Teddy "We Care" Bears

05/10/2026

05/08/2026

So I would like to expose a situation. If your children (or grandchildren) don’t learn to play with children with special needs at school, maybe you should spend 10 minutes tonight explaining it to them. Because, although they don't currently live with these children at school, they will find them in their lives for sure. In light of recent events regarding the exclusion of a child with autism from attending a school trip and a child with Down Syndrome being expelled from dance class because she couldn't keep up with it, I feel the need to share this. There are boys and girls that no one invites to birthday parties. There are special children who want to be part of a team but are not selected because it's more important to win than to include these children. Kids with special needs aren't weird, they just want what everyone wants: to be accepted!

Can I ask a question? Is there anyone willing to copy and paste this post on their wall without sharing it, like I did, for all the special children out there? Please teach your children to be kind to these children! Everyone needs love and kindness.

I copied and pasted this with no hesitation! 💞...we all need this reminder.

04/05/2026

No one can prevent child abuse and neglect alone.
April is Child Abuse and Neglect awareness Month.
It's Teddy " We Care" Bears mission to raise awareness, and partner with others in the community.

Nurturing families and supportive networks can reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect. Other conditions, such as stable family relationships, supportive communities, and access to health and social services, are promising protective factors.

04/05/2026

What Makes an Event Traumatic for a child?

According to Dr. Steven Berkowitz, clinical psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Penn Center for Youth and Family Response and Recovery.

It’s important to understand that it’s not the nature of the event itself that makes something traumatic. It’s really the subjective experience of the child that defines whether an event is traumatic or not.
Many of us have experiences that are very upsetting. We may be disturbed, we may be unable to sleep, we may not be able to eat, we may be irritable, but we integrate it, over time, and recover. So trauma is really best understood as a failure of recovery. It’s a response to an event, it’s not the event itself.
There are many factors that go into whether an event is traumatic for a child.
First, there are individual factors that relate to the child’s own history, her previous experiences, as well as biological vulnerabilities that we don’t understand yet.
Then there are the event factors. We certainly know that close proximity, both emotional and physical, to the event are more likely to make it traumatic. For instance, r**e is known to be one of the most traumatic of events, as is sexual assault.
Finally, there are also factors that occur after the event, whether a child has support from people close to her, especially her family, or whether there are additional stressors that are ongoing, and that interfere with her ability to process and recover.
So it’s a very complex situation, because while we tend to think of an event as being the cause of trauma, trauma is actually a process over time. Trauma is the Greek word for injury, and so it’s an experience that causes an injury to one’s functioning—cognitive functioning, physiological functioning and psychological functioning

03/31/2026

April is Autism Awareness Month, and April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day 💙
I’ve heard some families say,
“Why do we need a month or a day? We live this every single day.”
And honestly… they’re not wrong.
Autism doesn’t pause on April 30th.
It’s not something that only exists when people are posting blue hearts or wearing shirts.
For many families, it’s part of their daily life—every routine, every challenge, every victory.
But that’s exactly why this month matters.
This month isn’t for the families who already understand.
It’s for the world that still doesn’t.
It’s for:
✨ The student who deserves to be included, not just accommodated
✨ The child who communicates differently but still deserves to be heard
✨ The family who is tired of explaining, advocating, and fighting to belong
April is our opportunity to create a cultural shift—
from awareness ➡️ acceptance ➡️ true belonging.
Because awareness says, “I see you.”
Acceptance says, “I respect you.”
But belonging says, “You matter here.”
As educators, families, and community members, this is our time to:
💙 Learn
💙 Listen
💙 Advocate
💙 Celebrate neurodiversity
Not just for a day. Not just for a month.
But to build a world where our students don’t have to fight to be understood in the first place.
Let’s use April as a starting point—not a finish line.
Belonging 💙