Disabled Books

I do not know many people who would turn down three million to maintain ones integrity. As one who serves persons with disabilities, I was so moved and inspired and motivated by the book as I seek to advocate for my clients. Marilyn J. Trechter

This book touched me on a very personal level, because I too have suffered discrimination. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to understand the difficulties facing those with disabilities, especially how the perception of soceity is often worse than the disability. The book does a good job at showing the many obstacles facing someone who does want to fight for their rights and how frustrating it can be. I applaude Mr. LaBonte for refusing to settle so that a precedent has been set and also for then telling his story.

An outstanding example of the philosophy of Viktor Frankl (author of "Man's Search for Meaning" and others). In essence, Frankl believes that we can transcend any adversity if we find the meaning that makes us unique.

This story was gripping as any suspense fiction, not only because it was filled with the tension of David v. Goliath coupled with serious illness and more--a legal system that too often re-victimizes the victims--but Alan Labonte epitomizes the philosophy of Frankl. He rose above a frightening and seriously disabling disease to become a champion for infinite numbers of others. That gave meaning to the disease--an opportunity to do something for others.

He would not have succeeded in this quest if not for a wonderful lawyer, David Rappaport of Boston, who clearly is a very special person as well as an extraordinary attorney.

"A Million Reasons" describes in often fascinating detail how Alan Labonte, the general manager of a Boston law firm who was fired after he developed multiple scleroris, fought the good fight against his remarkably arrogant employers and, despite the long odds and with the tenacious support of his lawyer, won, even when the case was appealed. It was never a sure thing, and Labonte even turned down a settlement offer of $3 million because he knew that by accepting it he would be agreeing to never speak publicly about his case. When the long court fight was over, he wound up with an award of closer to $2 million, so basically he forfeited $1 million in damages.

"What I have kept is my freedom to speak out, and what I gained was even more precious," Labonte explained. "I've now got a million reasons to tell it like it really is and to join in the continuing fight across the country for the rights of Americans with disabilities."

This is an inspirational tale told by a man who had deep reserves of ethics, determination and pride. And it's a good read, too.

Put on a pot of coffee. "A Million Reasons: Why I Fought for the Rights of the Disabled" will leave you burning the midnight oil. Set against a backdrop of the Boston skyline and the ritzy offices of a prestigious Boston law firm, "A Million Reasons" has it all - drama, intrigue, adventure, and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit.

In this gutsy tell-all, Alan Labonte and co-author Brock Brower aptly weave the compelling narrative of Labonte's valiant fight against his former employer, its unexpected protraction into a 5-year legal battle, and its culmination into a precedent setting case defending the rights of the disabled.

From the top executive floors of 101 Federal Place, to the paneled courtrooms of Beacon Hill, a gripping cast of characters peppers this account, but you will find yourself rooting for Labonte's legal counsel, David Rapaport, who proves to be the superhero of employment lawyers. Rapaport's dedication, loyalty, and friendship to Labonte is remarkable, and his cool and effectual trial demeanor leave him a force to be reckoned with in the courtroom.

Other hidden jewels within this chronicle include Labonte's spiritual renewal (in pilgrimages to the mystical village of Medjugorje, Bosnia) and the humanitarian efforts that brought him closer to understanding God's plan for him. Labonte recounts memories - some strangely foreshadowing - of his childhood growing up in a catholic, blue collar family in Worcester, MA, and of the beginnings of his enduring love with his wife, Lora.

"A Million Reasons" recounts not only a legal stronghold for the rights of the disabled (or in Labonte's case, the "abundantly abled",) but is also pure inspiration that will renew your faith in the pursuit of justice, even under the worst of circumstances, and the indomitable power of love, loyalty, and courage, that even MS could not shake.

This is a great book to have on hand for all levels and aspects of literacy remediation.

