Book picks similar to
A Different Kind of Perfect: Writings by Parents on Raising a Child with Special Needs by Cindy Dowling
special-needs
parenting
non-fiction
teacher-books
Understanding the Highly Sensitive Child: Seeing an Overwhelming World through Their Eyes
James Williams - 2014
Nor is it always easy to raise, care for, guide and teach a highly sensitive child. Because the highly sensitive child experiences the world a little differently, and that can be difficult to understand. This book aims to help you experience the world from the child’s perspective, so that you can better understand them and help them to grow and thrive. In this simple, concise guide I distil the reams of information available on the highly sensitive child so that you can get the knowledge you need quickly and easily. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: ‘And those who were seen dancing were thought to be crazy by those who could not hear the music.’ The highly sensitive child isn’t crazy. Nor are they slow, or weak, or just ‘not tough enough’. They simply dance to a tune that not everyone can hear. This book helps you hear the music to which the highly sensitive child dances. Once you know the tune exists, and you listen for it carefully, you’ll find it’s beautiful, moving, powerful music.This is what Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. thought of the book. Elaine is the author of the worldwide bestsellers The Highly Sensitive Person and The Highly Sensitive Child she has pioneered the research into Highly Sensitive People.“As the author of this truly brilliant little book, Jamie Williamson explains that he is not an academic or a psychologist. I am simply a man who feels very passionately about the subject. He is highly sensitive and so is one of his daughters, and he writes about sensitivity with both simplicity and depth. His sensitivity also shows in his book’s briefness. Caregivers of children need an author to get to the point so they can go get groceries, pick up the kids etc. Jamie’s book can be read in an hour, yet it has charming examples as well as great suggestions and a full, scientifically accurate description of the trait. Jamie is reaching out to all parents, carers and teachers of sensitive children and whether through this book or on his website, he is a wonderful resource.” – Elaine N. Aron.
Teaching in Your Tiara: A Homeschooling Book for the rest of Us
Rebecca Frech - 2013
then, by golly, stick a tiara on your head and go teach something!" Do you wish that you had the chance to sit down with a seasoned homeschooling veteran over a cup of tea and ask every question that comes to mind? Mother of seven and twelve year homeschooling veteran Rebecca Frech is the common-sense voice of experience and reassurance that you've been hoping to find. Teaching in Your Tiara is a soup-to-nuts homeschooling book that walks you through the first years - deciding that home education is right for your family, choosing the right curriculum, understanding learning styles, not raising socially awkward kids, maintaining your own identity, and more. Whether you're the parent who's already committed to homeschooling or you're just dipping your toe into the pool of consideration, this book is for you! Rebecca's logic, honesty, and humor will leave you both amused and well-informed about the realities of homeschooling and what it could mean for your family.
Born Broken: An Adoptive Journey
Kristin Berry - 2017
Other families know what you are going through. Find strength in not only your faith, but in the community of others who understand your heartache and disappointment, and the desperate need to help these children have a future.[[Provides an account of real-life struggles and solutions from early childhood to young adulthood[[Opens a window into their life and family in hopes of encouraging others[[Reveals understanding, compassionate support for families facing these heart-wrenching challenges.
In the Little World: A True Story of Dwarfs, Love, and Trouble
John H. Richardson - 2001
Kopits takes me into an examining room and leans against the stainless steel bench and asks me what I'm writing about this time. When I tell him what I saw in Australia, he immediately starts to nod. "This is a great subject," he says. Then he stops, as if caught by the subject himself.I wait.After a moment, he continues. "What you are looking into is the abyss. This takes you to the very heart of a human being, to the deepest aspect of the soul.He gives me one of his solemn looks. "Because the thing is, you have to confront yourself."(from In the Little World)
In 1997, almost by accident, John H. Richardson found himself sharing a hotel with more than a thousand dwarfs. Over the course of a single week, he witnessed love and anger, fear and bravery, arrogance and humility, even a bizarre romantic deception -- the entire spectrum of human emotion in one concentrated dose. But at the end of the week, he discovered that leaving the "Little World" wasn't as simple as checking out of a hotel. In fact, his journey would last a full two years.At a time when bigger often seems synonymous with better, and physical beauty serves as currency, the world of dwarfs usually passes beneath our notice. Now, in this groundbreaking work, awardwinning author John H. Richardson brings the Little World into focus.He introduces us to characters like a saintly but obsessed doctor and a mother who sacrifices her family to save her dwarf daughter. He follows two dwarf lovers from first meeting through the struggle to overcome their fear and shame and find the confidence to love each other. He becomes personally involved in a tangled and often confrontational friendship with a female dwarf. Through these stories and musings ranging from classic theories of beauty to the history of the disability movement to postmodern theories of difference, Richardson presents a world that is a skewed reflection of our own -- and offers us a glimpse into the essential human condition.
