Mothering Special Needs PDF Download

Author: Anna Kingston
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1846426332
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
This book explores the lived experience of mothers raising a child with a learning disability, through interviews with mothers of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Down syndrome. With frequent personal accounts from mothers themselves, Mothering Special Needs encourages other women who have children with special needs to recognize and express their own aspirations and needs for self-fulfilment. It addresses the social construction of motherhood, discussing issues such as mother-blame and society's images of the self-sacrificing mother, in the context of raising a child with a learning disability. It also looks at real-life experiences of working with professionals, giving examples of both good and bad practice. This is an invaluable book for mothers as well as for professionals working with families that include children with disabilities.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309388570
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Author: María Cioè-Peña
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 1800411308
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This book takes a distinctive approach to exploring the experiences and identities of minoritized Latinx mothers who are raising a child who is labeled as both an emergent bilingual and dis/abled. It showcases relationships between families and schools and reveals the myriad of ways in which school-based decisions regarding disability, language and academic placement impact family dynamics. Treating the mothers as experts, this book uses testimonios to explore not only what mothers know but also how they develop funds of knowledge and how they apply them to their child’s education. The stories shed light on how mothers perceive their child’s disability, how they engage with their child and the value they place on bilingualism. The narratives reveal the complex lives mothers lead and the ways in which they strive to meet the academic and socioemotional needs of their children, regardless of the financial, physical and emotional costs to them. This book has significant implications for researchers and professionals working in bilingual education, special education, inclusive education and disability studies in education.

Author: Jessica Moxham
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1913068420
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
'A powerful, moving and inspiring story - it opens up a whole new world of understanding.' Esther Freud 'This is wonderful. I urge you to read it. It is life enhancing and I defy you not to fall in love with Ben!' Natasha Poliszczuk, Books Editor, You Magazine 'An honest and unflinching account of Jessica's journey as the mother of a child born with complex needs. Essential reading... and a source of solace for those who may find themselves on a similar path' Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story 'Jessica's beautiful words gave me a deeper understanding about embracing disability. I am inspired and will be recommending this book to parents as a testament to following your parenting instincts.' Arabella Carter-Johnson, author of Iris Grace 'A courageous, heartrending story of grief, love and ultimately hope.' The Sun, 5 star review *** Jessica Moxham thought she was prepared for the experience of motherhood. Armed with advice from friends and family, parenting books and antenatal classes, she felt ready. After giving birth, she found herself facing a different, more uncertain reality. Her son, Ben, was fighting to stay alive. When Jessica could finally take him home from hospital, the challenges were far from over. In this hopeful memoir, Jessica shares her journey in raising Ben. His disability means he will never be able to move or communicate without assistance. Jessica has to learn how to feed Ben when he can't eat, wrestle with red tape to secure his education and defend his basic rights in the face of discrimination. As Ben begins to thrive, alongside his two younger siblings, Jessica finds that caring for a child with unique needs teaches her about appreciating difference and doing things your own way. This uplifting story is about the power of family love, finding inner strength and, above all, hope.

Author: John Crowley
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 1557049270
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
When John and Aileen Crowley learned that their two youngest children had a rare and little understood genetic disorder, they didn't hope for miracles: they made them happen. In 1998, 15-month-old Megan and 4-month-old Patrick were diagnosed with Pompe disease, a rare and fatal neuromuscular disorder that affects only a few thousand children worldwide, usually leaving them with little to no muscle function, enlarged hearts, and severe difficulty breathing. The Crowleys were told to take their children home and "enjoy their short time together...there is nothing that can be done." Raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in northern New Jersey, John Crowley, a recent Harvard MBA graduate working at Bristol-Myers Squibb, was just beginning to taste success in corporate America. But now he was absolutely determined to find a treatment to save his children's lives. Frustrated with the pace of Pompe research, Crowley walked away from the corporate world at the age of 31 to help co-found a start-up biotech company, focused exclusively on producing a lifesaving medicine. In Chasing Miracles, John Crowley writes from his heart about how he and his wife set out to do "whatever it takes" against phenomenal odds to help Megan and Patrick first to survive, and then to thrive—and to keep their family, including oldest son John Jr., together and their marriage strong. He tells about learning to ask for help, about not losing faith, about coping with adversity, about the generosity and kindness of others, and, most importantly, about what it means to never, never quit. As Aileen Crowley writes in her foreword, "This book is our family's attempt to share much of what we have learned, especially from our children, who have taught us more about life and love than we have ever taught them."

