AUTHORS’ DISCLAIMER: We are not in any way experts on parenting children with disabilities. Our goal is simply to share strategies that have worked for each of us in the event it may help those in a similar situation. If you’re different from us (i.e., you are bright or of the perfect persuasion), we advise you not to try the following at home. On a “perfection-preoccupied planet,” sisters Gina and Patty dare to speak up about the frustrations, sadness, and stigmas they face as parents of children with disabilities (one with Asperger’s syndrome, the other with bipolar disorder). This refreshingly frank book, which will alternately make you want to tear your hair out and laugh your head off, should be required reading for parents of disabled children. Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid provides wise and funny advice about how to: • Find a support group—either online or in your community • Ensure that your child gets the right in-school support • Deal with people—be they friends, family members, or strangers—who say or do insensitive things to you or your child • Find fun, safe, and inclusive extracurricular activities for your child • Battle your own grief and seek professional help if you need it • Keep the rest of the family intact in moments of crisis

Understanding resiliency and student success by studying people who succumbed to risk but later triumphed. A number of people who failed in school currently enjoy meaningful and successful lives. They include, though they are by no means limited to, those with attention and executive function challenges, learning disabilities, learning and behavioral challenges arising out of traumatic events in their lives, and even those impacted by all of the above. Up until recently, little attention was paid to successful people who did poorly in school. Why? One reason might be that many of us doubted that it was actually possible. After all, many loving parents and caring teachers spent countless hours trying their hardest to help these failing children turn things around in school, sometimes with little or nothing to show for it. If these children continued to struggle and fail in school with all this help and support, it was understandable to assume that they would not succeed in the real world decades later without it. So what did we miss? Why were we so wrong about them? And perhaps most importantly, how can their life experiences help educators and parents understand what schools can do better to support students who are struggling today? In his groundbreaking new book, Mark Katz draws on research findings in clinical and social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, education, and other fields of study—as well as stories of successful individuals who overcame years of school failure—to answer these and other questions. In the process, he shows how children who fail at school but succeed at life can give teachers and schools, counselors and health care professionals, parents and guardians—even those whose childhood struggles have persisted into their adult years—new remedies for combatting learning, behavioral, and emotional challenges; reducing juvenile crime, school dropout, and substance abuse; improving our health and well-being; and preventing medical problems later in life.

Parenting can be worrisome and challenging. If your child struggles with ADD it can be incredibly frustrating and absolutely bewildering. Understanding what is going on inside your child's head is the first step. Helping them understand themselves starts their momentum. You and your child working together in a positive relationship will carry them through to a positive outcome, whatever that is meant to be. Pudd'nhead Parenting addresses the much neglected but critical topic of how to form the right relationship with your child. You can watch them struggle with ADD despite your best efforts, or you can become a positive and supportive influence. Pudd'nhead Parenting teaches you how to employ your best parenting instincts to lift your child out of the quagmire of ADD and help them find direction, learn life skills and go on to become who they really are. Years from now your child will thank you for taking the steps outlined in this book.

This work offers productive insight into the field of medical anthropology and its future, as viewed by some of the world's leading medical anthropologists.

Parenting Children with Mental Health Challenges: A Guide to Life with Emotionally Complex Kids offers overwhelmed readers guidance, solidarity, and hope. The author, a “mental-health mom” who’s survived indignity, exhaustion, and the heartbreak of loving a child with multiple mental-health disorders, writes with frankness and occasional humor about the hardest parenting job on earth. Drawing on her own experiences and those of other parents, plus tips from mental health professionals, Vlock suggests ways of parenting smarter, partnering better, and living more fully and less fearfully in the shadow of childhood psychiatric illness. Addressing the many hurdles children and families must face, including life on the home front, school, friendships and relationships, and more, the book shows readers that they’re not alone—and they are stronger than they think. With its combination of easily digestible, to-the-point suggestions, clear action items, and first-person parent/kid stories, its aim is to make mental-health parents feel stronger and better, while actively seeking positive outcomes for their kids and families. With rates of mental health diagnoses among youth on the rise, this invaluable resource will help parents through the trying times with support, understanding, and guidance.

At twenty-nine months, my son Jackson had met all of his developmental milestones. He spoke in full sentences, knew his ABCs and colors, had well-developed fine and gross motor skills, was affectionate, had perfect eye contact, loved to talk, and was extremely social. Six months later, just after Jackson’s third birthday, neurologists couldn’t rule out that he might have a malignant form of epilepsy, some form of neurodegenerative disorder, have regressive encephalopathy, be autistic, or have a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). What could possibly have caused the regression he experienced over a four-month period, the irritability he was exhibiting, the sixty to eighty seizures he was enduring each day, and the autistic-like behaviors he had developed? Although I’m not a physician and don’t work in the healthcare profession, I have lived through the regression and recovery of my own child. This experience has led me to form the opinion that, potentially, too many children are being put on the autism spectrum. Some children, like Jackson, with ASD-like symptoms are not autistic and therefore are not receiving the full breadth of intervention that could potentially help them recover. Do I have proof of this? No, because from my experience, and up until this point, there has not been enough research that the medical profession recognizes as reliable made available to the public or to parents like me to identify the root cause of some symptoms. The purpose of my telling this story is not to give anyone, or any family, false hope but, with good reason, to encourage you to leave no stone unturned in treating a medically complex child. It takes passionate determination and tenacity to find underlying and seemingly hidden causes of complex illnesses and to see the journey through to recovery when possible.