Special Needs Parenting

In the early 1960s, Massachusetts writer and homemaker Clara Park and her husband took their three-year-old daughter, Jessy, to a specialist after noticing that she avoided connection with others. Following the conventional wisdom of the time, the psychiatrist diagnosed Jessy with autism and blamed Clara for Jessy’s isolation. Experts claimed Clara was the prototypical “refrigerator mother,” a cold, intellectual parent who starved her children of the natural affection they needed to develop properly.

Raising an autistic child can mean an emotional ride - ups and downs, emergencies and victories. But imagine the roller coaster of having not one autistic child, but three. Follow Karen Pellett as she spills her Spectrum Mom secrets and learn how to get your family over surviving and into thriving.

Normal for Me tells the story about the author hitting rock bottom when she received the diagnosis that her second oldest son was on the autism spectrum. One evening she fell to her knees asking God, “Why can’t we be a ‘normal’ family?” God whispered, “This IS normal for you.” This epiphany began her journey from anguish and grief to acceptance, peace, hope, and joy. This audiobook is ideal for not only families struggling with autism but anyone who has had to face a life detour or help someone along the way.

Drawing lessons from Sam's transformation journey from difficult child to budding entrepreneur, My Child's Different offers encouragement to parents who may be concerned about what the future might hold. It demonstrates how, with the right support and positive parenting skills, their children can grow up to surprise and delight them.

Learn strategies from one mom and her friends that will help you survive raising autistic kids and enjoy the journey along the way.

I Might Be You is a fresh look at the damage and emerging sun as told by an adult with autism who is, "disguised as a poor thinker," but has much to say yet does not speak, and a therapist who helps rebuild. With experience, wit, warmth, and wisdom these two collaborate to rethink roles, expectations, treatment strategies, education, meaning, and the healing truth about connection. It is a must read for overwhelmed parents, teachers and practitioners needing inspiration, and those with ASD seeking purpose as hope is found.

There are thousands of books on autism. Some books advocate new methods of teaching styles. Some talk about alternative medications that have worked miracles. This book does not make such claims. What this book conveys is that every family who has a child with autism has to figure out a coping system that works for their child with autism and for themselves. This is our journey to that place of facilitation and happiness.

Become a happier person by applying the wisdom of philosophers. What is happiness? What makes you happy? And is there more to life than happiness? Looking at the history of thought, this practical guide will help you answer these questions. Learn to cultivate your taste for pleasure, free yourself from the various disturbances of life and overcome irrational expectations that cause distress. Happiness will help you to go with the flow and rediscover the joy of existence.

From candy explosions and safety spaces to patience pills and mattress slides, autism turns normal on its head and stomps on it for good measure. For this family and their three autistic children, life is chaotic but glorious. Experience everyday life from the perspective of a spectrum mom and defy the label as only an exceptional family can.

Desperate to alleviate her son's constant rages and their crushing toll on the family, Donnie Kanter Winokur comes up with an innovative, untested, four-pawed solution: a golden retriever service dog named Chancer. Chancer is specially trained to give Iyal a unique love he desperately needs. But in this true-life tale infused with moments of despair, tenderness, and humor, Chancer turns out to be what the entire family has needed to stay - and grow - together.

The Thinking Moms’ Revolution (TMR) is a group of 23 moms (and one awesome dad) from Montana to Malaysia who all have children with developmental disabilities. Initially collaborating online about therapies, biomedical intervention, alternative medicine, special diets, and doctors on the cutting edge of treatment approaches to an array of chronic and developmental disabilities, such as autism, sensory processing disorders, food allergies, ADHD, asthma, and seizures, they've come together into something far more substantial.

Priscilla Gilman had the greatest expectations for the birth of her first child. Growing up in New York City amongst writers, artists, and actors, Gilman experienced childhood as a whirlwind of imagination, creativity, and spontaneity. As a Wordsworth scholar, she celebrated and embraced the poet's romantic view of children - and eagerly anticipated her son's birth, certain that he, too, would come - trailing clouds of glory.

Searching for academic and vocational programs for their post-high school autistic son, Lawson and Swearingen found a distinct lack of services. They soon realized that if they wanted an appropriate program for their son, they would have to build it themselves. In Share the Road they recount their personal experiences and the stories of their students as together they create a pioneering vocational training program that empowers autistic individuals. All proceeds from the sale of this book support the programs of Autistry Studios.

ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) is now recognized as one of the most common causes of learning and behavioral difficulties in school-aged children. Symptoms include poor concentration, forgetfulness, poor organization, impulsivity, restlessness, poor social skills, learning difficulties, low self-esteem, and defiant behavior. Despite growing awareness of ADHD among parents and health professionals, it is still widely misunderstood.

The brain of a child with ADHD processes information in a very specific way. Thus, you can’t expect them to be patient, capable of controlling their emotions and angry outbursts. Your task as a parent is to help your kid channel these emotions, the fear, and the embarrassment into something productive. While teaching new skills and habits takes a lot of time and patience, the experience will be incredibly rewarding and bonding.

Kimberly Wyse is a blogger, speaker, and Down syndrome advocate, who tells the story of the traumatic birth of her much-anticipated third child, who was diagnosed at birth with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and had major medical complications that almost took his life several times. Through the gift of extreme medical intervention and God’s miraculous answers to prayer, this precious boy has exceeded everyone’s expectations and is a joy to his family today.

Lina was a precocious toddler - charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums.

Misfit Leadership is about leveraging your weirdness or nonconformity to improve performance and character. What happens when a dyslexic, ADHD, big-picture guy sneaks into the detail-oriented world of evidence collection, fingerprint analysis, and meticulous documentation of the FBI? On the one hand, when executing search warrants, the author had trouble finding stuff—often missing the bloody knife or the muddy footprints.

Seahawks star running back Curt Warner and his wife, Ana, were prominent figures in Seattle in the early 1990s. When they dropped from the public eye after Curt’s retirement, everyone assumed it was for a simpler life. But the reality behind their seclusion was a secret they hid from even their closest friends: their twins, Austin and Christian, had been diagnosed with severe autism. What followed was a painful struggle to hold their family and their marriage together in a home filled with chaos, emotional exhaustion, and constant fear for the safety of their unpredictable but beloved boys.

In See Sam Run, award-winning writer and journalist Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe describes how her parenthood quickly descended into chaos as her son, Sam, became uncommunicative and unmanageable. Little by little, she found a new truth: that by learning to understand the ugliness inside herself, she learned to love her new life and her son, and to harness, at last, the energy she needed to realize Sam's fullest potential.