“How to Grandparent a Child With Special Needs.”

Madonna Harrington Meyer, University Professor of sociology in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the AARP story “How to Grandparent a Child With Special Needs.” Harrington Meyer, who studies aging and gerontology, recently co-authored the book Grandparenting Children With Disabilities. She says that one reasons grandparents are so important is because they often are the first ones to notice developmental delays in children, as they are not around the children on a day to day basis like parents. “Sometimes the grandparents are actually out in front, but then they learn what it is. They learn what it means. And then they hit the ground running,” Harrington Meyer says.