Multisensory Teaching Of Basic Language Skills, 2nd Edition by Judith R. Birsh is one of the best books professional books that I have read. I am a reading specialist for middle school students and this book has helped me help my struggling students. The book is grounded in research and has very concrete and good suggestions/ activities to help students with dyslexia. I would highly recommend the book to all educators of K-12 students.

This is an excellent book for reading teachers. It is written like a textbook, with each chapter covering a specific topic like "Phonological Awreness and Reading" and "Teaching Comprehension". It gives specific advice on how to use multisensory teaching techniques for teaching reading, spelling and even mathematics. It is a very useful resource for teachers working with students at all stages, from the very young to students in their teens. The methods described in the book will also be very helpful for those teaching adult literacy classes. I highly recommend this book.

This book gives language teachers a great wealth of information regarding dyslexia and reading problems.

...this is a great book that I've searched for. It pulls tons of useful information about dyslexia into one spot. Only one warning I would send out to parents - this is a textbook not a "pop culture" book. I've found the reading slow going as I'm unfamiliar with many of terms and concepts as I'm not a linguist or teacher. Having said that, I belive I now understand how to help my daughter learn easier which will open many previously closed doors to her. The textbook is worth the effort!!

While looking for an excellent preschool program for your "normal" child may be difficult, finding an excellent ABA preschool program for your child with autism is even more challenging. However, the Handleman and Harris book provides professionals and parents with 12 programs around the US that offer behavioral approaches in their curriculum. In each of the chapters, Handlemann and Harris answer a number of questions regarding each school program, such as background information, staff qualifications, admission requirements, goals of the school, how they address behavior problems, integration, social play, etc. In each of these sections, a detailed description is provided and examples are presented to provide parents and professionals with the information needed to evaluate a chosen program for their child. It also provides them with information on what the possible outcomes are for children who enter their program. I think this book is a great resource for parents, professionals, and school districts because it provides a basis for developing an ABA program that has been proven to work with children with autism. By reading this book, school districts can modify their programs to better attain to the children they are admitting on a daily basis. Also, because of the limited superior ABA programs in the US, it can provide a starting point for professionals, parents, and school districts to start their own programs and create more programs for children with autism, so parents will not have to rely on other treatments or inferior early intervention treatments because of the lack of availability.

Within the site of PCDI most staff members have bachelors or masters degree in psychology or education, the number with educational certifications meets or exceeds the standards of NDJOE. Doctoral students from Queens College , with ABA graduate programs may occupy paid positions while completing their degree. In preschool the staff-child ration is 1-1, school program is 1-1.5. At time of employment more staff members do not have prior experience in providing intervention to people with dvlp disabilities, few are trained in ABA. PCDI offers preservice and in-service workshops and hands- on training through out employment. Immediate and positive and corrective feedback is provided on-going, whether is be throughout the classroom, in the children's homes, or in the hallway you have a constant model to go by. The trainer provides skills and models them which then increases the amount of teaching opportunities for the trainee.
After 6-8 months of hands-on training new staff member's intervention skills are evaluated. Evaluators observe the use of behavior specific praise, opportunities to respond, incidental teaching opportunities, on-task for all students, as well as certain other components. Components are shaping, prompting and fading prompts, teaching language and social-competence skills, decreasing inappropriate behavior, using functional environment design and classroom arrangements, maintaining the quality of the intervention environment, and building and maintaining positive relationships with children, colleagues and trainers, as well as the data notebook review. They are evaluated by someone else then there primary mentor, this avoids any bias which I think is a great idea. Inter-observer agreement is also obtained during the evaluation to ensure agreement on the measures being taken. The employee is observed for 4-5 hours on the trainees work with children, observational data are collected, and verbal feedback is delivered the day of, as well as an extensive written feedback within 30 days. I feel that through this seemingly intense process, much positive feedback and growth comes out of this model. Trainers skills are recognized and appreciated, suggestions are taken and applied. Staff members are evaluated at least annually. I feel a vast majority of organizations would benefit from PCDI's staff evaluation protocol.

