Family Resources
- Places to Go / Recreation (Chicagoland)
- Parent Help Topics / Advice
- Toileting
- Feeding
- Developmental Milestones
- Play (Importance and How-to)
- Transitions (to daycare, preschool, kindergarten)
- Communicating with EC professionals
- Understanding challenging behaviors
- Tantrums and Defiant Behavior
- Temperament Styles
- Speech and Language
- Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
- Emotional Regulation
- Social Skills
- Reading
- Gross Motor
- Fine Motor
Parent Groups / Advocacy / Family Support
Equip for Equality
- Provides free self-advocacy assistance for parents of children with disabilities, free legal representation and educational seminars for parents and organizations.
The Family Defense Center
- The Family Defense Center's mission is to advocate justice for families in the child welfare system: a legal advocacy organization that provides high level systemic advocacy and grass-roots activities for families treated unfairly by state child protection agencies.
Special Ed Advocacy Center
- The Special Ed Advocacy Center (SEAC) provides free legal services to low-income parents and caregivers of children with disabilities seeking to obtain appropriate educational services for their children provided under current law.
Voice-Advocacy
- VOICE-Advocacy is an organization that provides support, training, and advocacy services for families of children with special needs in school settings. Our organization will assist you with your special education advocacy needs.
Neighborhood Parents Network (NPN)
- Neighborhood Parents Network is the largest organized parent resource network in Chicago. NPN is the trusted resource for connecting Chicago parents. Find the support, information, and connections you need to tackle the every day challenges of being a parent. Get connected with other families all over Chicago online and in person. Easily find parents in your own neighborhood and with similar interests.
Fussy Baby Network
- For parents struggling with a baby who is fussy, crying excessively, or has difficulties with sleeping or feeding. Infant specialists are familiar with all the latest research in infant crying, sleeping, and feeding issues and are available for private, in-home consultations, or hotline telephone support. Parents groups, baby clinics.
Technical Assistance Alliance for Parents
- The Technical Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers is an innovative project that supports a unified technical assistance system for the purpose of developing, assisting and coordinating Parent Training and Information Projects and Community Parent Resource Centers under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Parent Coalitions and Information Groups
- A comprehensive Parent Support Group List compiled by The Family Resource Center on Disabilities (FRCD).
Autism Society of Illinois presents: Special Education Advocacy
- ASI Special Education advocates are experienced in working with schools and families to determine the best IEP outcomes based on the individual needs of the child.
Community Education at JCFS
- Community education courses on a wide range of topics for adults who want to enhance their knowledge of issues that affect people with disabilities. Open to professionals, people with disabilities, and family members of people with disabilities.
TAP Service Center
- Training opportunities include: new diagnosis family orientation, first responder training, early intervention training, care providers/day care training, and early detection training for pediatric residents.
Family Matters Parent training and Information Center
- Supplies information and training for parents and professionals who provide special education and related services to children with disability.
Little Friends Center for Autism
- Provides training for parents and professionals.
Places to Go / Recreation (Chicagoland)
Little Beans Café (Evanston/Chicago)
- Litttle Beans is a family cafe and imaginative indoor playground for kids.
- Eco-friendly indoor play space in South Loop.
- Indoor inflatable party and play centers with bouncers, jumpers, slides, moonwalks, and other interactive games.
- A place where children and adults can come and explore together through interactive play.
- Largest indoor playground in Chicago.
- Explore a world of LEGO adventures on our interactive rides,Build & Test Zones, 4D Cinema, Pirate Adventure Island and more.
- Family-owned indoor play space designed for children to explore the function of a city through pretend play.
- A family-centered playspace for children ages 6 months to 8 years old, offering exhibits and play structures to encourage active minds and bodies.
- First Tuesday of each month is Sensory Jump Night at Pump it Up in Elmhurst.
Sensory Friendly Films at AMC – Partner with Autism Society
- Four shows per month – second and fourth Tuesday and Saturday; Turn the lights up, turn the sound down, and open for dancing, walking, shouting or singing.
Reel Movies for Real Needs - Marcus Theatre (Addison)
- Reel Movies for Real Needs creates a welcoming and comfortable environment, with lower sound and lights up, where families with children who need accommodations will be able to share the experience of seeing family friendly films at a theatre. Showtime is at 10:30am, one Saturday each month.
