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Breakthrough Parenting for Children with Special Needs: Raising the Bar of Expectations
Breakthrough Parenting for Children with Special Needs challenges families and professionals to help children with special needs to reach their full potential by using a proven motivational, how-to approach. This groundbreaking and inspiring book provides detailed information on how to let go of the “perfect-baby” dream, face and resolve grief, avoid the no-false-hope syndrome, access early intervention services, and avoid the use of limiting and outdated labels. Also included are specific guidelines for working with professionals, understanding the law and inclusion, planning for the future, and insightful interviews with Dana Reeve of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, Tim Shriver of Special Olympics, and Diane Bubel of the Bubel/Aiken Foundation.
- GenresParentingNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 23, 2017
There's lots of really good advice and tips in this book. A number of sentences really resonated with me, and helped me realize that there are other parents out there struggling with the same issues. I'd recommend this book to anyone involved in the life of a child or adult with special needs.
That said, why only 3 stars?
- A lot of the information is out of date. A number of potentially interesting web sites no longer exist, for instance.
-the book comes across as a bit Pollyanna-ish at times. Yes, it's important to be positive and raise the bar of expectations, but I think the positivity needs to have some grounding in reality.
-The book assumes that the person reading it will be the mother of a child with special needs; the attitude towards dads is a bit condescending and limited.
That said, why only 3 stars?
- A lot of the information is out of date. A number of potentially interesting web sites no longer exist, for instance.
-the book comes across as a bit Pollyanna-ish at times. Yes, it's important to be positive and raise the bar of expectations, but I think the positivity needs to have some grounding in reality.
-The book assumes that the person reading it will be the mother of a child with special needs; the attitude towards dads is a bit condescending and limited.
December 30, 2014
Breakthrough Parenting for Children with Special Needs was written in 2006 and is a bit of a paradox. On the one hand, it is filled with solid tips on how to become an
I
ncreasingly
E
mpowered
P
arent and challenges you to see your child with disabilities as a person first. It emphasizes that your child’s life is worth celebrating and that you should set optimistic expectations. It acknowledges the stages from grief to acceptance (and sometimes back to grief – especially in cases where the child dies – as happened to Judy’s son Eric) that often come when you discover your child has a disability. It provides a solid blueprint of the stages from early intervention through elementary and high school to transition and adulthood with reference lists to reputable online resources for additional information.
On the other hand, I almost returned an unread book to the library in disgust because the example of a successful parent in the first chapter perpetuates the myth of autistic children as being “unable to form meaningful relationships” and because it uses the out-of-date concept that if you miss early developmental windows that you are sunk “chipping away at granite at age 10” because you missed “writing in sand at age 2.” I was disconcerted that despite an entire chapter titled “No Labels, Yes Hope” with a solid sidebar about proper language use, the case studies/personal examples are full of terms like “low-functioning autism” and “has the mental capabilities of a five year old child.” Other case studies read distressingly like inspiration porn.
I found Breakthrough Parenting with Special Needs was a good book to skim, and a book that would be a better place for a new parent to start than many books about raising children with disabilities, but feel no desire to add it to the sources I reference regularly.
P.S. I think Judy Winter would be a very powerful speaker, and hope some day to get a chance to hear her tell Eric's story in person.
On the other hand, I almost returned an unread book to the library in disgust because the example of a successful parent in the first chapter perpetuates the myth of autistic children as being “unable to form meaningful relationships” and because it uses the out-of-date concept that if you miss early developmental windows that you are sunk “chipping away at granite at age 10” because you missed “writing in sand at age 2.” I was disconcerted that despite an entire chapter titled “No Labels, Yes Hope” with a solid sidebar about proper language use, the case studies/personal examples are full of terms like “low-functioning autism” and “has the mental capabilities of a five year old child.” Other case studies read distressingly like inspiration porn.
I found Breakthrough Parenting with Special Needs was a good book to skim, and a book that would be a better place for a new parent to start than many books about raising children with disabilities, but feel no desire to add it to the sources I reference regularly.
P.S. I think Judy Winter would be a very powerful speaker, and hope some day to get a chance to hear her tell Eric's story in person.
May 30, 2015
Not a bad book, but not one I'll be referencing on a regular basis. There are plenty of other books out there that are better written, better balanced, and are a little more attentive to the language they use to talk about people with disabilities.
I was a little surprised that a book written less than ten years ago still spouted the same nonsense that was taken as gospel thirty years ago: that there's a "window" of time when a child is young, in which developmental milestones must be met or else there's almost no hope for it. The metaphor used is "chipping at granite" at the age of 10 instead of "writing in sand" at the age of two. This has been proven to be false, and it was a bit off-putting to read in the book. There are plenty of other examples of similarly problematic thinking.
Much of the book reads like inspiration porn, which is unfortunate. However, the author herself states early on that she wanted to write a book about raising children with special needs that was upbeat, so I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to readers.
The advice in the book about how to become your child's advocate is quite good. There's plenty of useful information about IEPs, and how to maximise all the resources at your disposal. That being said, there are other books out there with that information that won't subject you to a barrage of "inspirational" stories about making it against all odds, or whatever.
On a personal note, I wish someone had taken away the author's ability to use italics willy-nilly. The book was littered with them, and as someone who has done some editing and proof-reading, it grated on me. Readers can lend their own emphasis to your sentences. That's what punctuation is for. Italics should be used sparingly, not multiple times per page throughout your book. In fact, the whole book could have stood another few passes by a competent proof-reader or editor to fix some pretty unfortunate syntax and other mistakes in several places.
I was a little surprised that a book written less than ten years ago still spouted the same nonsense that was taken as gospel thirty years ago: that there's a "window" of time when a child is young, in which developmental milestones must be met or else there's almost no hope for it. The metaphor used is "chipping at granite" at the age of 10 instead of "writing in sand" at the age of two. This has been proven to be false, and it was a bit off-putting to read in the book. There are plenty of other examples of similarly problematic thinking.
Much of the book reads like inspiration porn, which is unfortunate. However, the author herself states early on that she wanted to write a book about raising children with special needs that was upbeat, so I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise to readers.
The advice in the book about how to become your child's advocate is quite good. There's plenty of useful information about IEPs, and how to maximise all the resources at your disposal. That being said, there are other books out there with that information that won't subject you to a barrage of "inspirational" stories about making it against all odds, or whatever.
On a personal note, I wish someone had taken away the author's ability to use italics willy-nilly. The book was littered with them, and as someone who has done some editing and proof-reading, it grated on me. Readers can lend their own emphasis to your sentences. That's what punctuation is for. Italics should be used sparingly, not multiple times per page throughout your book. In fact, the whole book could have stood another few passes by a competent proof-reader or editor to fix some pretty unfortunate syntax and other mistakes in several places.
September 2, 2009
I read this book just before the author appeared at our local library. It is an amazing book, that empowers parents and caregivers of special needs children to help them reach for their dreams, talents and full potential. It is a good book for parents of special needs children to give to family members to educate them on emotional and physical challenges with which a family may deal. It isn't meant to be a panecea for parenting a special needs child, but as another tool, which may give parents ideas to help their child reach another goal.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews