A Good Start in Life: Understanding Your Child’s Brain and Behavior from Birth to Age 6

This practical volume is designed to help school practitioners and educators build stronger connections with families and enhance student achievement in grades K-12. Beyond simply getting parents involved in schoolwork, the book describes how positive family-school relationships can socialize and support children and adolescents as learners throughout their academic careers. Identified are key pathways by which professionals and parents can develop common goals for learning and behavior, a shared sense of accountability, better communication, and a willingness to listen to different perspectives. The focus is on assumptions, goals, attitudes, behaviors, and strategies that professionals can draw on both to assess school-home connections that are currently in place and to implement new, more productive practices. Grounded in theory and research, the book features case examples, self-reflective exercises, and discussion questions in every chapter.

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.

Thoughtful and practical, this book will appeal to today’s busy parents, with its concise, easy-to-read style. Now in a convenient format, Don’t Miss the Bus! is even more accessible to parents with no time to spare. Smialek offers her expertise as a parent and teacher and shares her methods and anecdotes from her own home and classroom. She advocates a win-win approach with a concise action plan to prevent problems before they happen and maintain dignity for both parents and kids. Don’t Miss the Bus! focuses on children’s strengths rather than their weaknesses, resulting in happier, more knowledgeable, and more resilient parent-child-teacher relationships.

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

The challenges faced by individuals with learning disabilities (LD) are not confined to an academic environment and are not “outgrown” in adulthood. So how do adults face the hurdles of LD in their professional and personal lives? In this book, you’ll hear from a diverse group of adults with LD, many of whom also have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as they describe how they’ve met disability-related challenges at work and at home. Ten in-depth chapters discuss the challenges and benefits that learning disabilities can present in a wide range of areas, including overall mental health, day-to-day life, dating, long-term relationships, parenthood, higher education, and employment. Practical suggestions and proven strategies are offered to help adults identify and capitalize on their strengths and to promote a satisfying quality of life.

This book is about helping youngsters with learning disabilities hold onto their dreams. It is also about helping their mothers and fathers negotiate the maze of challenges that so often leaves parents and students alike feeling overwhelmed and helpless. Writing with warmth and compassion Corinne Smith and Lisa Strick explain the causes, identification, and treatment of learning disabilities and present a wealth of practical strategies for helping youngsters become successful both in and out of the classroom.