Disability-and-Health Books

The book is easy to read and takes the reader through the various stages of stroke recovery - the pain, the anger, the depression, the frustration, the acceptance and the gradual, very gradual road to recovery. Covering the pertinent and the practical aspects of strokes the book is amazingly written in a light hearted, and even entertaining style, for such a serious subject. It's easy to pick out relevant sections at different stages of recovery. I can highly recommend this book to both stroke sufferers but especially to their nearest and dearest as a way to try to understand and help the sufferer. There is hope - even when, at first, everything appears desperate. Read, enjoy and recover.

I purchased this book for my father who suffered from a stroke. Physically, he recovered rather quick, however mentally he's been suffering from a bit of depression. Most post stroke books he purchased focused on physical recovery and it was difficult for my dad to relate. David Hinds tells his own story and has given my dad a bit of hope for true recovery, that things will resume as they once were but only with time. This book has taught him the value of patience, patience, and more patience. I would definitely recommend this book to stroke victims in need of hope.

This is a de rigeur read for those facing up to a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Ms. Webster tackles the problems of having MS with a searing intelligence and in depth analysis based on her own personal experiences. Her thoughts struck a chord with my own experiences and gave me a lot of help in coming to terms with my own diagnosis. She addresses not only the personal experience of having MS but also widens the scope to include its effects of the people around the MS diagnosee and how society in general view people with the disease. She doesn't dodge any of the difficult issues and writes in a clear and easy to read manner. I cannot applaud her efforts highly enough.

In the late 1960s, twenty-three year old Barbara Webster began to experience problems with walking, with speech, with fatigue, and a host of other problems. When examining doctors and neurologists could find no explanation for her problem, Ms. Webster began experiencing hostility from people who believed that her problems were psychosomatic problems brought on by stress and poor choices, if not mere malingering.

Then, some fifteen years later, she found a new doctor who correctly diagnosed her problem, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Now that she had a diagnosis, she still had a problem. Working through her disease, she found that the people around her complicated her journey. This book is a narrative of her journey, and it was a rocky road indeed. She experienced hostility, indifference, disapproval, pity and many other emotions, and all of these from strangers, friends, family and even lovers.

I must admit to feeling inadequate to write this review. Ms. Webster did not intend this book to be a "how to" for others, but merely the story of her experiences. For her, anything that got in the way of the acceptance of her disease, with all its changes to her self-image, was an obstacle in her path. Certainly religion was no help. ("For me, religion is a means to avoid seeing clearly and to shelter oneself from reality. It seems to me that religion is often used as a cover for, even a promotion of, hypocritical and dishonest behavior.")

This is the story of one woman's confrontation and acceptance of a reality that includes having a chronic disease and being disabled in the United States. My wife, with her recent diagnosis of MS, did not find much in common with Ms. Webster's views, but then again MS is a highly individual disease, striking no two people in the same way. For myself, I found this book enlightening and thought provoking.

I have attended Dr Mansfield's clinic in England and know that his methods for treating rheumatoid arthritis are effective. I no longer need anti-inflammatory drugs and as long as I avoid things to which I am allergic, I have little or no arthritis. He is a well respected doctor and I thoroughly recommend this book. I had bought the previous edition and it helped me regain a normal life. This newer book is even more comprehensive and can help many people. I recommend it to everyone I meet who has R.A.

Dr. Mansfield, a British allergy specialist, guides the reader to carefully and scientifically test for food allergies and their effect upon rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. He explains clearly each step to be taken and how to evaluate food allergy reactions. With this book, I have been able to understand how food allergies were causing serious arthritis symptoms and then take action to reduce pain and other symptoms.

I think this is a good tool for my teen to better understand how he is wired. His short circuit is now under construction.

Asperger Download is a unique treasure written from both the perspective of the young man with asperger syndrome (Damian) and commented upon by his mother's (Josie) perspective. It is an alphabetical guidebook through the many topics and areas young men experience from (A)Anxiety (B)Bullying (C)Chat Rooms to (X)Xplanation (Y)You (Z)Zits. It's full of useful hints written in a fun and straightforward style. Some suggestions are fun and creative and some handle serious issues such as harrassment, revenge and suicide. Having the mother/son perspective highlights different angles of subjects making this a terrific book for both mother and son. Another nice touch at the end of the book is some poetry by the thoughtful Damian. I highly recommend this book for young men with aspergers who are entering their teen years. It's an easy to follow A-Z guidebook that touches on various aspects teen boys face. A Is for Autism F Is for Friend: A Kid's Book for Making Friends with a Child Who Has AutismJoanna Keating-Velasco, author

Many teachers are fond of saying that, "computers are just another educational tool." This implies that there is no computer revolution in education. A black board or a pencil is very similar to a computer. What they miss is how those tools changed education. Changes in pedagogy did not happen because educators wanted to change education. They happened because humans interacted differently with their environment because of these tools. Assistive Technology: Essential Human Factors, particularly chapters five and nine, helps educators assess how to evaluate the effectiveness of assistive technology and computers. Before you create your lesson plan or schedule an IEP meeting, you should know what an assessment of human factors would tell you about your educational plans.
And if , by chance, you think this is the responsibility of your school district educational technologists, just ask them what they know about the human factors involved in using technology.
This is an excellent book to begin to explore why some assistive technology works and some fails.

