Contact Us

Volunteers will help match you with other families in your state or country. Visit our Local Support Group for families of Children who have Hemiplegia.

Infant and Childhood Stroke are two causes of hemiplegia or hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Visit our sister website, Kids Have Strokes, to learn more.

Hemi-Kids Email List Guidelines

Welcome to the Hemi-Kids list! There are a few things that you need to know before posting a message to the list.

If you've never used a listserv list, you need to know that all the messages that you send to the list will go out to all 900+ people who are subscribed to the list.  You'll also receive each message that they send to the list.  Digest users receive the daily messages in one big email per day.

NEW MEMBER MESSAGES REVIEWED
New member messages are reviewed and then sent to the list. Send your first messages to Hemi-Kids@listserv.icors.org

PURPOSE OF THE LIST
The purpose of the List is to provide a forum for parents to share their thoughts, ideas, support, advocacy tips, stories, and more. The following are a few guidelines that can make participation in the list easier and more enjoyable. With the growing number of daily messages, it has become more important to keep the information on the list pertinent to the group as a whole. This helps in not cluttering up mailboxes and wasting the valuable time of the parents on the list.

RESPECT FOR ALL
On this list, we all have the right to be respected. As caregivers of our children, we are under a tremendous amount of stress in dealing with daily living, medical, therapeutic, school and social issues. No one needs to have his or her parenting styles or decisions challenged on or off the list. Treat others on the list, as you would want them to treat you.

There are many ways to parent a child and many people on this list may have different opinions from your own. Please respect that differences are okay and try to be helpful with your comments. Also, remember that the written word is sometimes difficult to interpret because no visual or verbal communication goes with you email. Keep this in mind when responding to others.

QUOTING
Please pay special attention to the guidelines regarding automatic quoting. This is one thing we watch for when reviewing new members. If you have problems figuring out how to turn off your automatic quoting, please read this document.

When replying to a message, it is, at times, useful to include relevant parts of the original message, or "quote" the message. Do not quote the entire text of a message either at the beginning or the end of your message. 

We recommend that you turn off the "Quote Original Message when Replying" (automatic quoting) feature of your email program and to copy and paste the relevant part of the message to which you are replying. If you choose to use the automatic quoting feature in your email program, make sure to trim the quotations down to the minimum necessary to provide clarity.

Excessive quoting takes up space on the server increases the sizes of posts and time reading them. It also adds unnecessary text to the daily digests and to the list archives.

IDENTIFY YOURSELF
Anonymous messages are not allowed. Your messages to the list should include your real name in the body of the message. Keep signatures to a reasonable length, ideally no more than 2 lines. Do not include ASCII text art.

POSTING (SENDING MESSAGES TO THE LIST)
Please introduce yourself when you feel comfortable. Tell us a little something about yourself and your child. You can do this by sending an introduction email to the list at Hemi-Kids@listserv.icors.org

These introductions help others know that you are part of the list and can help you feel more included in the group. Sometimes is it good to "lurk" for a while to get a feel for what common questions are asked and what topics are deemed off limits. It is also a good idea to search the archives at 

http://listserv.icors.org/archives/hemi-kids.html

when you first become a member for answers to some of your initial questions.

Appropriate posts to the list include the seeking and sharing of information, moral support (of which venting is a form), the sharing of our feelings and of our children's milestones, accomplishments and difficulties. Topics discussed include therapy, orthotics, seizures, education, emotional support, family stress and any other issues which are related to parenting children with hemiplegia or pediatric stroke.

HOW DO I KNOW IF A REPLY MESSAGE SHOULD GO TO THE LIST OR TO A
PERSON THROUGH PRIVATE EMAIL?
If what you have to say will probably pertain to another parent on the list, then send it to the list.

Examples of information for private email
1) Congratulations to someone for an accomplishment. Please share accomplishments on the list but sent the congratulations to the individual.
2) Very detailed information about meeting a member in person. Please protect your privacy.

PLEASE DON'T TALK ABOUT... 

• Politics. You may send links of interest to list@hemikids.org and we will send them to the list if appropriate.

• Religion. You may discuss how you've dealt with the emotional aspects of parenting a child with hemiplegia/stroke and how your spiritual beliefs have played into this. You may not PREACH or ASSUME that others hold your same beliefs.

• Do not send stories, poems, cute jokes, etc. to the list. We have limited space and the list is not a place for any of these items. If you think parents can benefit from something like this, send it to the list coordinator's email address which is listed on each message, and we'll consider it for the website.  You must send the source and copyright information.

• Advertising or solicitation is not allowed on the list.

• Do not attach any files of any type to your post.

• Do not send virus warnings to the list. If you think parents can benefit from these, send them to the list coordinator email address (listed on each of the HK messages).

• The discussion of our children ranges far and wide; however, messages should not get completely off the topic and away from the purpose of the list. The list is not for general discussion of any and all health matters, child-rearing practices, and the like. If you wish to continue an off-topic discussion with other subscribers, you should e-mail them directly. Subscribers' e-mail addresses appear in the From field of their messages. Note, however, that not all people wish to receive private e-mail from other List subscribers. 

SUBJECT LINE

• Want to get lots of responses to your questions? Use an appropriate Subject in the Subject line.  

• Be sure the subject line reflects the topic discussed in the post. 

• Do not auto-reply and start a new thread leaving the old subject line in the header. (A thread is a series of messages on the same topic.)

•  If you veer off the subject slightly, them put the new subject in with the old subject in parentheses, such as New subject (was Old subject).

•  If you receive the digest version, delete the digest subject line and copy and past the subject from the message in the digest to your message. 

• .In the daily digest version, the subjects of messages are used to create the contents listings that appears at the beginning of the digest. In the list archives, messages are sorted by the subject. Good subjects help subscribers more easily locate messages of interest in the archives and follow a thread on a topic.

• Examples of a good, specific Subject lines:  Differences in OT and PT  

• Not a good Subject line:  I have a question

If you have questions, please email the list coordinator at the email which is listed at the bottom of each Hemi-Kids message.

COPYRIGHT
All information contained on the Hemi-Kids List is copyrighted material. Please do not copy or forward any of messages from the Hemi-Kids list to any other source. The parents and children deserve to have as much privacy as possible. 

To learn more about hemiplegia, hemiplegic cerebral palsy, or hemiparesis, visit the Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association website.

© Copyright 1997-2007, CHASA, All Rights Reserved

The information contained in this web site and on the Hemi-Kids listserv are not a substitute for medical advice or treatment, 
and the site owners recommend consultation with your doctor or health care professional.