The Misunderstood Child: Understanding and Coping with Your Child’s Learning Disabilities

What is it like to live with disabilities no one can see? Readers will find out in this honest and gripping narrative of one woman’s life with hidden disabilities — including learning disabilities, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. Yet this is more than just her story of battling adversity and coming out a winner. In each chapter, renowned psychiatrist Larry Silver, M.D., shares his insight into how Veronica’s experiences — both positive and negative — influenced her academically and emotionally and how early diagnosis and intervention might have benefited her. These two compelling accounts give readers an appreciation for the difficulties and triumphs living with hidden disabilites can bring and an awareness of what can be done to help.

Addressing day-to-day management issues faced by physicians and mental health professionals who see patients with ADHD, this guidebook discusses such practical concerns as how to make a differential diagnosis, work with children and families in a multimodal treatment setting, manage a medication regimen, and explain ADHD to parents. Covering ways to work with the school system as well as new and controversial therapies, this up-to-the-minute book is essential reading for all who care for individuals with ADHD.

With this fully realized second edition of the classic guide, Dr. Larry Silver addresses the subjects all parents wonder about when they suspect their child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: What causes ADHD? What signs should I look for? How can I make sure my child is diagnosed correctly? Could my child have a learning disability, too? What’s the latest information on medications and other treatments? What controversial treatments should I watch out for? What should I tell my child’s school, and what should they be doing? Dr. Silver’s warm, thoroughly practical guide will give parents, teachers, and others the support they want and the answers they need.

“Difficult.” “Picky.” “Oversensitive.” “Clumsy.” “Unpredictable.” “Inattentive.”

Children who have been labeled with words like these may actually be suffering from Sensory Integration Disorder — a very common, but frequently misdiagnosed, condition that can manifest itself in excessively high or low activity levels, problems with motor coordination, oversensitivity or undersensitivity to sensations and movements, and other symptoms. This guide, written by an expert in the field, explains how SI Dysfunction can be confused with ADD, learning disabilities, and other problems, tells how parents can recognize the problem — and offers a drug-free treatment approach for children who need help.