SMG Special Needs Screenings - Studio Movie Grill ( Wheaton)
- Family friendly movies free for children with special needs and their siblings, with adult tickets available for before-noon price. Special Needs Screenings are shown with the lights up and the volume lowered and children are free to move around, talk, or even dance in the aisles.
Adams Playground Park – 1919 N. Seminary
- ADA-accessible lot.
Berger Park Cultural Center – 6205 N. Sheridan Road
- ADA-accessible playground.
Indian Boundary Park – 2500 W. Lunt
- Small zoo and duck pond and natural-habitat gardens.
- Wheelchair-accessible playground.
Kilbourn Park and Organic Greenhouse – 3501 N. Kilbourn Ave.
- Public fruit-tree orchard.
Mt. Greenwood Park – 3724 W. 111th St.
- ADA-accessible playground equipment (includes musical sculptures).
Maggie Daley Park – 337 E. Randolph St.
- 3 acre play garden, life-sized play ship, up to 600 children can comfortably play at one time. All pathways meet or exceed ADA requirements.
Chicago Children’s Museum (Navy Pier)
- Second Saturday of every month hosts Play for All program, which provides families with children with special needs a chance to visit museum early. Registration required (312) 321-6551.
Kohl Children’s Museum (2100 Patriot Boulevard, Glenview IL)
- Designed to be inclusive to all children and adults regardless of ability. Works collaboratively with community organizations to invite children with special needs to the museum to explore exhibits while closed to the general public.
DuPage Children’s Museum (301 North Washington Street, Naperville)
- Third Thursday of each month, hosts special hours (5-7 pm) for families with children with special needs (quieter, less crowded, range of adaptive tools and equipment, variety of sensory-based exhibits, therapy dog, resources for parents).
All Aboard Diner – Downers Grove, IL
- Food delivered by train; ice-cream parlor, video games, interactive train. Peanut-free restaurant.
American Girl Place – Chicago, IL
Brookfield Zoo – 8400 31st Street, Brookfield IL 60513
- Offers program to better serve children with disabilities – partnered with National Inclusion Project to rain Zoo Camp staff in inclusion techniques. Provides scholarships for children with disabilities.
Lincoln Park Zoo – 2001 N Clark Street, Chicago IL 60614
- Parking lot, café, gift shops and main entrance are wheelchair accessible, service animals are allowed, tactile reference guide to enhance experience.
- Feeding Children with Special Needs
- Red Flags
- Red Flags for Feeding Difficulties
- ASHA Feeding and Swallowing Disorders
Transitions (to daycare, preschool, kindergarten)
- How to Help your Child Transition Smoothly between Places and Activities
- Planning Transitions to Prevent Challenging Behaviors:
Communicating with EC professionals
- Effective Communication between families and Early Childhood Staff Handout
- Effective Communication between Parents and Teachers
Understanding challenging behaviors
- Challenging Behaviors
- Helping Children with Challenging Behaviors Succeed in the Classroom
- Addressing Challenging Behaviors in Infants and Toddlers
- Self Control 12-24 Months
- Self Control 24-36 Months
- Temper tantrums in Toddlers
- Coping with Defiance: Birth to Three Years
- Tantrums, Defiance, Aggression, Oh My! (Video)
- Tips on Temperament
- Tuning into Temperament
- The 9 Temperament Traits
- Understanding Temperament in Infants and Toddlers
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
- Augmentative and Alternative Communication
- International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC)
- Tips on Promoting Social-Emotional Development
- Developing Young Children’s Self-Regulation through Everyday Experiences
- Helping Your Child with Socialization
- Development of Social-Emotional Skills
- Tips on Helping Your Child Develop Confidence
- Tips on Promoting Social Emotional Development
- Helping Children Play and Learn Together:
- Early Literacy
- Tips for Sharing Books with Babies and Toddlers
- Reading Milestones
- The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction
- Gross Motor Developmental Milestones Chart
- The Power of Movement in Your Child’s First Three Years
- Gross Motor Skills Birth to 5 Years