The second edition of the Preschool Education Programs for Children with Autism provides up to date information on a variety of educational programs for children with autism and children in the autism spectrum. Each program summarizes their characteristics such as staff training, assessment procedures, parental involvement, curriculum, cost, integration opportunities, and treatment outcomes.

This newest edition is an invaluable tool for parents who have children in the autism spectrum. Parents who are looking at programs for their children, as well as those looking to improve public school programs their children currently attend, will benefit from this latest edition.

This book is extremely beneficial to school districts who are thinking of developing their own Autism program, as well as those who are looking to improve the programs they currently have. With this book, districts will be able to compare different approaches and assess what characteristics will be beneficial to them.

The authors stress the importance of communication among professionals. Program descriptions give the reader a sense of familiarity with various approaches as well as those professionals who are currently involved in these models. This will hopefully lead the way to communication among individuals who would normally not interact with one another.

Drs. Harris and Handleman did a comprehensive job of writing a book about the different yet competent preschool education programs for children with autism. The authors describd in detail 11 programs around the country that are science-based intensive programs. Since, there are so many fads about autism and a lot of therapies that claim to treat autism which are not science-based, this book provides great information for parents, and professionals about programs that are worth investing time in. Unfortunately, many of these programs have an extensive waiting list. So, with that in mind I think this book also serves as a great model for administrators to take away from whom are charged with developing programs for children with autism.
The book goes into detail about many aspects of each program such as criteria children must meet for admission, costs of tuition, teaching methods, staff training, staff ratio, etc. I think it's great that it goes into so much detail because it allows professionals, and parents to compare schools and evaluate the intensity of each program, the focus of each program, and its services. This edition also highlights the numerous advances that have taken place in the education of preschool children with autism since the prior edition, however in the prior edition, there were other programs mentioned that didn't carry over into the 3rd edition, such as the Princeton Child Development Institute (PCDI). The PCDI program is a very intensive hands on science-based program that has been around for more than 25 years and it is very well known around the United States and in some other countries. Drs. Krantz and McClannahan who founded the program are renowned in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and have contributed a great deal to the research literature of ABA. It would have been great for this exemplary model of a program to be included and described in detail in the 3rd edition of the book. I think PCDI has a great program that is a model for others to follow and to take valuable information from.
Overall, I think this book is very helpful for parents, and professionals to understand why these programs exist and I think it magnifies the need for more programs to become available like the ones described in this book to treat children with autism with the proper intervention.

In this book, service providers of various programs for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders were asked to answer questions regarding structure, staffing, financing, curriculum, assessment procedures, and support services of their program. This is an invaluable resource for people interested in providing, comparing, or procuring top-notch services.

This book, I've found is one of the more useful products in terms of helping a child with autism learn language. It's rather scripted and the authors stated that it will only work for a visual learner, so if a learner is not believed to be visual, then this may not work.
I would have given this book 5, or at the very least 4 stars, had not the spiral binding on mine come apart. Now I'm missing several pages, which makes it hard, if not impossible, to implement the strategies.

As an educator for children with autism, I read A LOT of books because my job is to learn skills and strategies in order to train people. One of the most requested things that teachers need help with is how to teach social skills to their students on the spectrum. This is by far the best social skills training manual that I have gotten my hands on. It gives examples of what to say to the child and why that skill is important. A lot of times, social skills books will contain great programs that you can implement, but not everyone is proficient enough to actually get them started because the instructions are not very clear. All I have to say is, you need to get this book for yourself if you work with children with special needs!

Teach Me Language really zeros in on the areas of difficulty which our children with Autism and related disorders are up against. As a mother and educational advocate of a son with "high-functioning autism," I was thrilled to find this user-friendly educational tool that helps our kids "fill in the blanks." It provides a wonderful curriculum that can be used in collaboration by teacher/speech pathologist and parent, thereby offering our kids a very solid program. I've found the suggested instruction/therapy schedules (similar to lesson plans) particulary helpful.