This book provides guidelines to follow when working with clients who use assistive technology. It is an excellent resource for all present and future Speech-Language Pathologists and all those who interact with users of assistive technology. A must have reference for your professional library!

What a wonderful book. Well organized and full of useful information. A 'must-read' for anyone who is involved with individuals with autism. I couldn't live without this book.

The first thing to notice about this first of its kind book is the copyright date: 2005. It's completely up to date on a subject that very much needs to be up to date. The second thing to notice is the tag line on the cover: "500+ entries for parents and professionals." This is a good book for counselors, parents, grandparents, ministers and other people who are not specialists but who find themselves called upon to help people with concerns about autism.

The third thing to notice is the long list of contributors, that is, the professionals who wrote the entries. Professor Emeritus John Neisworth and Associate Professor Pamela S. Wolfe of The Pennsylvania State University are the editors of the book and the authors of many of the entries. However there are (I counted them) 123 other professionals who penned the mini essays that make up the bulk of the book. They come from all over the world and from a number of relevant disciplines. They are doctors, academics, therapists, teachers, heads of institutions, etc. Clearly this is an authoritative work.

Each entry is focused on how it relates to autism. For example the entry for "depression," signed by Britta Saltonstall, allows that "Study has demonstrated the co-occurrence of depression and autism." Note the careful terminology: "co-occurrence" instead of any other sort of linkage. However in their entry on the "Premack principle," Neisworth and Wolfe don't relate "Grandma's Law" (to do the less agreeable activity before the more agreeable one) directly to autism, noting only that therapists in general might want to require it of their clients.

Some of the language is technical and some of it is highly technical, and almost all of it is carefully hedged and qualified. The influence of mainstream psychology, including behaviorism and cognitive psychology is evident. I wish that, in addition, interpretations from evolutionary psychology were more in evidence. I don't think we can hope to understand disorders like autism outside of an evolutionary perspective.

In this context it is strange to read that "natural environment" refers to home and community and everyday activities like eating and shopping. It's hard to argue with this, but the implication seems to be that other environments might be seen as "contrived." When I think about it, this perspective might be a hint about the cause of the recent dramatic increase in the instance of autism: green fields and forest lands, river beds and ocean beaches, savanna and woodland, may indeed be, for today's people, "contrived" rather than natural environments. And the "natural environment" of concrete streets and homes constructed with manmade materials and artificially made foods is what we are stuck with. Personally I think some types of autism may be better understood as alternative strategies for coping with the world; however, the more severe manifestations are clearly disorders, some of them disabling.

Also apparent in the book is how autism is viewed today. Once thought to be a disease caused by "refrigerator mothers" (Bruno Bettelheim)--women of cold affect who emotionally and mentally isolated their children--autism is now seen as a "spectrum of disorders" whose etiology "is not clear, but accumulating evidence suggests a neurological basis that may relate to inheritable factors" with "environmental stressors" also "implicated." Under "autism spectrum disorder (ASD)" we find that the terminology is synonymous with "pervasive developmental disorder" (PDD) which includes Rhett syndrome, Asperger syndrome and others. There is a "catch all" category called "pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified" (PDD-NOS).

The book has 22 pages of references including ones from all four editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (an evolving compendium). Even Bruno Bettelheim's now infamous The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self is referenced. However nothing appears by Temple Grandin, who is probably the world's most famous, and one of its most accomplished, autistics. By contrast, in another book on autism, Autism Spectrum Disorders (2004) by Chantal Sicile-Kira, there are eight references to Grandin's work. So, even though this book is copyrighted in 2005, it may not be as entirely up to date as might be expected.

There are two excellent appendices, one on "Screening and Assessment Tools and Curricula" and another on research, therapeutic, and informational organizations. Each entry in these appendices is annotated and explained. Addresses, both snail and email, and sometimes phone numbers are included.

This book is so expensive. I would hope it would be cheaper. Just a thought.

