Special Kids Need Special Parents

Advice, encouragement, and inspiration for parents raising children with special needs

Parents of children with special needs face unique emotional and practical challenges every day. These issues are seldom addressed by the medical community—and parents’ most compelling questions remain unanswered.

Judith Loseff Lavin was thrust into the world of children’s hospitals and special needs when her daughter was born with a cleft lip and palate. In Special Kids Need Special Parents, she draws on interviews with health care professionals, nationally recognized authorities, and other parents of children with special needs to give readers the practical guidance and comfort they crave. Raising a child with special needs can be a daunting task, but it can also be a meaningful journey—helping parents uncover reserves of strength, wisdom and love they never knew they had.

Parents will get advice on:
• Boosting their child’s self-esteem
• Coping with chronic pain, sleep problems and frequent hospitalizations
• Dealing with your feelings of grief and anger
• Choosing a therapist
• Finding suitable, reliable childcare
• How to cope with teasing
• The impact a child with special needs can have on a marriage, siblings, and grandparents
• Finding cosmetic help, including hair replacement
• Prosthetic and orthotic optionsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. How Could This Happen?
1. Grieving
2. Where Is God? Trying to Make Sense of Things
Part II. Your Special Family
3. The Special Marriage
4. Special Needs Affects Grandparents, Too
5. Well-Siblings
Part III. Better Behavior
6. Helping Your Child Sleep
7. Parenting Acceptable Behavior
8. Understanding Developmental Stages
Part IV. What's He Thinking?
9. How to Deal with Teasing and Other Hurtful Behaviors
10. Helping Your Child Grow Confidence
11. Self-Destruction: Can It Be Prevented?Part V. Your Special Team
12. The Pressure! Hospitalization
13. Help!
14. Counseling: The Right Therapy, The Right Therapist
Part VI. Modern Miracles
15. Helping Your Child with Chronic Pain
16. Answering Prosthetic and Orthotic Questions
17. Wheelchairs and Mobility Aids
18. Questions and Answers on Hair Replacement
19. The Art of Camouflage
Part VII. Your Schools, Your Rights, Your Child's Future
20. School Questions: The Education of Children with Special Needs
21. The Power of Advocacy
22. Transitions and Trusts
A Note from the Author
Advocacy Letters
Resources
IndexJudith Loseff Lavin has written for the Chicago Sun-Times and many magazines, including Newsweek. A graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in secondary teaching, Ms. Lavin is involved with several organizations that promote the welfare and progress of children with special needs.