This manual provides a tremendously useful resource for anyone involved in teaching conversational skills to individuals with language-based disabilities. There are pre-requisite skills a student must have, so this is probably not going to be the first book you start with if the student has few verbal skills. It is, however, the book that you will build up to and use extensively during that "middle" ground on the way to completely fluent conversational and language skills.

When I discovered how expensive speech/language therapy cost for my 9-year-old son with autism, I began looking for resources and ways that I could improve his language in our home. I came across this book and it has been invaluable.

'Teach Me Language' is for children who have done some preliminary language work and have a fairly good foundation in labeling objects as well as pre-reading skills. The exercises are based on written words instead of pictures, so you will want to make sure your child is ready for that step.

The Manual features exercises on a variety of topics - everything from reading and comprehension skills to grammar basics to lifeskills like telling time and dealing with money to understanding emotions. In other words, the book features every area with which my son struggles. There is also an excellent chapter on social language and how to teach reciprocal conversations.

I found the layout of the manual to be just a bit confusing because it is not linear but that actually makes sense because the way our children learn isn't linear! Some children with autism or asperger's may be particularly strong in certain areas and weak in others.

Chapter 7 in the manual explains how to set up a language schedule for your particular child and you then go through the exercises and decide which ones to teach.

For parents, this book is easy to read, understand and implement. I highly recommend it, especially for children with autism who have emerging language and reading (decoding) skills.

I have worked in an urban school district for over 15 years as a Physical Therapist. My work started out mostly in the schools, where the values of the teachers/administration in each school were accepted without question. "You came to my class/school, you hold my values" was a given. As I moved "down" the scale to work with younger children - preschoolers and infant/toddlers - I found myself more and more in the homes of these children. What started out as "I am in your home to help you with what I think you need" has, over time, and through lots of food-for-thought sessions on my part turned into "what can I do to help you with what you know you need". I have turned into more of a listener than a doer - which seems to be what many folks are wanting the most. I think it becomes the most clear that I need to listen when I have to depend on an interpreter to tell me not only the words that are spoken but the values the family holds and how they view my intrusion into their lives. "Your Values, My Values" affirmed my experiences and helped me to go many steps further into considering how important it is to understand the values of each person and to be sure that I am providing assistance that they view as helpful and meaningful. I will never again form an opinion about a person or his/her behavior without first listening and allowing the situation to "play out" awhile before I jump in with my "solutions". The examples the author gave of actual situations were quite helpful to explain the principles she wrote about, as were the summaries at the end of the chapters. I found myself saying, "Aha!" many times as I read the book - especially in the areas of control and privacy, as these are issues I deal with often in working with families with infants and toddlers who have developmental delays. The assessment of the schema of theft was most interesting - in fact, I shared it with my husband, and we think about it when we find ourselves in some of the situations that were described in the assessment. A big THANK YOU goes to Pengra for her insights and experiences and for her efforts to share them through her book. I found it very interesting and helpful, and I know that others will also benefit from her experiences when they read it.

S. Jarratt PT, MS   

Reviewed by Ann Penhallurick, for Intellectual Disability, Australasia: March, 2002 pp. 16-17

This book is definitely a "must read". Forget the "Multicultural" in the title, or, more precisely, do not limit yourself to Australian definitions thereof. This is not a how-to guide for, say, Chinese-Australians to work with Lebanese-Australians: the book's concept of culture is much broader than nation-of-origin. Lilah Pengra was originally an anthropologist with an interest in culture not usually recognised as relevant in the delivery of social and disability support services. However, she began working with people with disabilities who were also people of indigenous American culture and, in the book, she cites some wonderfully thought provoking examples of the conflicting sets of values that brought her anthropological training into play and eventually resulted in what is evidently excellent practice, and also this remarkable book.

