Just for Fun |
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| A collection of poems, stories and books written by parents who have children with special needs. | |
| Poems and Stories 101 Ways to Praise a Child Don't Quit The Gift (by Lise Kunkel) The IEP The Pretty One The Ten Commandments for Parents of Special Needs Children These Moms Share Special Gifts (by Erma Bombeck) Tips for Successful Interaction with School Personnel (by Jacequeline Howley) Transition to Adulthood Welcome to Holland (by Emily Perl Kindsley) When God Created Mothers (by Erma Bombeck) You Have to be Deaf to Understand (by William J. Madsen) |
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| Parent Books Most of these books are available on Amazon or through your local public library. |
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| The Child Who Never Grew by Pearl Buck Written by the Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Good Earth, this personal account of raising a daughter with mental retardation broke a national taboo when it was originally published in 1950. Today, much of the emotional experience Buck so eloquently describes till rings true. |
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| Take My Hand by Sheryl James Take My Hand reaches out to touch your heart and soul as a parent of a special needs child. The journey you face can be lonely, frightening and exhausting. When you are overwhelmed or disheartened, the book is intended to be a source of hope and inspiration. The author captivates your heart by illustrating her family's personal tumultuous journey. The book not only validates the host of feelings you may experience, but also offers the lessons her family has learned and the many blessings that have evolved. She reveals how her daughter has opened her family's eyes and hearts to change the family's perspective forever. |
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| Uncommon Fathers Edited by Donald Meyer The first book for fathers by fathers. In it, 19 fathers write about their life-altering experiences of having a child with speical needs and offer a welcome, seldom-heard perspective. |
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| Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family and An Exceptional Child by Michael Berube When Michael Berube's second son Jamie was born with Down's syndrome, life as he had known it was gone. Suddenly, abstract questions the successful academic and author had been too busy to think about were thrust before him. Berube tells how he and his wife came to know this astonishing new person as their son, an individual like their other son and yet who, to the world, was not an individual but the syndrome itself. Berube intersperses the story of Jamie's development with a critical analysis of society's response to disability, the inadequacies of American health care, and a discussion of such issues as eugenics and the priority society gives to budgeting for the disabled. |
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| Changed by a Child by Barbara Gill Parenting is always tough, but parenting a child with disabilities, serious injuries, or chronic illness can be a life-changing, profoundly disrupting experience. In Changed by a Child, Barbara Gill provides brief meditations and passages about the challenges, grief, faith, hope, and other feelings and experiences of parents who have a disabled child. Gill's son has Down's syndrome, and she writes with the authority and credibility of a parent who has been through it herself. The brief pieces in this small, handsome book are divided into three sections: "In the Beginning," "Rounding the Curves," and "Transformed." |
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| You Will Dream New Dreams by Kim Schive, S.D. Klein and Stanley Klein Knowing that "parents strongest allies will always be other parents", Klein and Schive have collected from all over the country stories by parents of children with special needs. You Will Dream New Dreams is a remarkable parents' support group in print. The shared narratives come from those with newly diagnosed children, adult disabled children, and everything in between; their stories are short and unfold in plain language just what the parent suffering from informational and emotional overload needs. |
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| Reflections from a Different Journey by Stanley Klein and John Kemp This book presents 40 stories by successful adults who grew up with disabilities. They provide insights into what it is like to persevere in the face of community prejudices, and what it takes for families and children with disabilities to work together toward fulfillment. |
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| From the Heart: On Being the Mother of a Child with Special Needs by Jayne Marsh Nine mothers explore the intense, sometimes painful, emotional terrain of raising children with special needs in eye-opening narratives developed from their parent support group meetings. The children who shape these women's lives have disabilities that include Autism, Down's syndrome, Tourette's syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, and multiple disabilities. From the Heart is organized around several themes: relationships with professionals; family life and school issues; and issues about the "self" and closest friends and family. |
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A Special Kind of Love: For Those Who Love Children With Special Needs |
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