Five-Star Parenting Favorite:
The Child With Special Needs

Looking for a good book, or a good solution, or a good life line? All this week, as a Harried Parent's Book Club special, I've been sharing one of my all-time favorite parenting books each day -- a five-star selection that made a difference for me and my child and may be able to do the same for you.

I first read The Child With Special Needs when my son was very young, and I still believed what educators told me about what I should and should not allow him to do. Still believed, but was starting to wonder, when my maternal instincts went so strongly against their strict rules and ideas. Reading Dr. Stanley Greenspan's book and having the expert's opinions so closely mirror my own made me sit up, straighten my spine, stiffen my resolve, and run to the copy machine to prove to those teachers that the perseverations and behaviors they thought were "death to him" could be used to bring him out of his shell and make him relate.

I'm not sure I ever convinced those teachers. But I convinced myself to believe that I could do something for this boy, and the book gave me a blueprint for Floortime activities that served the two of us well. It's not the easiest parenting book you're ever going to read, and it's so long that your heart may sink at the thought of reading all of those words. Honestly, though, it's worth the effort. The book is a great starting point for embarking on a journey with a developmentally different child, and for empowering yourself to know what's best.

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