Family & Relationships : Child Care

For most people, family life means both love and compromise. Within families where one or more members have Asperger Syndrome (AS), this compromise becomes yet more crucial to mutual happiness. In this book, the McCabe family discuss how Patrick's AS affects each relationship. Estelle, Patrick's wife, talks about how she has adjusted her speech and social life in order to live peacefully with her husband. In turn, Patrick discusses how he has learnt to accommodate Estelle's needs and his teenage son's growing independence to his desire for strict routine and clear communication. Jared explains how his father's AS has affected growing up and describes ways in which issues can be resolved without either losing face with his peers or upsetting his parents. Focusing positively on the relationships that are both the most important and the most difficult to maintain, this book is invaluable for anyone closely involved with AS. more...

Price: $18.95

The law impacts on every aspect of our lives, our personal lives included. This book seeks to go beyond lovers' quarrels to examine the rights of kids, the legal consequences of separation or divorce, contraception, sexual assault, same-sex relationships and other legal issues. more...

Price: $8.95

Maud Deckmar tells a touching and honest story of living with Fred, her eldest child, who has autism and an intellectual disability. She recounts here the great struggles and sorrows as well as the love and happiness she has experienced from his early childhood to adulthood. She vividly describes the feelings of grief after Fred's diagnosis, the sense of loss when old friends distance themselves and the pervasive feelings of guilt about putting her son into care and admitting that she can no longer cope. She stresses the importance of communication and cooperation between parents and carers, and encourages them to find ways to provide the best possible support, based on specific needs and means available. Her unflinching account will resonate with and give support, comfort and courage to parents in a similar situation. It will also provide useful insights for carers and professionals in schools, care homes and institutions to better understand the feelings and experiences of families affected by disability. more...

Price: $18.95

The Natural Child makes a compelling case for a return to attachment parenting, a child-rearing approach that has come naturally for parents throughout most of human history. In this insightful guide, parenting specialist Jan Hunt links together attachment parenting principles with child advocacy and homeschooling philosophies, offering a consistent approach to raising a loving, trusting, and confident child. The Natural Child dispels the myths of "tough love," building baby's self-reliance by ignoring its cries, and the necessity of spanking to enforce discipline. Instead, the book explains the value of extended breast-feeding, family co-sleeping, and minimal child-parent separation. Homeschooling, like attachment parenting, nurtures feelings of self-worth, confidence, and trust. The author draws on respected leaders of the homeschool movement such as John Taylor Gatto and John Holt, guiding the reader through homeschool approaches that support attachment parenting principles. Being an ally to children is spontaneous for caring adults, but intervening on behalf of a child can be awkward and surrounded by social taboo. The Natural Child shows how to stand up for a child's rights effectively and sensitively in many difficult situations. The role of caring adults, points out Hunt, is not to give children "lessons in life"-but to employ a variation of The Golden Rule, and treat children as we would like to have been treated in childhhood. more...

Price: $14.95

'This book is brilliant. I've read it through, re-read sections and still want to pick it up and dip into it. The approach is very refreshing - easy to read, practical and realistic... So many parents are going to breathe a sigh of relief when they read this book.'. - Julie Connell, Educational Psychologist. For parents of children with Asperger Syndrome ordinary parenting just doesn't always do it - AS kids need a different approach. Brenda is mother to thirteen-year-old Kenneth, author of Asperger Syndrome, the Universe and Everything, and since his diagnosis at the age of eight she has gathered together the parenting ideas and tips that have had a positive effect on Kenneth's life. Brenda discusses parents' reaction to their child's AS and gives advice on how better to understand 'Planet Asperger'. This book helps parents to respond positively to the challenge of AS and find the 'treasure' in their child's way of being. more...

Price: $18.95