Disabilities Books

I liked that "Choosing Home" is an unbiased view for those considering homeschooling their Asperger child. Hartnett even says in her book that homeschooling is not for everyone. I also liked that she touches on the importance of following our intuition about what is best for our child, and not being pressured into schooling choices based on what others think is best. Harnett does a great job of covering the socialization question, when it comes to homeschooling. She says, "The goal in home educating an AS youngster is to feed him varied social situations in manageable doses. Doses' of exposure to negative on reduced level giving the AS person the chance to actually hurdle them". I found her explanation really helpful, because you would think homeschooling an AS child would be the worst thing for them socially. Harnett also gives practical tips to those who are or will be homeschooling their child, and covers how to not face burnout.

Great book for helping decide when and why to take an Asperger's child out of school. This book covers many of the personal, psychological, or emotional "roadblocks" parents sometimes face when deciding whether or not to homeschool. Personal stories attest to family success in homeschooling children with Asperger's Syndrome. The nice thing about this book is that the author still allows parents to decide for themselves about whether or not to homeschool.

I am only one of the lucky students who have not only had the pleasure of reading this book, but I have had Mr. Yanoff as one of my teachers. I really only picked this book up because I enjoyed his teaching so much. As a future teacher I can honestly say that after having Mr. Yanoff as a teacher and after reading this book I think that I am ready to take on the challenges in the classroom. Thank you Mr. Yanoff for you wonderful class and for writing this book so I will never forget what you taught me. :)

As an inclusion facilitator, I highly recommend this book for the general education teacher. It is well organized, well written, and provides detailed but direct overviews about specific learning challenges, as well as accommodations that are viable in the classroom. I read the whole thing from cover to cover and am recommending to all of the teachers that I am working with.

This book was a shocking and compelling read. I highly suggest it for anyone in education...preservice teachers especially. This book highlights the effects of the last several decades and offers great suggestions to rectify the situation.

Compiled and edited by Belinda Williams, and now in an updated and revised second edition, Closing The Achievement Gap: A Vision For Changing Beliefs And Practices focuses on the necessity for educators becoming more sensitive to the worldviews of disadvantaged students and incorporating this awareness into their curriculums and teaching strategies for such students. The contributors persuasively argue that teachers, principals, and policy makers must learn about cultural perceptions of human development; apply this knowledge to professional development and comprehensive reform; and then aligning political and educational policies accordingly. Very strongly recommended reading for the frontline classroom teacher, Closing The Achievement Gap also offers specific suggestions for bridging the cultural divide through vocabulary instructions, opportunity-to-learn strategies, and school-level organizational reform.

Finally! All of the IEP writing resources I have needed are all in one book! This wonderful text is all you need to guide you in writing a complete and effective IEP! My favorite parts are the check lists and pages 209-210... the word banks! If you are looking for an easy fix to writing an IEP, this is not the book for you. It is designed to guide you through every step of the IEP process and it helps you organize your thoughts and ideas so you can write meaningful, useful goals and objectives for learners! I recommend this book to all educators, rookies AND Veterans! To the authors... THANKS FOR SHARING!!! :-)

Everything was good. Shipping was fast and easy and the book is in good condition!

There are many problems with this book when parents are trying to use it.

Just going through some of the Guide's features:

Each evaluator uses their own standards for custody evaluations and recommendations. Procedures for conducting custody evaluations vary from evaluator to evaluator.

Most evaluators don't use the latest data on psychological testing.

Evaluators often ask questions to get the answers they want when interviewing children.

Most evaluators don't have the time to do home observations.

Most evaluation reports, orders for evaluations, parenting plans are misspelled and full of hearsay. No one critiques evaluation reports.

Each jurisdiction uses its own precedents on special issues, including alternative family arrangements, medical problems, child sexual abuse, estrangement, and parental abduction.

Parent's will be mislead by "how things are supposed to be done"

This book was a great find! Provides very comprehensive information on conducting an evaluation, more than many of the other texts out there. The CD with sample forms was particularly helpful. We've already printed out many of them to use in our practice. This will be one of my mainstays in conducting work for families and the court.

