It’s So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success

A treasured resource, this book empowers parents by arming them with the knowledge, expert guidance, and confidence they need to ensure that their child with ADHD receives the best care possible. Dr. Barkley explains what the latest research reveals about the nature of ADHD, its causes, and the most effective treatment strategies.

Besides being a football coach at his Michigan High School, Mike Kersjes taught special education classes, dealing with children whose disabilities included Tourette syndrome, Downs Syndrome, dyslexia, eating disorders and a variety of emotional problems. One autumn Kersjes got the outlandish idea that his students would benefit from going to Space Camp, where, in conjunction with NASA, high school students compete in a variety of activities similar to those experienced by astronauts in training for space shuttle missions. There was only one problem: this program had been specifically designed for gifted and talented students, the best and the brightest from America’s most privileged high schools. Kersjes believed that, given a chance, his kids could do as well as anybody, and with remarkable persistence broke down one barrier after another, from his own principal’s office to the inner sanctum of NASA, until Space Camp opened its doors, on an experimental basis, to special ed students. After nine months of rigorous preparation, during which the class molded itself into a working team, they arrived at Space Camp, where they turned in a performance so startling, so surprising, that it will leave the reader breathless. A truly triumphant story of the power of the human spirit.

A ground-breaking book on the needs and issues of girls with attentional problems: why they are often undiagnosed, how they are different from boys, and what their special needs are in school, in their social world, and at home. Age-related checklists from pre-school to high school help parents and professionals better identify and help girls with ADHD.

If you are a parent of a child with special needs, perhaps you have also felt lost and wished you knew someone in a similar situation you could turn to for support. If so, you’re not alone. Across the country, parents are providing emotional and informational support to other parents through a national network of Parent to Parent programs. In this comprehensive book, the authors share with you the ins and outs of developing and maintaining a strong, local Parent to Parent program that individually matches “veteran” supporting parents with those who are new to the challenges of caring for a child with a disability. Drawing on research about Parent to Parent groups and best practices in program development and training, you’ll get the basics of setting up your own program, including guidelines for finding, preparing, and matching supporting parents with newly referred parents, ideas for organizing and incorporating your program, and evaluating its effectiveness, tips on accessing funding and promoting your program througho0ut the community, and useful forms and extensive lists of contacts and resources to get you started.

In Ready to Learn, Stan Goldberg draws on thirty years of clinical experience (and personal experience as the father of two kids with learning differences) to provide an easy-to-use guide to helping children overcome any problems and improve their learning skills.

Brain chemistry, not bad parenting, is responsible for the 12 percent of children younger than 18 who have diagnosable brain disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), or enuresis (bed-wetting). Through case studies, scientific data, and information about children’s development and brain chemistry, Koplewicz helps parents understand the obstacles their brain-disordered children face. A practicing psychiatrist, he also suggests means, including therapy and medication, by which families may lessen the difficulties posed by those disorders. He devotes the final section of the book to considerations of the nature and treatment of problems including, besides those noted above, depression, conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, and autism. Presented with compassion but in no-nonsense style, his effort offers a wealth of scientific information in a format easily accessible to parents, extended families, and friends of “difficult” children.
—Kathryn Carpenter from Booklist