About Us

Parenting Special Children was founded in 2006 by Ruth Pearse, the CEO of the charity, to meet an unmet need that she had identified, whilst receiving a diagnosis for her daughter. At that time, there was a lack of support for families at diagnosis and very few specialist parenting programmes that families could access which would help them learn more about the diagnosis that their child or young person had received and to meet other families in a similar situation.

All of the services we offer to families has been informed and influenced by the families who have attended our courses/workshops/clinics over the years. We are delighted that we have been able to expand our services to meet the needs of families and very much hope to continue to do so over the coming years.

What is unique about Parenting Special Children, and important to the families who receive our services, is that all the staff, trustees and volunteers are parent/carers of children or young people with special needs. All the facilitators of our services have a professional background which enables the charity to deliver a professional service and this is valued by families and health, social care and education professionals who refer families to the charity.

Quotations used on this website

All the quotations used on this website are real comments received from attendees of our courses. Their names and locations have been changed to provide a degree of anonymity.

Equally, the attributed backgrounds have also been made up to protect their anonymity, but closely reflect many of the real-life stories of families who attend our courses.

You can find out more about Parenting Special Children in the following sections.