insight to our families and their lives. I will occasionally be adding my input but I will be asking different people to contribute their thoughts, fears and joys and what living with a child with complex needs means to them.