You no longer have to carry the full burden on your shoulders when you start using a Special Needs Medical Planner. This 57 page printables binder set pulls together all of the information being thrown at you and puts it all into one organized space to access.
You are here because you are probably pulling your hair out from being disorganized, and that isn’t the mom you want to be.
If you have forgotten appointments, lost track of important paperwork and failed to document progress, this binder is meant for you! With a few tools, you’ll be able to take control!
This Special Needs Medical Binder is the solution.
📒 Why This Planner Works
Keeps You Organized | When you have a child that needs extra resources and support, spend a few minutes to get organized and put everything together in one binder that you fill out each day.
Track Progress | One of my favorite parts of this set is that you are able to track positive change and progress. Anyone with a special needs kiddo knows this can be tough at times. Documenting that in these worksheets will make sure you remember those key milestones.
Better Medical, Therapy and School Visits | It is nice to have all key information recorded in one spot when you are presenting to your medical, therapy and school teams. This is a great opportunity to help them help you and your family!
Works With All Needs | Special needs has a broad range and isn’t limited to autism or ADHD. Think of kiddos with cancer, quadriplegic or lung disease. If this binder feels like it is too much, try out the regular Medical Binder first.
📝 What’s Included
This binder has 57 pages that are filled with everything you can possibly think of to log, track and maintain data points for your child.
👨⚕️ Therapy Log
This one sheet covers key information related to your child’s therapy. Document the therapist name, dates, what was discussed, exercise tips and things to work on. This log works whether it is used for anxiety issues, ADHD symptoms, or speech or physical therapy. It even helps with play or cognitive therapy. This is a universal log that works for all types of visits.
🧸 Therapeutic Activities
Tracking therapeutic activities can feel daunting at first, but you’ll be able to quickly determine which are working and which are futile. Fidget toys might work for a couple months and then it may seem like they have lost their impact.
Refer back to the log to identify trends and patterns that may help you anticipate the next phase.
📈 Therapy Goals
Make sure to make the goals SMART – Specific measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Determine where you child is and make the goals a challenge, but attainable.
Don’t worry if you don’t achieve the goals in the timeframe you wanted. Just keep trying.
☂️ Coping Strategies
You might be using coping strategies under the emotional umbrella of positive thinking, reframing and journaling, or if your family is trying use task-based where you deal with one item at a time. Regardless of your approach, document your strategies to see what works and which falls flat.
This information will help you drive forward with your plans and gives you some tools to help you address the stress and setbacks.
🌼 Allergies Tracker
This worksheet is fantastic to track all of those allergen triggers. Log in the dates, what may have triggered the incident, medications taken and the outcome.
💊 Prescription Tracker
This is a “must have” worksheet for all of us. Every time there is a doctor visit, the question of “what medication is being taken?” is always asked and if we aren’t prepared, it’s hard to get the best treatment.
Not only is this one documenting the current medication, but you can refer to it to look at prior prescriptions. This will help doctors understand which ones worked well, and which ones might be avoided.
🥘 Food Journal
Tracking and logging in a food journal for special needs can be so important when trying to figure out if certain foods or ingredients are contributing to behavioral changes, weight gain, weight loss, bowel concerns and more.
Another important reason to log in a food journal is that children with special needs may not eat a traditional diet that follows the food pyramid of the basic food groups. Many times, you are happy they ate at all. These worksheets will help you and your doctor develop treatment plans and courses of action.
🥫 Foods to Avoid
Once you start working on a food journal, you will be able to use this sheet to gauge what foods are best to be avoided. Partner both sheets together so you don’t miss a thing.
🤒 Symptom Tracker
Special needs or not, tracking symptoms is vital to helping identify how long symptoms are lasting, how frequent they occur and the intensity of them. Depending on your situation, you may need to print out several of these at once to use. You can choose to use this tracker as an “all in one” rather than using each SLEEP, WEIGHT, EXERCISE individual sheets. It’s all up to you.
It is so important to keep track of these details with kids. In many cases, they can’t communicate with you as effectively or articulately as you would like, and you have to turn into a detective to understand the impact of food, medicines, and therapies on your child. This can be frustrating as it is a lot of information to process, but these worksheets will help you document and organize!
🩺 Medical Doctor
When dealing with special needs, you are probably visiting multiple physicians for different purposes. It’s best to document all of the contact information so have in the binder so it is readily available when needed. Take the binder with you to appointments so you can reference the doctor’s information when asked.
👩⚕️ Medical Specialists
There are also specialists that you’ll visit 1-2 times a year and it’s easy to forget all the correct information.
📅 Appointment Tracker
How do you currently keep track of all of the appointments? Given that there are so many more visits than the average person may have, it’s best to have a quick snap shot worksheet.
Take this with you each time you need to schedule a new appointment. We love this sheet as it also allows us to tell how long it’s been between visits as it’s all on the worksheet. I am notorious for forgetting if it isn’t written down.
❓ Questions for Doctor
Too often we have questions for the doctor that we inconveniently forget when we are actually at the appointment. Here is a page to write down all of the questions and the answers received. It’s best to keep all of these sheets going forward so they can be referenced later if the same thing comes back up.