And it is remarkable; one of the most accessible reads that I have come across in a long professional career while, at the same time, one of the best informed and informative books I will have on my shelves for, I suspect, a long time. Having said that, I have to also say that I do, personally, have some problems with what seem to me to be inherent contradictions between Pengra's assertion that culture is learned and her lack of analysis of the learning that has taken place for her clients: it seems that she accepts and even promotes their values without thinking about how we all acquire values that are, for example, market-driven or gender-driven and not necessarily consistent with either ourselves or our well-being. However, the examples of value conflict and resolution that Pengra so eloquently cites are essential to read and to think about because, quibbles aside, good practice in disability support cannot become excellent practice without a very clear awareness of the issues she is raising.

Your Values, My Values is also more than extremely readable presentation of information about how culture (which could be class culture, gender culture, national culture and so on and on) affects service direction and delivery. Pengra also deals with the way culture is embedded within our cognitive schemas, providing a well researched theoretical basis that moves away from the simple behaviourist theories that have dominated thinking in disability services for too long. The 256 page book is divided into four parts: Principles of Values-Based Service, Designing Values-Based Services, Values-Based Services in Context and My Own Values. There are three chapters in each of the first three sections and one in the final section. Sub-sections of chapters like "Identifying Problem Behaviour and Designing Interventions", and "Identifying the problem from the person's point of view" seem standard but present an easily accessible, alternative analysis of approaching a "problem" that we are all familiar with. The book is well referenced, too, and has a good index, particularly given that it is not written as an academic text so would have been much harder to index than most.

I've already made a dozen notes and whipped off half a dozen overheads from this book in planning for various talks I am giving in the near future. I would recommend the book for ALL services which support people with disabilities, ALL policy makers, and just about every academic course in disabilities that is around. It's focus is American and as aforesaid there are times when I find it perhaps overinclusive or perhaps overgenerous in its notion and analysis of culture, but, if you will forgive the cliché, Your values, My Values really is a giant step forward.

Beyond "Cultural Competency" reprinted, with permission of the author, from Disability Studies Quarterly summer 2001 special issue, "Engaging Anthropology in Disability Studies." Beyond Cultural Competency by Devva Kasnitz, Ph.D., Mary Switzer Fellow In Your Values, My Values: Multicultural Services in Developmental Disabilities, Lilah Morton Pengra (2000, Paul H. Brooks, Baltimore) has written an unusually successful and useful book. Marketed for service providers, it also belongs in the collections of disability studies scholars and applied anthropologists. And, it is a good read. It is not a research piece. For those interested in Pengra in research mode, I direct you to her dissertation. This book is both theoretical and practical. She uses a theoretical framework of "value based services" and "schema analysis," the analysis of groups of meanings and norms that together underlie "definitions and beliefs that specify what features of the environment to notice" (p. 26). This framework is well described and documented with scholarly care. Her bibliography alone is valuable. In the heart of the book each new topic is introduced with reference to the literature and demonstrated with examples of real-life situations. She culls these examples from her South Dakota career in social services to people considered developmentally disabled, many of them Dakota or Lakota. She then follows with service protocols. These are actual fill-in-the-blanks and check-off assessment, progress, and evaluation tools. She closes each chapter with "Points to Remember." At first this seemed too "teachy" to me. Then, I realized, that is exactly the point. You can read the book on many levels. Why not remind those who may skip some of the scholarly text and go directly to the protocols what to remember during their use as you photo-copy and enlarge and try to decide if you will need to retype and edit a protocol for your own situation. The book also hangs together if you skip the protocols entirely and read for the theory and its implications. Taken together, policy makers and service directors will gain insight. I called this brief book reviewing "Beyond Cultural Competency" out of my biases. I remember Cultural Competency as an idea creeping in and around medical anthropology more than twenty years ago. It started innocently enough with the assertion that service providers needed to understand the culture of the people with whom they work. However, it quickly devolved into a cook-book approach, this is what to do with a Latino patient, this is how to treat a Chinese person, Native American, Black, etc. This is more dangerous than a travel phrase book without a dictionary. And who certifies "competence?" Hiring a token person of the culture in question then became the next step. This, of course, puts tremendous pressure on the supposedly "representative" staff member. First, it ignores intracultural variation. Second, if the individual wants to succeed in their career in the service sector they can usual only do so by bolstering the existing structure. They effectively become the one who helps their cultural group reinvent themselves in the image of the dominant culture so that they can fit in and receive services through the existing structure. We all know that minority culture groups adapt to new bureaucracies much faster than bureaucracies change to reflect diversity. What are needed are approaches that expect and value cultural diversity. We need scholars, policy makers, and service providers who are skilled at recognizing, including, and protecting cultural diversity. This book makes a significant contribution in that direction. Read it.

