Use this alphabetical index to find books that have been reviewed for the Harried Parent's Book Club.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J-L | M-N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U-V | W-Z
Parenting an Adult With Disabilities or Special Needs
Cover image courtesy of Amacom
By Peggy Lou Morgan; 203 pages. Subtitle: Everything You Need to Know to Plan for and Protect Your Child's Future.
Bottom Line: When you're up to your eyebrows in therapists and IEPs and doctor visits and research, it's hard to imagine a time when you'll have to deal with issues like where your adult child is going to live and work and find friendship. Often, we put those thoughts off -- but that time comes more quickly than you think, and without some advance preparation, it's rough on everyone. Morgan, author of Parenting Your Complex Child, provides a calm, experienced voice to lead you through.
Bottom Line: When you're up to your eyebrows in therapists and IEPs and doctor visits and research, it's hard to imagine a time when you'll have to deal with issues like where your adult child is going to live and work and find friendship. Often, we put those thoughts off -- but that time comes more quickly than you think, and without some advance preparation, it's rough on everyone. Morgan, author of Parenting Your Complex Child, provides a calm, experienced voice to lead you through.
Parenting a Child With Sensory Processing Disorder
Cover image courtesy of New Harbinger
By Christopher R. Auer, MA, with Susan L. Blumberg, Ph.D., with a foreword by Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR; 192 pages. Subtitle: A Family Guide to Understanding & Supporting Your Sensory-Sensitive Child.
Bottom Line: Change "Sensory Processing Disorder" to "Special Needs" in this book's title and you'll have a truer sense of what it's about. Not really a sensory-processing book at all, this book gives thoughtful and practical advice on handling the strains a special-needs child puts on marriages, siblings, extended family relationships, checkbooks, and parental nerves. So why the SPD misdirection?
Bottom Line: Change "Sensory Processing Disorder" to "Special Needs" in this book's title and you'll have a truer sense of what it's about. Not really a sensory-processing book at all, this book gives thoughtful and practical advice on handling the strains a special-needs child puts on marriages, siblings, extended family relationships, checkbooks, and parental nerves. So why the SPD misdirection?
Parenting Children With Health Issues
Cover image courtesy of Love and Logic
By Foster W. Cline and Lisa C. Greene; 337 pages. Subtitle: Essential Tools, Tips, and Tactics for Raising Kids With Chronic Illness, Medical Conditions & Special Healthcare Needs.
Bottom Line: It's bad enough when misbehavior involves tantrums and lying and disrespect. When it involves skipping medication and avoiding treatments, it reaches a whole new degree of difficulty. The normal rules of Love and Logic parenting get tweaked here to accommodate the heightened stakes that come with chronic illness, and empower parents to create kids who can really take care of themselves.
Bottom Line: It's bad enough when misbehavior involves tantrums and lying and disrespect. When it involves skipping medication and avoiding treatments, it reaches a whole new degree of difficulty. The normal rules of Love and Logic parenting get tweaked here to accommodate the heightened stakes that come with chronic illness, and empower parents to create kids who can really take care of themselves.
Parenting With Positive Behavior Support
Cover image courtesy of Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
By Meme Hienaman, Karen Childs and Jane Sergay; 206 pages. Subtitle: A Practical Guide to Resolving Your Child's Difficult Behavior.
Bottom Line: Positive Behavior Support (PBS) involves analyzing a child's negative behavior, figuring out what he or she gets or avoids by doing it, and substituting more positive behavior so that parents can have peace and kids can still have their needs met. This book is filled with charts, forms, examples, and wisdom for helping you use PBS to make your child more manageable, your home more peaceful, and your own life more organized, too. Self-help for everyone!
Bottom Line: Positive Behavior Support (PBS) involves analyzing a child's negative behavior, figuring out what he or she gets or avoids by doing it, and substituting more positive behavior so that parents can have peace and kids can still have their needs met. This book is filled with charts, forms, examples, and wisdom for helping you use PBS to make your child more manageable, your home more peaceful, and your own life more organized, too. Self-help for everyone!
Parenting Your Complex Child
Cover image courtesy of AMACOM
By Peggy Lou Morgan; 220 pages. Subtitle: Become a Powerful Advocate for the Autistic, Down Syndrome, PDD, Bipolar, or Other Special-Needs Child.
Bottom Line: Parenting books generally come in one of two types: Experts offer suggestions on how to raise your child, with maybe some case studies thrown in; or parents share their stories of struggle and triumph, with maybe some practical advice thrown in. In this book, Morgan tries to do both -- and maybe proves why they really don't mix.
