Crane Family

The Crane Family were introduced to FEATT through one of the Sensory Bag community outreach events. Karra has her own photography business and Kyle is a P.E. Teacher at Sutherlin Middle School. They have two boys: Hunter who is 7 and Carson who is 3. Karra wasn’t sure if they could call themselves a “special needs family” because day to day life has become “their normal.” As with many families who juggle careers, life and special needs children, they figured out a way to make it work.

Karra has made a conscious effort to be more open about her family’s struggles because she recognizes that many people don’t find it approachable if someone’s life is “picture perfect.” She would know because her job includes taking pictures and making families look their best. When it comes to her family, though, the pictures only tell one side of the story. It is important to her to communicate the other side of the story because she wants others with similar struggles to know they are not alone. She felt marginalized by friends who (with good intentions) downplayed her children’s struggles, or insinuated “bad parenting” was the cause of the behavioral issues. 

Diagnoses play a big part in affirming a parent’s intuition that something is not quite right with their child’s development. Karra has a degree in psychology and has worked with kids before. She took Hunter to Wiggles and Giggles as a baby, and it was very obvious he was different. She just knew she couldn’t figure it out on her own. He was 2 ½ years old when he was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety disorder. Then, in September of 2020 he was diagnosed with Tourettes and ADHD. It was a shock to learn the tourettes diagnosis, even though there is a family history. Now the doctors believe that all of his other diagnoses will come secondary to the Tourettes. They have finally found a great family doctor and have been connected to a lot of great resources through Compass/Adapt. Karra said it was great to meet Abby at Compass/Adapt because she found someone who finally saw what she saw. 

Hunter is a charmer. He is great with everyone at school, he just has trouble at home. He is in first grade and everyone loves him. He is a rule follower and on track academically. He was taken off the IEP because of his academic ability but they kept the 504 so he could more easily switch back to the IEP if needed. The family feels that Green Schools have handled it all very well. 

Carson doesn’t have an official diagnosis yet. He has mixed expressive receptive language disorder, developmental delay and sensory issues, so he qualified for Early Intervention. He has extreme eating issues, reflux and while CDRC testing came back “normal” they wanted to see him at the end of April 2021 to re-assess if he had caught up with his peers. Karra is concerned that without a “big diagnosis” they won’t get the help they need for Carson. She is determined not to let him slip through the cracks.

The Crane house is chaos when the boys are home. They don’t get along at all because they are such opposites. Carson runs around and creates havoc wherever he goes. They had to move Hunter’s toys out of the play room and into his own bedroom so Carson wouldn’t mess with them. Carson loves the park and has a lot of energy. He loves toy cars and running around with his dump truck. He requires a lot of supervision and Karra has someone who she can call to watch him when she needs to get some work done.

Hunter is really into chess right now. He loves it and will talk to you forever about it. He has also been into the Imaginext figures. He will tell stories and create elaborate set-ups, playing by himself for hours. He is a bit of a follower at school and has one best friend who he depends on. 

Karra says she wants to share with everyone because a lot of people are going through this and don’t know what to do. Family and friends might say “they’re just boys” or that it’s a parenting problem, but until you’re in these shoes, you don’t quite get it. She is happy to own her own business and have the flexibility to get the boys to their therapies and appointments. Even though they work opposite schedules, her and Kyle try to be intentional about their family time together. They love to go to the beach and they are planning a family trip during spring break.