Very well thought out book, which could be used as a neat reference for all who work in the helping profession. Ms. Pengra establishes herself as knowledgeable in her assesments of people espeacially ones with disabilites. She cuts through the analytical language making it understandable for all. Thus, giving them the ability to apply towards one's own daily living. Highly recommended.

I am a city planner for an older, industrial, urban city. While I do not work with developmentally disabled people, I do work with community groups on land use issues. Decisions I make affect where people live, work and play. The nature of my work influences the values of my community and hopefully should be reflective of it. Hence my interest in this book.

One section I found valuable was a discussion on decision making. I deal with community groups trying to reach a consensus on a variety of land use issues or elected leaders trying to make a decision. Learning how values influence decision-making styles opened my eyes and allowed me to evaluate how I communicate with the public, structure my decisions or make policy recommendations. The information provides a good guide to assist in determining where changes in the "routine" can be used to provide better services to the public. Dr. Pengra provides recommendations on how to address situations where your values are either unknown or different from a service receiver's. I could draw corollaries to working with community groups and other consumers.

While the book deals with providing services to individuals, it provides easy to use assessments to assist the reader in making determinations about themselves on various issues. (Easy to use does not imply you like what you learn!) It provides a practical tool to learn more about yourself, your customers and provides the information necessary to create positive, effective action that will ultimately gain a happy consumer. The book will challenge you to change your behavior.

The book also delves into such topics as anger, pain and empowerment -- topics near and dear to all public officials' daily work. Learning how culture influences the expression of anger and pain was almost scary. Realizing a change in approach could help empower the consumer was refreshing. While it may seem obvious that there are cultural barriers -- the author offers practical advice and assessments that can be applied on the job to do something to overcome the barriers. You begin to see that flexibility might not seem like a bad or terrifying thing. I am sure as a service provider there will a certain level of discomfort but the rewards of a satisfied customer should eventually outweigh those feelings as it appears to have occurred in the author's experiences.

Complete Reading Disabilities Handbook: Ready-to-Use Techniques for Teaching Reading Disabled Students. This is an excellent handbook both for the specialist teacher and the mainstream class teacher who wish to help students who have a reading disability. The author Wilma Miller outlines for us the nature of reading disabilities and how best we can diagnose those disabilties. In the chapters of the book she goes on to provide us with ready to use strategies and activities for correcting disabilities in word-identification and comprehension. The book is practical and most useful. I would strongly recommend it to all interested in helping students with reading disabilities.

This handbook has mounds of helpful information and reproducible activity sheets, but can be overwhelming to sift through as there are no clear chapters or boundaries. Speaking as a dyslexic occupational therapist who works with children who are dyslexic, this book's format is slightly overwhelming at times. Additionally, the activities have "grade levels" written at the top of them which may cause esteem or confidence issues with the children who are likely reading below their grade levels.

