The St. Louis chapter of the national non-profit organization Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America (AAFASL) offers a range of programs that help educate the community, schools, caregivers, students, and parents on the proper management of asthma and allergies.

AAFASL also runs Project Concern, a comprehensive asthma management program that provides medications, equipment, education, and support to uninsured or underinsured children with asthma and allergies. The organization can also help place parents in touch with certified allergists in the St. Louis area.

The Annie Malone Children and Family Service Center provides a range of social services and educational programs for community members. The center works to meet the comprehensive needs of abused, neglected, and abandoned children and their families.

The organization began in the late 1880s as the St. Louis Colored Orphan's Home and established its home in the Ville neighborhood. Business-woman and philanthropist Annie Turnbo Pope Malone became one of its biggest supporters during the 1920s, and the home was renamed to pay homage to Malone.

The services that the center provides include residential treatment services, family focus intensive services, family reunification services, parent education program, a therapeutic school, day care, and food & catering programs.

Babler State Park comprises more than 2,400 acres and features softball fields, volleyball courts, thirteen miles of hiking trails, a visitor's center, and the Jacob L. Babler Outdoor Education Center, a barrier-free resident camp for kids with special needs. Its amenities include a swimming pool, cabins, and dining halls.

The winner of our 2008 Parents' Picks quest to find the best place for family community service in St. Louis,
Catch a Falling Star is billed as an inclusive recreational and educational facility. It helps strengthen the physical and social skills of disabled children, including those on the autistic spectrum, through special programs, classes, and events.

CAFS staff provides critical support for parents with programs like Parents Night Out, afterschool care, teaching them about early childhood development, or offering speech and occupational therapies.

A co-educational private elementary school, Central Christian School offers instruction from preschool through sixth grade. Its primary focus is core curriculum and fostering spirituality; it also provides a wide array of specialty classes, including Spanish, science, computers, art, music, and physical education.

Children with mild to moderate learning disabilities are welcome at CCS's The Learning Center (TLC). Children can be evaluated for disabiliites and, once diagnosed, can receive the necessary interventions to succeed in the classroom.

TLC has two learning disability specialists working with students, as well as a speech and a language therapist. An accelerated program for gifted students is also available through TLC.

A program with joint support from Easter Seals Missouri and St. Louis Arc, Childgarden Child Development Center provides licensed and inclusive early education for children ages six weeks to eight years who experience a wide range of abilities. The center believes that children of all abilities thrive when they are able to play and learn together.

To that end, Childgarden offers hands-on, supportive education that focuses on literacy, math, science, physical development, and social-emotional skills. The center also staffs expert therapists, who focus on speech, occupational, physical, or developmental therapies.

The Churchill Center & School for Learning Disabilities focuses on children with a wide range of learning disabilities and uses a remedial program structured to help kids return to traditional classrooms as soon as possible. Children typically attend Churchill for about three years. The US Department of Education has twice recognized Churchill a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.

Churchill extends its service to the public, non-students, and those without a learning-disability diagnosis by offering comprehensive tutoring and consultation services. The type of tutoring provided varies with the needs of each student; an hourly tutoring rate is charged.

The school's Terri's Tutors program offers free tutoring to children whose learning has been compromised because cancer treatment.

First Step Pediatrics offers a unique service in St. Louis: Its family-centered therapists can travel to home residences, community centers, schools, hospitals, and day care centers to work with individuals in a natural environment. These kinds of visits allow therapists to see how individuals interract with their natural settings, and both can involve the entire family in treatment and can use items with which the individual is comfortable.

The staff includes several occupational therapists, developmental therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, professional counselors, registered dieticians, and clinical social workers.

The office helps families with nutrition & dietetic services, recreational therapy, massage therapy, life care planning, personal training and exercise, and the psychotherapeutic use dance and movement.

First Step Pediatrics offers a unique service in St. Louis: Its family-centered therapists can travel to home residences, community centers, schools, hospitals, and day care centers to work with individuals in a natural environment. These kinds of visits allow therapists to see how individuals interract with their natural settings, and both can involve the entire family in treatment and can use items with which the individual is comfortable.

The staff includes several occupational therapists, developmental therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists, professional counselors, registered dieticians, and clinical social workers.

The office helps families with nutrition & dietetic services, recreational therapy, massage therapy, life care planning, personal training and exercise, and the psychotherapeutic use dance and movement.

Grace Hill Health Centers provide professionally directed primary and preventive health care - including pediatrics, adult medicine, and OB/GYN services - through five community health centers, all of which serve low-income and uninsured residents of metropolitan St. Louis. Its website provides a listing of neighborhood health centers.

Grace Hill clinics provide dental services, optometry, pharmacy, transportation, medical social services, X-ray, mammography, and WIC (Women, Infants and Children) programs; it also helps with Division of Family Services on-site eligibility verification and enrollment services. Some locations assist with developmental and behavior problems in children.

Established in 1946, the Greater St. Louis Association of the Deaf (GSLAD) provides social, charitable, athletic, and educational opportunities for members of GSLAD and friends of the deaf in the St. Louis area.

Established in 1946, the Greater St. Louis Association of the Deaf (GSLAD) provides social, charitable, athletic, and educational opportunities for members of GSLAD and friends of the deaf in the St. Louis area.

IMACS is is an independent teaching and educational research institute based in Florida. It offers classes in several cities throughout the US, including St. Louis and surrounding suburbs. Its classes are designed for above-average and talented elementary and secondary school students, who spend one or two hours each week throughout the year at the institute or daily during summer sessions.