I bought this book years ago when it first came out. It remains my favorite text on multicultural psychology, and it has plenty of clinical insights that I've never found elsewhere. Apparently, it didn't become a classic, but it SHOULD have, along with it's companion, "Meanings of Madness." I think it is just a little too brilliant and insightful to fit easily into the standard, stale multicultural zeitgeist.

One of my favorite sections was on dissociation, yoga and meditation. If I'm not mistaken, the author's thinking in this area remains about 3 steps ahead of eveybody else's. The insights around psychosis were remarkable, too.

You can pick up a standard text on multicultural clinical practice (e.g. Sue and Sue) and get all the standard basics of multicultural clinical psychology. Sue and Sue (and perhaps some other authors now) have written a fine textbook. But I look at their standard text as a very nice and reliable Buick, while Castillo's text is a classic Ferarri.

Yes, this text is currently waaayyyy too expensive. I'm not sure why. But then again, it is great stuff, worth the price of admission. Ignore the price; ignore the publication date. If you love multicultural clinical psychology, and you want to take your understanding to the next level, then treat yourself.

In the last chapter (Chapter 15), Castillo summarizes his contribution as follows: "In this book, I have taken an essentially anthropological viewpoint of mental illness, utilizing anthropology's deliberately holistic perspective and methodology, combining neurobiological, psychological, social, and cultural theories and data. I have specifically attempted to embrace a holistic, client-centered approach to assessment and diagnosis. In client-centered psychiatry, rather than diagnosis and treatment being concerned with a disease, diagnosis and treatment are concerned with an individual who has thoughts, emotions, a social context, and a set of cultural schemas. In this final chapter, I will define a client-centered model for psychopathology with an emphasis on the relationship between culture, brain plasticity, and mental illness."

The above summary is true. The author thus provides a "client-centered" framework for understanding culture and mental illness. I'm not sure if the author's insights led to the framework, or if the framework led to insights. Either way, the book delivers interesting, thoughtful, and important ideas.

This is a very detailed book and is good except that it would be nice if it showed cause and effect of some abnormal hand functions. It strictly pertains to normal function.

"Developmental & Functional Hand Grasps" is the most valuable book on this topic published in recent years. First, it has certainly met the objectives stated in the introduction. I found it to be an exciting but easy read, with logical organization, comprehensive inclusion of theoretical approaches, and exactly the right kinds of photos and drawings. How great that the photos gave examples of so many different Activities of Daily Living, common in our lives, but seldom depicted. I especially enjoyed the Descriptions, Interesting Information, and Functional Uses. The presentation of the hand from physiological, developmental, and functional perspectives has not been done as fully but simply by other authors. Finally, the book will be useful as an important resource to students, clinicians, and researchers alike.

When you have a disability, traveling isn't easy. As the Disabilities Host on BellaOnline, I found this book to be very useful. It needs to be updated, but I think it is still beneficial and worth buying.

Although this book is also useful for senior and families with young children, we use it to learn which areas in the national parks are accessible and were private vehicles are restricted. It also advises when special passes can be obtained.

Visitors to restricted areas of the parks must ride in busses, special provisions are often made for the disabled (usually requires a state diabled permit for your vehicle) allowing you to drive your private vehicle in these areas. This book gives you advance notice of when you need a special permit for this privilege. In some cases, the book has provided us with information that is not easily available from any other source. This makes the park much more accessible for the disabled.

The only reason this is not a 5 star book is that the book is 8 years old and does not cover the newer parks.

This was probably the best thing hat happened to me just after I was diagnosed with a chronic illness in 2002, at 14. There are no empty words - like "You can't let the disease rule your life" or "It doesn't have to define who you are"- which is exactly the last thing a scared, angry and sad teenager needs. On the contrary, the book shows how much your life may change, that sometimes it won't be easy to be accepted by friends and boyfriends, who might not believe that you're tired or feeling sad or in pain. However for the very first time I understood that there are plenty of people out there who felt just as lost and aprehensive as I did and still managed to be "normal" (feeling just like everyone else is pretty important when we're growing up)and HAPPY! For the first time I didn't have anyone saying that maybe I was going to get better and THEN be happy but that I could have a great life even if I was sick!! The author covers everything from your relationship with your doctors, with your parents (and the different reactions they may have), your social life and even your sex life, all in a Q and A format. She uses the most popular questions teens have to discuss the themes in a sensitive, judge free way. It's totaly worthy!!

This book is the best I've seen for teens coping with chronic illness. Since there really is no comparable book written just for teens with IBD, this book should be required reading for teens and young adults that are newly diagnosed or having trouble coping with the difficulties of chronic illness. Dr. Kaufman reaches teenagers' most important concerns through easily understood questions and answers