This book may be large; still, it is filled with resources galore! The chapters speak for themselves and are entitled; What are Reading Disabilities?, General Guidelines and Materials for Diagnosing Reading Disabilities, Ready-To-Use Materials for Diagnosing Disabilities in the Word-Identification Techniques, Ready-To-Use Materials for Diagnosing Disabilities in Comprehension and basic Study Skills, Ready-To-Use Strategies and Activities for Correcting Disabilities in Word-Identification Techniques, and Ready-To-Use Strategies and Activities for Correcting Disabilities in Comprehension and Basic Study Skills.

Each of the above chapters are filled with wonderful ready to use assessments and remediations. Some of my favorite goodies in the book include; Emergent Literacy Behavioral Checklist, Primary Checklist For Teacher Observation of a Child's Reading Skills, the explanation of Running Records, the Graded Word Lists, the tests for Assessing Sight-Word Recognition in Context, and the games included for teaching different reading skills.

I use a variety of the many tests in this book as a pre-assessment at the start of the year and a post assessment at the end of the year. The book was well worth the money for me and is used often in my K-3 Resource Room.

An excellent book, especially for a beginning special educator or elem. teacher. A main weakness is that it is voluminous and spiral bound -- heavy but easily ripped! I chose it one semester as required text for a reading methods class I teach to sp. ed. teacher candidates and it is so huge that I told them to bring it to class only on identified weeks. For a professional library, it contains a wealth of all kinds of information on the reading process, assessment & remediation.

Although this is a great resource it is a bit bulky. Even so, I wouldn't want less material. I appreciate the reproducible sheets so much. I don't have a lot to say that others haven't already said. I do want to recommend another set of books to use directly with the children. It is four Dolch sight word books by Betsy B. Lee. These don't look that much like little kid books and they are even used in middle school and the lower grades. Look up the author's name at amazon.

I have worked with students like Bryce all of my life. I believe that anyone who is working with children or adults with special needs should read this book. When people are witnesses to this sort or any sort of abuse please be the voice for people with special needs. The love story intertwined in the story helped to keep the story moving and looks at how these situations affect more than just the child. Life can be loaded with twists and turns and how they are handled brings out the best or the worse in people. This story reflected that.

What a treat to find a book that isn't the same ole-same ole that we see surfacing on the literary scenes today. Unfortunately, MONDAY'S CHILD deals with a subject that is not only despicable but also sad to witness, even in between the pages of a book. Newcomer Brenda Beamon-Isabell introduces us to eight year old Bryce Monday, a cognitively disabled student at Carter Elementary School. The motto of the school is proudly displayed on the front entrance, "A Haven of Safety and Learning" and Bryce's Mom Beverly has no doubts that this is exactly what she can expect of the teachers who have been entrusted to take care of Bryce.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case when the aid in Bryce's classroom reports that Bryce's teacher has physically abused him. And because Bryce isn't able to speak, that adds an additional twist to the story. Lies are told, teachers are threatened to make them remain silent, and Beverly ends up hiring an attorney to fight her case. What she uncovers will leave even those deeply involved amazed at the heartless nature in which trusted supervisors have acted.

MONDAY'S CHILD is a wonderful read that reaches out to the hearts of parents and shows them a peek inside what could really be happening in the school systems. It is a sad, heart-wrenching story that should be shared with all new parents, especially those of disabled children. Though grammatical errors and typos were abundant in this book, I was caught up into the plot and intrigued with what would happen to the characters. In addition, the book is written in a very basic manner with not much character development, so the reader doesn't really get to see more behind what made the characters tick. Despite those factors, I really enjoyed this story and was pleased to see something new and fresh come across my review list.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This book is definitely a MUST READ!!! The author was so descriptive with each character it actually puts you into the book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. A very emotional book, so emotional it should be made into a movie. This author is superb in writing and should be recognized for her well-written novel. I look forward to many more readings by this author.

Thank you Brenda Beamon-Isabell for sharing your story. God has truly given you a talent and you use it well.

This novel is an excellent example of the despicable events of abuse that happen to defenseless children. In addition, this story gives a remarkable twist of romance and the scandalous affairs involved in a scheme to cover-up a crime.