A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage
Beth Kephart - 1998
Like Operating Instructions and The Liars' Club, A Slant of Sun is a contemporary classic.Nearly one in five children grow up facing a developmental or behavioral challenge, and like them, Beth Kephart's son, Jeremy, showed early signs of being different: language eluded him, he preferred playing alone to an afternoon on the jungle gym. Doctors diagnosed Jeremy with a mild form of autism called Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. A Slant of Sun is a passionate memoir about how Kephart, guided by the twin tools of intuition and imagination, helped lead her son toward wholeness. Pulsing with the questions, "Is normal possible? Definable?" A Slant of Sun speaks to everyone not just parents of the redemptive power of love.
I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America's Education Gap
M. Night Shyamalan - 2013
Night Shyamalan has long had a serious interest in education. The foundation he and his wife started once gave college scholarships to promising inner-city students, but Shyamalan realized that these scholarships did nothing to improve education for all the other students in under-performing schools. When he learned that some schools were succeeding with similar student populations, he traveled across the country to find out how they did this and whether these schools had something in common. He eventually learned that there are five keys to closing America’s achievement gap. But just as we must do several things to maintain good health— eat the right foods, exercise regularly, get a good night’s sleep—so too must we use all five keys to turn around our lowest-performing schools. These five keys are used by all the schools that are succeeding, and no schools are succeeding without them. Before he discovered them, Shyamalan investigated some popular reform ideas that proved to be dead ends, such as smaller class size, truculent unions, and merit pay for teachers. He found that the biggest obstacle to school reform is cognitive biases: too many would-be reformers have committed themselves to false solutions. This is a deeply personal book by an unbiased observer determined to find out what works and why so that we as a nation can fulfill our obligation to give every student an opportunity for a good education.
Looking for Heroes: One Boy, One Year, 100 Letters
Aidan Colvin - 2016
Reading quickly and accurately is often the key to success in school. Without it, many dyslexics struggle and fail. Some, however, go on to achieve wild success. How?In this true story, dyslexic high school student Aidan Colvin decides to ask them. Over the course of one year, he writes 100 letters to successful dyslexics. He doesn't expect anyone to write back, and is genuinely surprised when people do. This book features letters from Writer John Irving, Arctic Explorer Ann Bancroft, Surgeon and CEO DelosCosgrove, Sculptor Thomas Sayre, Poet Phillip Schultz and others. It also features conversations with Comedian Jay Leno and Filmmaker Harvey Hubbel.This is a story about growing up, fostering grit and humor in the face of challenges, and seeing one's differences in a new light. It is also a story about the importance of heroes -- for kids like Aidan, but also for anyone. Throughout the book, Aidan shares tips that have helped him succeed in the classroom.
Bright Not Broken: Gifted Kids, Adhd, and Autism
Diane M. Kennedy - 2011
Yet the gifts and talents of some of our most brilliant kids may never be recognized because these children fall into a group known as twice exceptional, or "2e." Twice exceptional kids are both gifted and diagnosed with a disability--often ADHD or an Autism Spectrum Disorder--leading teachers and parents to overlook the child's talents and focus solely on his weaknesses. Too often, these children get lost in an endless cycle of chasing diagnostic labels and are never given the tools to fully realize their own potential. Bright Not Broken sheds new light on this vibrant population by identifying who twice exceptional children are and taking an unflinching look at why they're stuck. The first work to boldly examine the widespread misdiagnosis and controversies that arise from our current diagnostic system, it serves as a wake-up call for parents and professionals to question why our mental health and education systems are failing our brightest children. Most importantly, the authors show what we can do to help 2e children, providing a whole child model for parents and educators to strengthen and develop a child's innate gifts while also intervening to support the deficits. Drawing on painstaking research and personal experience, Bright Not Broken offers groundbreaking insight and practical strategies to those seeking to help 2e kids achieve their full potential. Diane M. Kennedy, author of The ADHD-Autism Connection, is a long time advocate, international speaker/trainer, and mother of three twice-exceptional sons. Rebecca S. Banks, M.A., co-author of The ADHD-Autism Connection, is a veteran educator, national speaker/trainer, and mother of two twice-exceptional children. Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a professor, prolific author, and one of the most accomplished and renowned adults with autism in the world.