🏥 Surgeries and Procedures Log
When going to new doctors, questions about past surgeries and procedures are always asked. It gets hard to keep track of the specifics as time goes on and/or if you have a larger family. Just take a couple minutes to document it all quickly for your binder and you’ll never have to worry about it again. Don’t forget to add in any eye or ENT-related procedures.
🧠 Things to Remember
This sheet can be used in many different situations. Keep it for the administrators at a new new school, new caretakers or babysitters, or even your Sunday school leaders.]
While some of the special needs are commonplace for you, it is usually a good idea to help others with a quick debrief to help them out.
💉 Vaccination Log
You can choose to manually log in all of the vaccinations on this sheet or you can get a print out from the doctor and add it in to this section. Either way, it’s so much easier to keep track of all of it in this binder so there are no questions when you are at a visit and it comes up that it’s time for a new shot.
If needed, print out the Children’s Vaccination Schedule to keep in your binder as well for quick reference.
🎒 Hospital Bag Checklist
Depending on your loved one’s needs, a hospital bag checklist might be in order for a short time in life or used on a “as needed” basis. Either way, this is a gem to have in your binder.
The last thing you want to worry about is what to pack.
🧾 Insurance Information
This sheet can be vital if you change insurance or if you have supplemental insurance. Once you have established doctor’s it is needed less, but every time you visit new offices, it’s just easier to have all your ducks in a row with group numbers and contacts.
💪 Exercise Tracker
Keeping the body moving direct improves overall health and wellbeing. Although it can be more difficult to have your child moving as often as you like, there are benefits that have been noted when kids with ADHD and Autism have regular exercise. These kids may not exercise as much or can’t easily participate in traditional sports related activities. Parents can lead by example and exercise more, as it may help your kids feel comfortable joining in.
🛏️ Sleep Tracker
Not everyone needs a sleep tracker but when you do need one, this simple log sheet is works perfect. If there are more nights that your child is not sleeping well, keeping track of it for a discussion with the doctor can lead to solutions that you didn’t know were possible.
The doctor will love that you have tracked this for a decent amount of time rather than being vague and stating “a few weeks now…” when you are trying to explain night terrors, sleep walking or simple difficulty staying asleep.
🍫 Weight Tracker
We all can benefit from a quick weight tracker worksheet that guides us through our weight goals. This document will signal any major changes and trends that should be brought up on your next office visit.
Keeping track will also help you as the parent know when to cut back on tv and video game time, offer healthier snacks and practice working out with your kiddo.
📅 Daily Care Tracker
This sheet is meant for those that have an additional caretaker for their child. It provides a snapshot that will help you know how the day went when you were not present.
Keep these for weeks and take note if there are trends as such as “Mondays seem to be rough” or “what happens on Thursdays that tends to set off behavioral challenges?”
✔️ Care Giver Checklist
Use this sheet along with the Daily Care Tracker to help you and your caregiver work as a team when caring of your child. Make sure they have gone through all the medicine, food and therapy needed for your child during the day.
This is also a good place to note any specific issues or tasks that need to be accomplished.
🧍 Incidents Log
This worksheet is designed to include incidents at school, during music lessons, or on athletic teams. Expand it a bit to include incidents when visiting friends and family to start to open your eyes to possible trigger points.
Always look for trends and the more information you write down, the better chance you have to figure out what is going on.
👀 Eye Care Tracker
If there are eye issues with your kiddo, here is the worksheet for you to keep track of everything you need. Eye specialists will love that you took the time to help them figure out how your child’s eyes are progressing or digressing. Always be on the lookout for lazy eye, near sightedness or binocular coordination.
🦷 Dentist Visits
This is going to be a tough one, as most kids do not like the dentist. It can assist you and your family to know what is going on at all dental visits. This can be especially challenging as some kids tend to have poor oral health due to sensitivity to brushing, misalignment of teeth, medication or poor food choices.
🦮 Equipment and Supplies
Use this sheet if you need to have braces, splints or specialized gear needed for mobility. It may also include different sensory objects, cognitive tools or manipulative activity sets that you want to keep track of.
🗓️ Weekly To Do List
Keep yourself organized in the midst of chaos by jotting down a weekly to do list that keeps you organized and on track for your prioritized goals. When you do this each week, it will keep your focus on what is important.
💊 Vitamin and Supplement Tracker
It may not seem that important to track the vitamins and supplements being taken, but it will help identify issues or trends, especially when used in conjunction with lab work.
Since the US diet tends to have less vitamin and minerals, adding in supplements may be helpful. Definitely consult with a doctor first.
Don’t add supplements until you have discussed it with the doctor and get the approval.
🗒️ Notes Sheet
I included a generic notes worksheet for you to jot down all of your thoughts, ideas to try, something you read in a magazine or online group. This is a great place to just brain dump all of your information and ideas that might help you and your family.