IMACS classes are available after school and on weekends, and some classes are also available during the day at several large independent schools. Sufficiently talented secondary school students can take the IMACS Logic for Mathematics or IMACS Computer Science courses for high school credit at their school's discretion.

For the more than 80,000 children in the St. Louis area who live in poverty, Kid Smart-Tools for Learning makes school years more successful and bearable.

The non-profit organization provides free school supplies through its Free Store, where teachers can shop once a month and then distribute the materials directly into the hands of kids in need.

Individuals can help the organization by serving as event volunteers, or, at the store, by stocking the shelves and managing inventory. Students wanting to fulfill community service hours are always welcome; call to inquire about the program. Monetary donations are gladly accepted too.

Atypical learners find a supportive environment at Metropolitan School. The school specializes in educating pre-adolescents and teens who have learning disabilities, attention deficits, affective disorders (depression, bi-polar disorder), and related adjustment problems.

Known for its small class sizes and student-teacher ratios, the school focuses on traditional academic curriculum - English, mathematics, science, social studies, fine and practical arts, and physical education/health - as well as a non-traditional program component centered on interpersonal skills development.

Mid-America Therapy offers a wide range of therapy for children who need extra help because of, for example, delays in motor, social, and visual motor skills development or problems with sensory integration.

Staff members are trained to assist with many kinds of issues using several therapy techniques, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and therapeutic listening therapy.

The venue offers many classes like sensory motor fun, handwriting skills, and yoga for kids.

MO-FEAT (Missouri Families for Effective Autism Treatment) started as a non-profit organization in 1997 to provide advocacy, education, and support for the autism community and to promote early diagnosis and effective autism treatment.

The group's website lists upcoming meetings, talks, and events that support the autism community and provides a broad range of information about legal resources, diagnois information, and regional resources.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped provides free access to library materials especially designed for those with low vision or blindness or any type of physical disability.

Through NLS' national network of regional libraries, books and magazines on cassettes and in braille, as well as audio equipment, are mailed straight to participants' doors, at no cost.

There are more than 245 Ronald McDonald Houses in 26 countries, offering support and practical assistance to families with very sick children. It's a safe bet that your local chapter can always use volunteers.

Sarah A. Smith, D.D.S received her Bachelor of Science Degree from St. Louis University and her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree with highest honors in Pediatrics from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Her specialty training in Pediatric Dentistry was completed at the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine. Joining Dr. Sara in her practice is Dr. Kristen Fahlen.

Dr. Sarah's office is homey and designed especially for kids. The reception area features a two-story playhouse complete with windows and stairs. Colorful pictures decorate the walls, and above the office hub-bub, an electric train circles a track. Kids can even play video games and wear sunglasses while getting their teeth cleaned.

Dr. Sarah has the special training to provide care for special patients who may have emotional, physical or mental handicaps.

Operated as a non-profit organziation, Shaw Avenue Children's Center bases its program on a commitment to family support, inclusion of persons with special needs, and the practice of conflict resolution learning. Parents love the small teacher-to-child ratios and the smaller classroom enrollments.

Because it is located in a central, urban area, the center boasts that "the city is our playground" - teachers often take children to city locales for exploring and entertainment.

The facility itself is divided into four classrooms for the four age groups served; the outdoor area has a children's garden, sand box, hardscaped riding area, and play structures. The center serves breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack to children beyond infancy.

An organized ice hockey program for children and young adults with developmental disabilities, the St. Louis Gateway Locomotives operates as part of the nationally run Special Hockey International League - also known as the Heart League. The team plays two 12-week sessions per year and participates in two annual tournaments.

The St. Louis Learning Disabilities Association (LDL) works with thousands of local atypical learners each year to help them learn and grow to become independent, self-assured, and self-reliant adults in the community. LDL can work with any child from infancy birth through college, regardless of ability or disability.

LDL offers tutoring, educational consultations, study skills classes, early childhood outreach programs, and speech and language therapy, among other services.

The organization also works with families of atypical learners, as well as their teachers, offering support and methods to work with children in their homes and classrooms. Services include a wide range of seminars and workshops designed for parents, classroom teachers, education administrators, and other professionals.

University City Children's Center is a nonprofit United Way agency that provides care and education for a diverse socioeconomic and ethnic population of children ages six weeks to six years.

The center uses a literacy-based curriculum as its educational foundation. A wide range of ethnicities are represented at the center, giving it a rich multicultural dynamic.

The center also houses the Belle Center, which offers a full-inclusion preschool program for children with disabilities (ages two to six years) to learn and play with their typically developing peers.

The center maintains a waiting list, and families interested in applying for a spot should attend an open tour, which are held Mondays at 4pm and Fridays at 10am. No advance sign-up for tours is needed.

University City Children's Center is a nonprofit United Way agency that provides care and education for a diverse socioeconomic and ethnic population of children ages six weeks to six years.

The center uses a literacy-based curriculum as its educational foundation. A wide range of ethnicities are represented at the center, giving it a rich multicultural dynamic.

The center also houses the Belle Center, which offers a full-inclusion preschool program for children with disabilities (ages two to six years) to learn and play with their typically developing peers.

The center maintains a waiting list, and families interested in applying for a spot should attend an open tour, which are held Mondays at 4pm and Fridays at 10am. No advance sign-up for tours is needed.