"A Comprehensive Guide to Child Custody Evaluations" is outstanding! It does it all. This is the book for you if you are: 1. just getting involved with child custody cases or have dealt with these cases for years, 2. appointed by courts to do a custody evaluations, 3. an attorney involved in divorce cases where child custody is involved, 4. a judge dealing with these cases, 5. a litigant, or 6. in any school situation that deals with students and their parents in conflicts over the custody of their children. Dr. Joanna Rohrbaugh clearly sets out the roles each participant plays--judge, attorney, parent, evaluator-- in these disputes and makes clear each participant's obligations both legally and ethically. The language Dr. Rohrbaugh uses is clear as a bell and avoids legalese. If you click on the "Search inside this Book" to the left top of the listing page, you can download the first chapter and see how readable the text is. I found the book to be user friendly, and it comes with a CD with all sorts of useful down-loadable forms.

"A Comprehensive Guide" is just that, comprehensive. Every subject you can imagine is here. The book is well documented using the latest statistics as well as a vast reading list for anyone needing more information on any particular subject. Again, click on "Search inside this Book" and you will see the extensive Table of Contents and the index. All through the book, Rohrbaugh uses "boxes" with bullet points to make information immediately understandable (you can see one on page 23 of the Introduction).

The text helps you every step of the way. For instance, one difficult part of these cases is knowing where to begin. Chapter 12, "Conducting and Reviewing Evaluations," for example, starts with an explanation as to how to screen referrals from the first phone call an evaluator receives from the court. All the information then is summarized in Box 42 by bullets such as this partial example:

*Conflict of interest?
*Attorneys--character, competence, professional style
*Private case--ability to pay? Need for adjusted rates?
*State-pay case--sufficient hours pre-approved?

The steps Dr. Rohrbaugh takes you through and the types of issues you need to consider, are so detailed that a review like this can hardly scratch the surface. What you will find, as you study the book, is that she touches on nearly everything you need to consider in evaluating a child's home situation and makes clear how to write the evaulation, how to communicate with other professionals involved with the case, how to deal with diversity in family structures, how to deal with mental illness in parents, etc. I might mention, too, that Dr. Rohrbaugh lists the various types of payment an evaluator receives...she is very explicit which is a great help!

In many ways, the best part about this book is the clarity Dr. Rohrbaugh brings to the highly complex world of custody battles. She explains the "how to," but her narrative also explains the "why" and untangles for us how the courts and custody battles got to where they are. Dr. Rohrbaugh's common sense approach along with her deep expertise in the field, makes this book a necessity to anyone involved in court ordered child custody cases.

I've used this book or versions of it for a couple of years now...I've often been asked in regular science education classes or in neuroscience or biology situations, "How do we make this stuff accessible to those with disabilities?" Thank heavens for all the tremendous work done by this group and other innovative inventors who strive to put Deaf people like me and those with learning, visual, and orthopedic disabilities on an equal footing with everyone else. This book has more than served its purpose and paid back its price many times over. Teachers and professors are always amazed at the amount of work that is ongoing in this area, as well as the amount of money out there for developing computer technology for the disabled through the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Institute of Health, as well as individual companies.

We will never make this country totally computer literate if we exclude specific populations. As the push for inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools and acceptance of these students becomes stronger, it is absolutely critical that teachers be aware of both hardware and software that can make their curriula more accessible to both disabled and 'normal' students.

I fully endorse and encourage teaching universities and educators and librarians to make sure an updated version of this book is made available so that all students have an opportunity to achieve their highest abilities. Karen Sadler Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

The Alliance for Technology Access is a network of community-based resource centers dedicated to providing information and support services to children and adults with disabilities. Toward the furtherance of their mission that have produced Computer And Web Resources For People With Disabilities, now an expanded and thoroughly updated third edition. Computer hardware and software provide children and adults with an unprecedented opportunity to interact with the broader world of work, education, recreation, and socialization. Featured in this superb instructional reference are recommendations for making use of conventional, assistive and information technologies; illustrative personal stories of people using technology in their daily lives; details about state-of-the-art computer technology (including screen enhancements, speech synthesizers and customized keyboards); new and extensively updated listings of Internet resources, publications, support organizations, and vendors. Computer And Web Resources For People With Disabilities is an absolutely essential, core acquisition for personal, professional, academic, community library, health center, and community center disability resources library reference collections.