Bottom Line: Parenting books generally come in one of two types: Experts offer suggestions on how to raise your child, with maybe some case studies thrown in; or parents share their stories of struggle and triumph, with maybe some practical advice thrown in. In this book, Morgan tries to do both -- and maybe proves why they really don't mix.
A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays
Cover image courtesy of Laurie LeComer
By Laurie LeComer; 280 pages. Subtitle: Recognizing and Coping With Missed Milestones in Speech, Movement, Learning, and Other Areas.
Bottom Line: Into that great gray area of worrying that something might be wrong with your child, but worrying that you might be worrying too much, this book shines like a searchlight. Explaining the different ways development can go awry and offering solid suggestions for assessing your child, it lets you know when you need to seek help, and when you just need to calm down.
Bottom Line: Into that great gray area of worrying that something might be wrong with your child, but worrying that you might be worrying too much, this book shines like a searchlight. Explaining the different ways development can go awry and offering solid suggestions for assessing your child, it lets you know when you need to seek help, and when you just need to calm down.
A Parent's Guide to Special Education
Cover image courtesy of AMACOM
By Linda Wilmshurst, PhD, ABPP, and Alan W. Brue, PhD, NCSP; 262 pages. Subtitle: Insider Advice on How to Navigate the System and Help Your Child Succeed.
Bottom Line: If you get most of your information on special education politics and practices from advocates and lawyers, this book will serve as a nice counterpoint. Written by two school psychologists, it offers explanations more clear and calm than those you might get in the heat of a contentious Child Study Team meeting, and provides some perspective from personnel you might otherwise think of as "the enemy."
Bottom Line: If you get most of your information on special education politics and practices from advocates and lawyers, this book will serve as a nice counterpoint. Written by two school psychologists, it offers explanations more clear and calm than those you might get in the heat of a contentious Child Study Team meeting, and provides some perspective from personnel you might otherwise think of as "the enemy."
The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems
Cover image courtesy of Debbie Feit
By Debbie Feit, with Heidi Feldman, M.D., Ph.D.; 256 pages. Subtitle: Real-World Advice on Making Sense of Your Child's Diagnosis; Being Your Child's Best Advocate; Helping Your Child -- and Your Family -- Cope.
Bottom Line: Pretty much everything you want to know about your child's speech and language problems is in here somewhere. A friendly, comprehensive resource, The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems leads you from suspicions to diagnosis to therapy to school and insurance battles, with plenty of company from other parents along the way.
Bottom Line: Pretty much everything you want to know about your child's speech and language problems is in here somewhere. A friendly, comprehensive resource, The Parent's Guide to Speech and Language Problems leads you from suspicions to diagnosis to therapy to school and insurance battles, with plenty of company from other parents along the way.
Peer Buddy Programs for Successful Secondary School Inclusion
Cover image courtesy of Brookes Publishing
By Carolyn Hughes & Erik W. Carter; 199 pages. From the Back Cover: "With the proven program model in this one-of-a-kind guide, educators will transform secondary schools into caring and compassionate communities where all students help each other learn."
Bottom Line: Getting special-education students interacting with regular-education peers involves more than dropping the former into the latter's classroom. The authors share a program that pairs members of each group for academic and social assistance. It's really a guide for teachers, but there's enough information for parents to get the ball rolling.
Bottom Line: Getting special-education students interacting with regular-education peers involves more than dropping the former into the latter's classroom. The authors share a program that pairs members of each group for academic and social assistance. It's really a guide for teachers, but there's enough information for parents to get the ball rolling.
Peer Support Strategies
Cover image courtesy of Brookes Publishing
By Erik W. Carter, Lisa S. Cushing, and Craig H. Kennedy; 140 pages. Subtitle: For Improving All Students' Social Lives and Learning.
Bottom Line: Though written for educators, this guide to peer support programs has a lot of food for thought for parents, particularly about the desirability of fading back adult assistance in the classroom and allowing students with special needs to benefit from academic and social collaboration with their classmates. The hardest part is probably getting school personnel behind that idea, too, with appropriate planning and execution.
Bottom Line: Though written for educators, this guide to peer support programs has a lot of food for thought for parents, particularly about the desirability of fading back adult assistance in the classroom and allowing students with special needs to benefit from academic and social collaboration with their classmates. The hardest part is probably getting school personnel behind that idea, too, with appropriate planning and execution.
