You know that your child has a disability. What do you know about your child's disability - specifically?

How does the disability affect the child's school performance? In what areas?  Can the child's disability be minimized or "cured" through intensive remediation? What are the child's strengths? What tools can be used to minimize the impact of the disability?

Step One of your Game Plan is to become an expert about your child's disability. Read at least one book about your child's disability - several books are better. You will find several good books about children's disabilities on this page - let us know if you find a helpful book so we can include it.

Legacy of the Blue Heron: Living with Learning Disabilities by Harry Sylvester.

This book is a story of persistence in the face of misunderstanding, a story of survival by patient perseverance through years of puzzlement and frustration, and much more. Harry Sylvester shares with us many lessons he learned the hard way, during the years in which our society was discovering what learning disabilities are.

Maybe You Know My Kid : A Parent's Guide to Identifying, Understanding, and Helping Your Child With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder by Mary Cahill Fowler.

Updated edition of Mary Fowler's candid and dramatic guide for parents just like her, whose children have Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder . . . describes the latest scientific advances and clinical breakthroughs and discusses the recent changes in the education of children suffering from AD/HD. Examines the school's role in assessing children, practical guidelines and suggestions for improving educational performance. More information.

This practical book includes practical techniques that promote on-task behavior and language arts, & multi- sensory instruction strategies to maintain attention and keep students involved. How to Reach & Teach ADD/ADHD Children.

Identifies five "difficult" child personality types--sensitive, withdrawn, defiant, inattentive, and active/aggressive--explains development from the child's perspective -- offers strategies to turn difficulties into positive personality traits. 

Is your child underachieving? Unhappy?  In this practical book, Dr. Hallowell explains the biological basis for many childhood behavioral problems - sadness, inattentiveness, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder - & discusses appropriate treatments for these and other childhood problems. Ned Hallowell is the co-author of Driven to Distraction and Answers to Distraction, 

This  definitive book describes the various subtypes of ADD/ADHD, from the hyperactive search for high stimulation to the floating daydreaming quality of inattentiveness. Hallowell and Ratey discuss how ADD/ADHD is distinguishable from "unacceptable behavior" and what medication and treatment techniques work best. Also available in audio tape format.

Driven to Distraction (2 audio tapes)

A very good intro for parents of TS kids. A compilation of articles by parents, doctors and educators, this book is a solid introduction for families who have one or more children with Tourettes Syndrome. At the end of each chapter is a collection of comments by parents on how they have learned to cope with TS, and their disappointments and triumphs."
Includes a chapter about special education law by parent attorney Sonja Kerr.   

The Child With Special Needs : Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth, by Stanley Greenspan, Serena, Weider, Robin Simon. 

Covers several disabilities including cerebral palsy, autism, retardation, ADD, and language problems. Offers specific ways to help all special needs children reach their full intellectual and emotional potential. Learn more about The Child with Special Needs. 

The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome: Advice, Support, Insight, and Inspiration by Patricia Romanowski Bashe, et al;

The authors, both mothers of AS children, delve into the world of pervasive developmental disorders with clarity, warmth, and depth. Learn about this disorder from the onset of symptoms through adulthood. This book grew out of the OASIS site (Online Asperger Syndrome Information and Support) which has furthered AS research.

"This book gave me a clear understanding of my childs needs at home and at school. After reading this book, I had a clear picture of what was going on and what path I needed to take." Learn more about Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems

“Words Fail Me: How Language Works and What Happens When It Doesn't” by Priscilla Vail. 

In "Words Fail Me,” Priscilla Vail explores the links between reading, writing, listening and speaking, how these skills are learned, and what happens in the process breaks down. 

Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals by Tony Attwood and Lorna Wing. (1997) 

An easy-to-read book about Asperger's Syndrome for parents, educators, clinicians.  Covers the major characteristics and how to understand people who have of Aspergers. 

One parent writes: "I didn't realize how much I could depend on a book! It's like an instruction manual for children with Asperger's Syndrome. I will pass it on to each of my son's teachers every year . . .Thank you, Tony Attwood!" 

A child psychiatrist wrote: The degree of humanism and respect for people with this syndrome, and emphasis on their strengths and possible futures and careers is outstanding." 

"In Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph Over Autism, the process of recovery is a sort of miracle, but documented, witnessed. One that can be duplicated. One that offers hope, not to all, but to some. And that is the best miracle of all." - The Women's Review of Books 

The Misunderstood Child: A Parent's Guide to Understanding and Coping with Your Child's Disabilities (Time Books, August 1998) 

This book is on our "must-read" list for parents and professionals. Includes excellent information about psychological, emotional, and social development; up-to-date information about evaluations; and effective treatment strategies to use at home and at school.

The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction by Carol Kranowitz.

This book describes the often conflicting symptoms of children with SI dysfunction. You learn that these children can be diagnosed at an early age and receive OT therapy when it is most effective. You learn many simple things that parents and teachers can do at home and in the classroom to improve the functioning of SI kids.

The Everything Parent's Guide To Sensory Integration Disorder by Terri Mauro.

Get the Right Diagnosis, Understand Treatments, And Advocate for Your Child.

In this parent guide you'll find the answers you need as you search for ways to help your child. This reassuring handbook examines various forms of treatment and therapy, and provides professional advice for helping children with SID succeed in school, at home, and with friends.