The Child With Special Needs: Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth

The celebrated designer Dana Buchman knew almost nothing about “learning differences” when her daughter, Charlotte, was diagnosed with disabilities as a toddler. She soon discovered that the hard work and determination that had taken her from the Ivy League to her own fashion label wouldn’t be enough to deal with Charlotte’s disabilities; she would have to acquire a new skill set — to be able to see Charlotte as a person with unique abilities. A moving mother-daughter story, A Special Education is an inspiring account of one mother’s journey to acceptance and understanding, as well as a family’s triumph over daunting circumstances.

Author Rondalyn Varney Whitney, a pediatric occupational therapist, is the mother of Zac, a child who suffers from nonverbal learning disorder, or NLD. By definition, NLD is a neurological defect in children who are unable to recognize the nonverbal clues that make up 50 percent of communication. In Bridging the Gap, Whitney seamlessly weaves practical professional advice throughout the account of her passionate involvement with her son. She writes, “I believe that NLD, now thought to be as prevalent as dyslexia, is a difference and not a flaw.” She also warns parents and teachers that kids with NLD are likely to be misdiagnosed as lazy or defiant, so she urges readers to consider both the strengths (high intelligence and advanced verbal skills and memory) and weaknesses (low visual, spatial, and motor skills and deficits in social communication) of these kids.

The child with a nonverbal learning disability presents a puzzling and challenging profile to teachers, therapists, and parents. This resource translates the research into an understandable manual for the identification and treatment of children and youth with nonverbal learning disorders.

In this practical handbook for parents, clinical psychologists Brooks and Goldstein draw on their considerable experience working with children and families to demonstrate that parents’ core goal should be to instill in their children a sense of inner recourse. “A resilient child is an emotionally healthy child, equipped to successfully confront challenges and bounce back from setbacks,” they contend, and to this end they provide 10 parenting “guideposts” for nurturing the kind of resilience that helps children thrive.

In Raising Cain, Dan Kindlon, Ph.D., and Michael Thompson, Ph.D., two of the country’s leading child psychologists, share what they have learned in more than thirty-five years of combined experience working with boys and their families. They reveal a nation of boys who are hurting—sad, afraid, angry, and silent. Kindlon and Thompson set out to answer this basic, crucial question: What do boys need that they’re not getting? They illuminate the forces that threaten our boys, teaching them to believe that “cool” equals macho strength and stoicism. Cutting through outdated theories of “mother blame,” “boy biology,” and “testosterone,” the authors shed light on the destructive emotional training our boys receive—the emotional miseducation of boys.

Public libraries will want to purchase this book for their education and parenting collections. It is a brief, upbeat, always realistic look at what learning disabilities are and what problems LD children and parents face at home and at school.
— Library Journal