📆 Monthly Goals
Taking the time to set reasonable and achievable goals is important with special needs kiddos. Just because life doesn’t look like it does to other families doesn’t mean you and your child can’t set goals and work towards achieving them. This can range from eating, exercising, behavior modification or the goal to do all of the recommended therapy over the next 30 days.
SMART GOALS | Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results and Timely
George T. Doran
📅 Yearly Goals
This is can be harder when talking about kids with special needs, but this is the principle that you would use in developing an IEP at school. The goals are set with the child in mind. It may include items like controlling outbursts in class, respecting personal space of others, learning to have engaging conversation or learning how to read the social cues of others.
😀 Habit Tracker
Learning to track certain habits through a worksheet can be beneficial as your child grows up. We know that habits take over 30 days to stick and it will help your child realize the importance of consistent behavior. The visual accountability is extremely helpful for the children to see their own progress.
“We become what we repeatedly do.”
Stephen Covey
🏥 Urgent Care Visits
Kids on the spectrum might be seen at urgent care more often than a mainstream child. They can’t always communicate what is wrong until it’s too late. In some cases there may be physical limitations that contribute to their situation.
Keep track of all those obscure visits and the history behind them. It all helps when you tell the story when visit the primary care doctor.
🗒️ Development Tracker
This one page sheet is great to chart the ways your child acts, speaks, and learns all in one spot. Capturing these milestones are important when you feel that your child is may be delayed, behind or under developed.
This information helps your pediatrician know if they are progressing. It will also help identify if any specialists may be needed to help your child stay on track.
📒 Growth Tracker
Many folks in the spectrum do not grow at a traditional pace and this tracker will allow you to document all of their progress.
🚗 Mileage Tracker + Medical Expenses
Although you may not think of tracking your mileage, there can be many different tax benefits to doing so when transporting your child. Make sure to consult a tax specialist and visit The Autism Community in Action for more information.
📈 Medical Tests
We included several pages to capture the results of various tests that your child might undergo. It can be tough on kids to be at the doctor and some of these tests are unpleasant and may cause stress. It’s great to have worksheets to capture the relevant information so you can spend more time focusing on your child.
🦴 X-ray Log
Although this one is not as commonly used, it is important to have so you can know how often your child had X-rays and the results of the scanning.
⚕️ CT Scan
Children on the spectrum may be exposed to CT scans earlier in life than others. Because of that, it’s best to start tracking how often these are recommended and performed on your child.
🧪 Lab Test Results
Whether you keep the actual lab results printed out or you choose to fill in each one on this log, make sure to keep records to track any trends and results. Having a baseline will help to quickly identify trends.
🥼 Ultrasound Results
Just like the Xray and CT scans, keep up to date record on any ultrasounds that are performed.
🧑🏽⚕️ EEG Results
Many parents consult a doctor and choose to get an electroencephalogram when they have trouble communicating with others. Kids with ASD tend to be sensory sensitive to sounds, touch, smell and texture. Getting this test can help you and your family’s pediatrician understand your child’s brain activity.
📊 Meltdown Tracker
Meltdowns occur with children who have less control over their own behavior. It’s natural, but it is stressful. It’s imperative to track how often they happen, how long they last and the circumstances surrounding them.
Put together a Melt Down Kit that has a few items that you can use when you are out of the house. These might include toy, head phones, sensory ball or anything that you can use to calm your child down before it escalates too far out of control.
📨 Other Contacts
This is a great place to add in contacts that are not medical. These can be any special needs helpers at school, or teachers or aids that work with your child through the week that are not on the medical team. It may be neighbors or friends who you can call if you need assistance.
🎉 Milestones
Hooray! Here is the time to take note of all the good that is happening. Yes, the wins are different for each child, but they ARE there and should be celebrated.
So much of your time is spent on the challenges, that you may forget to celebrate the positives.
📝 Daily Focus Log
Use the daily goals sheets to help you and your family develop items to focus on each day. All of the actions should be pulled from the goal sheets. These can be as simple as brushing teeth everyday to learning to control outbursts when things are getting out of control.
😲 Emotional Check
Do a quick daily check in of emotions. This printable is a great place to start out. Have the kids write out what they are grateful for and what good happened that day.
🐝 Productivity Check
Productivity can be measured anyway you, as the parent, decides. This sheet can be used for simple items like making the bed every day to taking out the trash.
Performing these simple tasks lead your child to be a productive member of the household. Maybe the tasks include getting up, dressed, fed and school bag packed on his/her own. This is one of those sheets that you can use however your family chooses.
Keeping these written down will help with accountability and growth.
💩 Bowel Movement Tracker
Special needs children may not always have a healthy, well-balanced diet and tracking their bowels is so important as laxatives may need to be used to keep their system flushed.
📒 Spines
Four pages of different sized spines are available for various sizes of binders used.
Grab Your Binder Here
There are two ways for being using this binder. First, you can get a few sample pages for free by entering your email in the box below. We’ll send you a few pages to start using immediately. If you like them and you find them useful, please pop back and pick up the fill binder.
The second way is to head over to our shop and pick up a copy of the Special Needs Binder.
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