Dictionary of the Undoing
John Freeman - 2019
But in the wake of the election of 2016, words felt useless, even indulgent. Action was the only reasonable response. He took to the streets in protest, and the sense of community and collective conviction felt right. But the assaults continued—on citizens’ rights and long-held compacts, on the core principles of our culture and civilization, and on our language itself. Words seemed to be losing the meanings they once had and Freeman was compelled to return to their defense. The result is his Dictionary of the Undoing.From A to Z, “Agitate” to “Zygote,” Freeman assembled the words that felt most essential, most potent, and began to build a case for their renewed power and authority, each word building on the last. The message that emerged was not to retreat behind books, but to emphatically engage in the public sphere, to redefine what it means to be a literary citizen.With an afterword by Valeria Luiselli, Dictionary of the Undoing is a necessary, resounding cri de coeur in defense of language, meaning, and our ability to imagine, describe, and build a better world.
The Out-of-Sync Child Grows Up: Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder in the Adolescent and Young Adult Years
Carol Kranowitz - 2016
The Out-of-Sync Child Grows Up will be the new bible for the vast audience of parents whose children, already diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, are entering the adolescent, tween, and teen years, as well as those who do not yet have a diagnosis and are struggling to meet the challenges of daily life. This book picks up where The Out-of-Sync Child left off, offering practical advice on living with SPD, covering everyday challenges as well as the social and emotional issues that many young people with SPD face. Topics include strategies for coping with the sensory aspects of grooming, social lives and dating, playing sports and music, and other issues, as well as how to find support and help from loved ones, occupational therapy, and other resources. Carol Kranowitz's insights are supplemented by first-person accounts of adolescents and teens with SPD, sharing their experiences and hard-won lessons with readers and adding a powerful personal dimension to the book.
A Regular Guy: Growing Up with Autism
Laura Shumaker - 2008
It answers the many questions that people have about autism through the story of Matthew's life spanning from babyhood to young adulthood. A Regular Guy illustrates the many ways in which family, friends and strangers are touched by Matthew's desperate desire to be a regular guy, and how his brutal honesty and social awkwardness bring out the best and worst in people in touching and humorous ways. In turn, A Regular Guy leads readers to love and accept Matthew, quirks and all, and inspires them to understand and tolerate the differences in others.
That Went Well: Adventures in Caring for My Sister
Terrell Harris Dougan - 2009
When Irene was born, her parents were advised to institutionalize her. They refused and instead became trailblazers in advocating for the rights of people with mental disabilities. The entire family benefited, with a life rich in stress, sorrows, hilarity, joy, and overwhelming kindness from strangers. Terrell has found that the only way to get through the difficult moments is to laugh--even in the most trying of times. In her moving, funny, and unforgettable memoir about life with Irene, Terrell Dougan shows that love, humor, and compassion are enough to heal us, every single day.
What a Daughter Needs from Her Dad: How a Man Prepares His Daughter for Life
Michael Farris - 2004
Michael Farris challenges fathers to take their unique opportunity to train daughters for life's challenges--in ways that only a dad can. Originally published as How a Man Prepares His Daughters for Life, it now includes new material on relating to an adult daughter.
USE THIS FOR THAT: Your Easy Essential Oil Guidebook
Kathy Heshelow - 2017
Essential oils hold great wellness benefits.Kathy Heshelow makes it easy for beginners or dabblers in aromatherapy to walk away with a good understanding of how to USE THIS FOR THAT. You'll get great info, recipes, applications and tips to keep you and your family well.