About This Site
Raising a child with an upper limb difference often means navigating experiences you could not have anticipated. This site shares lived experience and clinical insight to offer practical, compassionate guidance — so you can support your child with greater understanding and confidence.
My Mission
My mission is to support families raising children with upper limb differences by sharing nuanced, experience-based guidance that considers the whole child across development and into adulthood.
While there are more resources and visibility than ever before, families often are still given incomplete or overly simplified messages about what it means to grow up with a hand or arm difference. This site offers a more nuanced perspective, one that considers physical development, emotional health, identity, and long-term resilience across the lifespan.
My Vision
My vision is a world in which children with upper limb differences grow up secure, confident, and supported: they are able to pursue meaningful lives without being defined or limited by their differences.
I envision families who feel empowered rather than alone, and children who are accompanied through challenges with care, curiosity, and respect for their whole selves across the lifespan.
Guiding Principles
The following principles shape how I think about children with upper limb differences, how I support families, and how I approach clinical and educational work:
- Children with limb differences are whole people first
Limb difference is one aspect of a child’s identity, not a deficit to overcome or the defining feature of who they are - All children deserve love, acceptance, and emotional accompaniment
Children should not have to carry hard experiences alone or be expected to “figure it out” before they are ready - Parents deserve guidance, not pressure to already know
Raising a child with a limb difference involves experiences most parents could not reasonably anticipate without access to lived experience and shared wisdom - Confidence grows through support, not independence alone
Resilience is built when children know trusted adults will help problem-solve, advocate, and reflect alongside them over time - Children with differences deserve access to opportunity — with nuance
They should neither be limited by others’ assumptions nor pushed to do everything “just like everyone else” without consideration of physical strain or long-term wellbeing - Community reduces isolation and normalizes experience
Connection with others who share similar differences helps children and families understand that their experiences are valid and shared - Physical and psychosocial development are inseparable
How a child uses their body over time affects not only physical health, but also identity, confidence, and participation across the lifespan - There is no single right way to raise a child
The most meaningful guidance begins with curiosity about each child’s temperament, interests, challenges, and sources of joy
Why I Do This Work
photo by @olgambillia
Laura Faye Clubok, OTR/L
I am a pediatric occupational therapist born with a hand difference. I began receiving occupational therapy at age eight, and those early experiences shaped not only how I learned to use my body, but how I understood myself.
Over more than 25 years of clinical practice, I have worked with hundreds of children and families and seen how often parents are asked to “follow their child’s lead” without access to the lived insights that make guidance feel possible. I do this work to share what I have learned, through lived experience, clinical practice, and parenting, so families feel more informed, more confident, and less alone as their children grow.
This site is my way of translating experience into understanding, and understanding into support.
How to Use This Site
This site is not meant to be read from beginning to end, nor is it intended to offer one “right” way to raise a child with an upper limb difference. Instead, it is a collection of reflections, guidance, and resources that you can return to as questions arise and your child grows.
I invite you to take what feels useful for you and your child, and to leave behind what does not. Children with hand and arm differences are wonderfully complex and unique, even when their differences may look similar. What is supportive for one child or family may not be helpful for another.
As you explore the site, I encourage you to stay curious about your child as a whole person: their interests, temperament, challenges, and sources of joy. My hope is that this site supports you in feeling more informed, more confident, and more connected as your child grows
Let's Connect
We are so thrilled that you found us! Please let us know how we can help you on your journey parenting a child with a hand/arm difference.
