Resources

My recommendations for parents, caregivers and advocates of children with hidden disabilities.
- Melanie

From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd Edition

Teaches you how to plan, prepare, organize and get quality special education services. In this comprehensive, easy-to-read book, you will learn your childs disability and educational needs, how to create a simple method for organizing your childs file and devising a master plan for your childs special education. You will understand parent-school conflict, how to create paper trails and effective letter writing.

​This book includes dozens of worksheets, forms and sample letters that you can tailor to your needs. Whether you are new to special education or an experienced advocate this book will provide a clear roadmap to effective advocacy for your child. You will use this book again and again.

Focus At Will

Music to boost concentration and focus.

Focus@will is a music service based on human neuroscience. It helps you focus, reduce distractions, maintain your productivity and retain information when working, studying, writing and reading. The scientifically tested technology behind focus@will has been shown to alter brain activity toward a state that is more conducive to productivity.

Genomind

A personalized medicine company, comprised of innovative researchers and expert leaders in psychiatry and neurology. At their core is a belief in the combined power of a caring clinician and scientific research. They work hard every day to bring science to psychiatry and to create new innovations that will help clinicians improve their patients’ lives.

Their Genecept™ Assay is a comprehensive, simple to use saliva-based tool for clinicians to understand the genetic markers that best inform patient responses to different psychiatric treatments.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

A bestselling classic that includes time-tested methods to solve common problems and build foundations for lasting relationships, including innovative ways to:
  • Cope with your child's negative feelings, such as frustration, anger, and disappointment
  • Express your strong feelings without being hurtful
  • Engage your child's willing cooperation
  • Set firm limits and maintain goodwill
  • Use alternatives to punishment that promote self-discipline
  • Understand the difference between helpful and unhelpful praise
  • Resolve family conflicts peacefully

Enthusiastically praised by parents and professionals around the world, the down-to-earth, respectful approach of Faber and Mazlish makes relationships with children of all ages less stressful and more rewarding.

Key Ministry

Helping churches pursue kids with mental illness, trauma or developmental disabilities and their families. Church4EveryChild is Key Ministry’s “official” blog. The blog’s principal author and editor is Dr. Steve Grcevich, Key’s Director of Strategic Initiatives and Medical Director. Readers will find lots of content on “hot topics” in the field of disability ministry and disability inclusion, along with extensive resources on ministry to kids with mental illness, trauma and developmental disorders and their families

Nextdoor

Neighbors create private groups for their neighborhoods where they can ask questions, get to know one another, and exchange local advice and recommendations. Nextdoor is a website community and has a smart phone app.

PATH International

Promotes equine-assisted activities and therapies for individuals with special needs. This non-profit organization helps nearly 62,000 children and adults--including nearly 4,000 veterans and active-duty military personnel--with physical, cognitive and emotional challenges find strength and independence through the power of the horse each year. Path International has over 4,600 certified instructors and equine specialists, 866 member centers and more than 7,600 members around the globe 
I came to know about PATH International through our friends at Grace Rides.

Relationship Development Intervention -  RDIconnect

Offers treatment programs for individuals and families that face Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental difficulties. It is often described as “the missing piece of the puzzle” in the treatment of ASD because instead of focusing on symptoms, our program works to activate the grow-seeking drive essential to remediating the universal impairments associated with ASD.

RDI®  programs teach parents how to guide their child to seek out and succeed in truly reciprocal relationships, while addressing key core issues such as motivation, communication, emotional regulation, episodic memory, rapid attention-shifting, self awareness, appraisal, executive functioning, flexible thinking and creative problem solving. 

RDI® is a next generation approach to autism and developmental disability intervention that is based on the latest scientific research into the human brain. All brains, including those of people with developmental disabilities, can adapt and learn to function in a “normal” way because the brain is capable of adapting to any challenge; It just needs the right guidance. However, the brain will only grow and adapt if it is challenged to do so.

Teaching the Tiger

Provides information to teachers and parents to aid in the teaching of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette Syndrome or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

The Explosive Child

Screaming, swearing, crying, hitting, kicking, spitting, biting...these are some of the challenging behaviors we see in kids who are having difficulty meeting our expectations. These behaviors often leave parents feeling frustrated, angry, overwhelmed, and desperate for answers.

Dr. Ross Greene helps you understand why and when your child does these things and how to respond in ways that are nonpunitive, nonadversarial, humane, and effective.

Toppling the Idol of Ideal

As parents raising children with these and other brain chemistry differences, we need compassionate voices who can listen and help us with practical issues: 
  • Fighting despair, judgment, and educational challenges
  • Deciding about medications
  • Handling the labeling of children with behavioral challenges
  • Negotiating the responses of schools and the church

Perhaps most importantly, we need assurance that our children will be okay and that we will survive spiritually as we grapple with the daily challenges.