SPECIAL KIDS INC
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : g****s@s***********n.c*m
Mission Statement
Special Kids serves Jesus Christ by caring for His children with special healthcare needs. Our organization is the only nonprofit in Middle Tennessee providing comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation for children with special needs from birth through age 21. Since 1998, we have dedicated ourselves to serving children with diverse diagnoses and medical complexities, including medically fragile and developmentally delayed. We offer skilled pediatric nursing care and specialized physical, occupational, speech, and feeding therapies. Our organization is deeply committed to reducing health disparities and improving access to care for vulnerable children.
About This Cause
Our story began with one family, one calling, one special kid, and a mission to serve Jesus Christ by caring for His children with special health care needs. Carrie Goodwin was working as a nurse in an outpatient facility and saw children with special needs turned away when their families could not pay. Not long after, Carrie's father, Dick Kleinau, came to his wife with a vision. He wanted to do something for the Lord. The pieces of the puzzle began to come together for the Kleinau family. Carrie had seen the need, Dick had felt the Lord's calling, and their whole family had been touched by one special kid named Cody. Cody was Dick's grandson and Carrie's nephew. Cody had been born a few years earlier with a rare genetic disease called Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT). The final puzzle piece for Special Kids was already in their lives. Together, Carrie and Dick envisioned a place where special needs and medically fragile children would be embraced with Christian love and healing arms. They agreed it wasn't their ministry – it was Jesus Christ's. Dick and The Christy Houston Foundation in Rutherford County put forth the funds that enabled Special Kids to open its doors on September 5, 1998. The need for our services has grown exponentially since 1998. In 2024, we served 606 individual children, providing 23,385 hours of prescribed skilled pediatric nursing care and 18,069 therapy sessions. In 2024, 214 children (35% of the total number of patients served) were new to our center. Today, our organization serves children with a wide variety of diagnoses and medical complexities, including Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, Traumatic Brain Injury, spinal cord injuries, developmental delays, Down Syndrome, and Spina Bifida. The most common diagnosis among our patients is Autism Spectrum Disorder. In 2024, Special Kids served children and youth from 13 counties in Middle Tennessee Current Programs and Activities Support from individuals, corporations, and foundation enhances Special Kids' ability to provide and expand the capacity of our affordable, compassionate, and life-changing skilled pediatric nursing care and specialized therapy services for special needs children across the region. Nursing Services Special Kids is the only organization providing Skilled Pediatric Nursing care for medically fragile children in Middle Tennessee. Services are offered from birth through age 21. The services are provided by registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and, when appropriate, a child may receive outpatient therapeutic services. Due to the severity of their medical conditions, the children at Special Kids Nursing Center are not appropriate for a typical daycare or school setting. The children in this program are repositioned every two hours, receive structured daily activities, and are provided with two snacks and a meal. Some children require special diets, and often children require assisted feeding. This program allows families to work while their children receive trusted, high-quality medical monitoring and care. Therapeutic Services Therapy services are vital to promoting physical, emotional, and developmental well-being of children with special needs. By fostering independence, improving mobility, and enhancing communication skills, therapy empowers children to engage more fully in daily life. It also reduces feelings of isolation and supports the emotional health of both children and their families. Early intervention is especially impactful. Addressing developmental delays at a young age can significantly improve long-term outcomes, reducing the need for special education services, preventing secondary health complications, and lowering overall healthcare costs associated with untreated disabilities. Therapy equips children with essential life skills that lead to greater self-sufficiency and a reduced reliance on long-term support services. Physical Therapy: The Physical Therapy program at Special Kids is designed to enhance or restore a child’s functional abilities by focusing on large muscle movement and gross motor skills. Our licensed therapists work with children to improve mobility, strength, balance, and coordination, using individualized treatment plans to help each child achieve their highest level of mobility and physical independence. As a part of the therapy process, clinicians may recommend custom orthotics or adaptive equipment to support a child’s mobility and comfort and make movement safer and caregiving more manageable. Available to children from birth through age 21, our physical therapy program emphasizes a playful and encouraging environment. Guided by the philosophy that "play is a child's work," therapists incorporate toys, bubbles, music, and engaging activities to motivate children while building the strength and skills they need for greater independence and active participation in everyday life. Occupational Therapy: The Occupational Therapy program at Special Kids supports children from birth to age 21 in developing essential skills for self-care, independence, and daily life. Our therapists help children strengthen their fine motor skills and small muscle movements needed for tasks such as brushing teeth, getting dressed, or using utensils. Children may also work on functional skills like holding and manipulating toys, transferring objects between hands, drawing, and writing. Many children we work with have difficulty with sensory processing - such as light, sound, or touch - or struggle with transitioning between activities. Therapy sessions are tailored to each child’s needs, often breaking down complex tasks into manageable steps. Speech Therapy: Special Kids' Speech Therapy program enhances a child’s ability to understand language and express thoughts and emotions. Available to children from birth to 21 years of age, speech therapy is the most utilized service at Special Kids. Centered on the goal of achieving “maximum communication,” the program empowers children to communicate effectively and connect meaningfully with the world around them. Our licensed speech therapists address all cognitive aspects of communication, speech, and language. Speech therapy sessions are customized to each child's needs and use interactive, engaging techniques to make learning enjoyable. For children with significant communication challenges, our speech therapists help families obtain assistive communication devices. Therapists then work with families and children to set up the devices and learn to use them. Feeding Therapy: Special Kids' Feeding Therapy supports children from birth through 21 years of age with challenges related to food aversions, swallowing disorders, oral motor deficits, and delayed feeding development that can result in a lack of nutritional nourishment. Feeding therapy empowers children to overcome challenges, ensuring they receive nutrition for healthy growth and development. Skills that feeding therapy address include food selectivity from taste or texture, swallowing disorders, limited food intake or refusal, oral motor deficits, and transitioning from a feeding tube to oral food intake. Therapists use a systematic, non-threatening method to introduce new foods and improve feeding skills. Camp Ability Camp Ability is a respite summer day camp for children and young adults with special needs. The camp serves children between the ages of 11 and 26. The camp focuses on each camper's abilities, not disabilities, and what they can do instead of what they cannot. A 4:1 camper-to-staff ratio allows for modification and adaptation, which ensures each camper can participate to their fullest potential. Camp Ability enables children and young adults with special needs to participate in an interactive, social, and fun environment. In addition to being the only organization of its kind in Middle Tennessee, 67% of our patients are covered by TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, yet reimbursements often fall significantly short of the actual cost of care. TennCare benefits are not accepted at many for-profit clinics in our region of the state. Special Kids welcomes TennCare patients and does not limit the number of TennCare participants we serve. Additionally, Special Kids serves many families who are underinsured or uninsured. Over 30% of our families share the cost of the services they receive. Special Kids offers a private pay, sliding fee scale for these families. However, similar to TennCare reimbursements, these payments rarely cover the full cost of services. Without Special Kids, there would be families across the region unable to obtain affordable services for their children with special healthcare needs.