This book is a useful mix of theory and specific strategies, of reports on current research and examples of best practices. After reading it I think I understand better the dynamics of conflict in the classroom, and I also have some new things to try in crisis situations. It is a huge and ovewhelming book which most teachers would avoid, so I cut it apart into five sections. I handed the sections to teachers, who read them enthusiastically when they would never have tackled the whole book. It can be read like that, in sections, and not necessarily in order. The content is highly recommended but the format must be made teacher friendly!

Long and Morse have written and collected a panorama of articles which collectively define the state of the art in aproaches to troubled and troubling students. This book goes beyond the traditonal to the truly insightful interventions which focus holistically on the child or youth and his struggles within systems. Strategies for regular education and special education teachers are clearly described, and a list of resources in areas from sexual abuse to grief are inculuded. The book begins with a collection of short stories from contemporary literature in an intoduction to the reader into the minds and lives of children who are emotionally disturbed. Conflict in the Classroom has been a classic in the field for 30 years, and this 1996 edition is as worthy of the same honor as its fine earlier editions

A great up-to-date book for speech/language pathologists and reading specialists. Very in-depth. This book is probably too technical for individuals without specialized background.

Cutting edge research on the neuropsychology of reading disabilities. For neuropsychologists who puzzle over the "poor comprehenders" (v. those w/phonological processing problems), this volume will answer many questions.

The book gives glimpses into the lives of young people coping with a sibling's disability. The disabilities are varied and many issues are raised and addressed in a commonsense way.
I particularly like the inclusion of charts such as The Better Way Chart. It shows a Negative Behavior, then its Consequence, then a Positive Alternative and finally the Better Result.
The chapter headings give an idea of the scope of this book:
The Change
It's Always Been This Way
Shock, Denial, and Anger
Hate
Jealousy and Depression
Communication and a Change in Attitude
Forgiveness and Acceptance
Getting Back to Living
Sharing
Becoming Genuinely Involved
Dating: Special Time with Your Parents
Keep a Record of Your Life
How Do We Change Our Family's Habits?
Celebrate Often, It Creates Hope!
What If Your Brother or Sister Dies?
A Special Kind of Love

This book takes less than two weeks to obtain and has been in print for seven years! It is for anyone facing a physical challenge or disability - even a temporary one - involving a close family member, especially a sibling. Written in clear, concise terms, this book is great for brothers and sisters, parents, care-givers, grands, aunts, uncles, an all close family of young people who face disability. Each chapter deals with a challenge and then has little stories of young people coping well with and through the challenge. Could be read to young children, too, but has a readability level of an average newspaper text. Written from the sibling of a person with a disability point-of-view. Great companion book to Ratto's first book COPING WITH BEING PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED. Both are super for the whole family - even the members of your medical team. Hardcover - excellent buy, written by a parent of three, two of whom have disabilities - one congenital and one trauma/accident. Author is an educator and headmaster of a private school. The information contained is not as much medical or scientific on each disease, but rather tells how to deal on a day-to-day basis with common issues when coping with and through disabling experiences. Over ninety disabilities are depicted between both of Ratto's books. They end with hope in the form of suggestions on how to live well!

The O'Sullivans are a family living in Ireland in the 1930s. Mother and Father and Michael and Brigid are often at their wits end dealing with the mischievous but loveable twins, Liam and Francie.

Hilda Van Stockum brings her characteristic wit, understanding of children and enchantment to the simplicity of family life. It is chock full of delightful adventures and sub-plots from a bygone era.

Brush up on your brogue and prepare for a delightful read-aloud for the whole family.

The sequels - *Francie on the Run* and *Pegeen* are wonderful too. *Pegeen* is our favorite.

Great story to read aloud to kids. Characters are spunky and positive. We went through the three books of this series non-stop.