MEET THE
SpychalaFamily! KARIN AND HER DAUGHTER HELENA
What are your family members’ names and children’s ages? Where do your children go to school, and does/do your special needs child/children attend school and/or receive other educational/behavioral services? If you have a special needs adult living at home, are they employed or attending a special services program? My name is Karin Spychala, and my daughter Helena went to North Central High School. After graduation, she was in the Skills for Independence, Transition and Employment (SITE) program at IUPUI for two years. Where are you and your family originally from? Helena was born in Chicago, but we moved to Indianapolis when she was 9 months old.
12 Special Needs Living • June 2022
Where do you live in Indiana? How long have you lived here? What brought you to Indiana? We moved back to Indianapolis in March of 1999. Chicago was too expensive, and we were able to get excellent therapy and medical care here. What have been some of the challenges your family has experienced? How have you overcome some of these struggles? Helena was born with Down syndrome and was pretty sick when she was firstborn. She spent 25 days in the NICU and came home on a feeding tube and oxygen. She had several surgeries; the most critical was open-heart surgery to repair atrial and ventricular septal defects (ASD and VSD)—basically holes in both the upper and lower chambers of her heart. We had great therapists to move us in the right direction, and Helena is very healthy now!
Any advice you have for others who are experiencing similar situations and challenges? It’s very hard [for me] to be patient, but you just have to go at the pace your child can. I have always done the same things with her as I would have done with a typically developing child and always tried to include her in everything her peers were doing. We did dance classes, Girl Scouts, Sunday school, Special Olympics, Best Buddies, etc.