Author: Suzanne Kamata
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 9780807000304
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The first collection of literary writing on raising a child with special needs, Love You to Pieces features families coping with autism, deafness, muscular dystrophy, Down syndrome and more. Here, poets, memoirists, and fiction writers paint beautiful, wrenchingly honest portraits of caring for their children, laying bare the moments of rage, disappointment, and guilt that can color their relationships. Parent-child communication can be a challenge at the best of times, but in this collection we witness the struggles and triumphs of those who speak their own language-or don't speak at all-and those who love them deeply.

Author: Maggie Dent
Publisher: Pennington Publications
ISBN: 0648431010
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
"Maggie is earthy and real, full of love and knowledge, especially on raising sons." - Steve Biddulph "Maggie's perspective on raising boys is spot on. She writes with humor and depth, providing insight and strategies for many of the most important issues facing moms. There is a lovely ease to her writing and a powerful honesty. I hope every mother of a son (and everyone else!) will read this book. The future of the world, to a great extent, depends on how we raise our boys." - Michael Gurian, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wonder of Boys and Saving Our Sons If we can see the world through boys' eyes a little better, we will make different choices in the way we mother them… and we will find them less confusing, and love them more deeply. Mothers of sons are worried about raising their boys in a world where negative images of masculinity are front and centre of our media, almost every day. Not only that, but statistically our boys are still struggling in many ways. Even though we live in a time where we recognise that nothing in gender is fixed, it remains a fact that the influence of a mother on her son is massive. A mother of four sons herself, Maggie Dent draws on her personal experience - and over four decades work as a teacher, counsellor and now author and speaker - to help build understanding, empathy and compassion for our boys. Maggie shares her five key secrets that every mum needs to know and uses the voices of men she has worked with and surveyed to reveal what really matters in a boy's relationship with his mother and other mother figures. Maggie is one of Australia's most popular parenting authors and educators, and her seminars about boys have sold out all across Australia and in the UK. She is finally sharing her insights, her reflections, and (as always) her humour around mothering boys to help you be the mum your son needs you to be.

Author: Kate Swenson
Publisher: Harlequin
ISBN: 0369716760
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER With her popular blog, Finding Cooper's Voice, Kate Swenson has provided hope and comfort for hundreds of thousands of parents of children with Autism. Now, Kate shares her inspiring story in this powerful memoir about motherhood and unconditional love When Kate Swenson’s son Cooper was diagnosed with severe, nonverbal autism, her world stopped. She had always dreamed of having the perfect family life. She hadn’t signed up for life as a mother raising a child with a disability. At first, Kate experienced the grief of broken dreams. Then she felt the frustration and exhaustion of having to fight for your child in a world that is stacked against them. But through hard work, resilience and personal growth, she would come to learn that Cooper wasn’t the one who needed to change. She was. And it was this transformation that led Kate to acceptance—and ultimately joy. In Forever Boy, Kate shares her inspiring journey with honesty and compassion, offering solace and hope to others on this path and illuminating the strength and perseverance of mothers.

Author: Ashley Bristowe
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 0735278172
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
Mothering under normal circumstances takes all you have to give. But what happens when your child is disabled, and sacrificing all you've got and more is the only hope for a decent future? Full of rage and resilience, duty and love, Ashley Bristowe delivers a mother's voice like no other we've heard. When their second child, Alexander, is diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, doctors tell Ashley Bristowe and her husband that the boy won't walk, or even talk--that he is profoundly disabled. Stunned and reeling, Ashley researches a disorder so new it's just been named--Kleefstra Syndrome--and she finds little hope and a maze of obstacles. Then she comes across the US-based "Institutes," which have been working to improve the lives of brain-injured children for decades. Recruiting volunteers, organizing therapy, juggling a million tests and appointments, even fundraising as the family falls deep into debt, Ashley devotes years of 24/7 effort to running an impossibly rigorous diet and therapy programme for their son with the hope of saving his life, and her own. The ending is happy: he will never be a "normal" boy, but Alexander talks, he walks, he swims, he plays the piano (badly) and he goes to school. This victory isn't clean and it's far from pretty; the personal toll on Ashley is devastating. "It takes a village," people say, but too much of their village is uncomfortable with her son's difference, the therapy regimen's demands and the family's bottomless need. The health and provincial services bureaucracy set them a maddening set of hoops to jump through, showing how disabled children and their families languish because of criminally low expectations about what can be done to help. My Own Blood is an uplifting story, but it never shies away from the devastating impact of a baby that science couldn't predict and medicine couldn't help. It's the story of a woman who lost everything she'd once been--a professional, an optimist, a joker, a capable adult--in sacrifice to her son. An honest account of a woman's life turned upside down.

Author: Gail Landsman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135963789
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Examining mothers of newly diagnosed disabled children within the context of new reproductive technologies and the discourse of choice, this book uses anthropology and disability studies to revise the concept of "normal" and to establish a social environment in which the expression of full lives will prevail.