Raising Someone Special

Imagine everything that you thought you knew about life being challenged. You now question the best way to do things. You look at what makes things easy or difficult with a new perspective. Now imagine that the person responsible for this is your child. Typically, that is not abnormal. We always look at things with a sense of wonder and magic when our children are small. Now consider what it would be like if this stage of life never stopped. This book is about my experiences navigating life with my daughter starting with first discovering that she was someone special as an infant through her high school years. We faced many challenges. Some of them came from others while some challenges were self-inflicted. When dealing with someone who perpetually sees things from a different perspective, you have to adjust your responses. What you don't realize as a parent is that others do not understand the importance of operating from that alternative perspective. You will never look at things the same again. They have never had someone totally melt down over something that to most is seemingly simple. They do not understand that the things that most normal people value are not the same things that some with disabilities value. It is my hope with this book that others will get a glimpse into the lives of those who are special and the people who love and care for them.

Imagine everything that you thought you knew about life being challenged. You now question the best way to do things. You look at what makes things easy or difficult with a new perspective. Now imagine that the person responsible for this is your child. Typically, that is not abnormal. We always look at things with a sense of wonder and magic when our children are small. Now consider what it would be like if this stage of life never stopped. This book is about my experiences navigating life with my daughter starting with first discovering that she was someone special as an infant through her high school years. We faced many challenges. Some of them came from others while some challenges were self-inflicted. When dealing with someone who perpetually sees things from a different perspective, you have to adjust your responses. What you don't realize as a parent is that others do not understand the importance of operating from that alternative perspective. You will never look at things the same again. They have never had someone totally melt down over something that to most is seemingly simple. They do not understand that the things that most normal people value are not the same things that some with disabilities value. It is my hope with this book that others will get a glimpse into the lives of those who are special and the people who love and care for them.

The author's goal is to help the missionary, prospective missionary, and mission organization raise prayer and financial support with as little effort as possible, in as short a time as possible, while solidifying friendships with partners.

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.

""Parents of children with special needs face unique challenges. This helpful book gives the kind of practical help, information about resources, and spiritual encouragement you need.

Raising positive, drug-free kids in a negative world is not easy, but in the long run it's easier than raising negative ones. Now, the bestselling motivational author reveals his simple prescription for success with children, step by positive step. Drawing on the most comprehensive measurable results ever made available to an author – his "I CAN" course, taught in more than five thousand schools with more than three million participants – and his own successes and failures as a parent, Zig Ziglar offers sensible guidelines on: Praise and encouragement: Children can hardly have too much of the right kinds. Look for the good in your children and you will find it. Drugs: The latest statistics and a winning approach to teaching kids to say no, starting with cigarettes. Time: Quality time is not enough. Kids need a lot of time with parents (and virtually none with TV). Discipline: The loving parent will not shirk it. Sex and romance: Be frank, be firm, be realistic. And much more, in a book that is both refreshingly old-fashioned and startlingly new. Previous edition: 0-34541-022-x

This work...applies in a concrete manner the profound spiritual wisdom of Orthodoxy to the realities of the common life and, in this case, the raising of children. Must reading for Orthodox Christian pastors, teachers and parents.--Fr. Stanley Harakas

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.