Thank you Brenda Beamon-Isabell for bringing the truth to light.

This is definately a Page-Turner!!!!!

This novel is an excellent example of the despicable events of abuse that happen to defenseless children. In addition, this story gives a remarkable twist of romance and the scandalous affairs involved in a scheme to cover-up a crime.

This is definately a Page-Turner!

This book rambled, stumbled over itself, and was filled with grammatical errors. It was hard to determine where the authors were trying to go, and it seemed that once they got there, they offered little, if any, information that was actually useful. I learned perhaps two new things from this book, and they really aren't things that will help me to help my Aspergian son.

If you have a child with ADHD, an Autism spectrum disorder/Pervasive Development Disorder, or sensory integrative issues then this book will be an excellent read!! I love that it has entire chapters/sections devoted to the interaction between a specific disorder/diagnosis/cluster, and sensory response/reactions...the book is well-written, is readily understandable to lay-persons, yet it is as useful to therapists as many other books on the market...my son's therapist copied almost the entire book when she borrowed it from me!!!
In a nutshell, this book gives you certain behaviors that may manifest, gives ideas on how to resolve...yet is never preachy...love this book

This book has important wisdom for parents and teachers. The authors write very compassionately and very professionally about the process of helping kids with a number of disorders that can interfere with learning. They are very helpful, and always respectful of the children whose learning patterns they are describing. This is a great book!! LO in New York

An easy to read comprehensive look at sensory dysfunction covering symptoms, definitions, diagnosis as well as assessments, curriculum strategies and modifications in the environment. A must have resource for parents, caregivers, educators and therapists.

Authors Emmons and Anderson are both special education teachers, as well as moms of children with sensory integration difficulties, and it shows. Their insightful book offers excellent strategies for helping children with SI dysfunction, especially when it occurs concurrently with autism, Asperger's, ADHD or bi-polar disorder.

What Did You Say? What Do You Mean?: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Metaphors is such a wonderful tool to enhance your knowledge on the backgrounds and/or reasons of each idiom. The author quite specifically illustrated the literal meanings, the real meanings, i.e, implications, reasons of the meanings, and examples. The book is not only for child and adult Aspies, but also neurotypical people. Once you catch what idioms really mean, you will be sure to get hooked on them.
This book certainly is more comprehensible than An Asperger Dictionary of Everyday Expressions(2nd Edition), although the latter contains more information than the former. Especially for Aspies or Non-native speakers of English, I would like to recommend the former to strengthen your vocabulary building more efficiently! I feel it might be hard to image the meanings of idioms written on the latter, because it seems to lack specific information. Therefore, I would like to ask you to start with this book.
After all, this dictionary is the real reinforcement of smoother communications in your daily life! You should keep in mind that overuse of the idioms and metaphors is likely to confuse listeners or readers, though.

Have teenager with ASD/Asberger syndrome, this book is just what we needed!

In response to my explanation of the idiom "get your skates on"

"There's some strange things those normal people make up"

Absolutely, so that gives you the heads up, there's no beating about the bush here, it's all from the horses' mouth.... (am I gonna get in hot water for this), let me just chew the cud for a while.

For people with autism/Asperger's, this book is the book to have in understanding colloquialisms, idioms and metaphors. Instead of relying on neurotypical (NT) counterparts to interpret and translate these phrases, just keep this book handy. It's the ideal tool to have when learning the language of the NT world.

This book was perfect for my 9 yo daughter. She has NLD and is often confused by language, facial expression, or hidden meanings. We had a lot of fun guessing the answers (she got them wrong every time!) and then reading the correct meaning. Within an hour she had picked a lyric out of a song and understood it for the first time ("coming out of my shell"). We are thrilled with this book!

This book helps a child with Aspergers unravel the mysteries of colloquial meatphors -- that is the great idea. However, it was written in the United Kingdom, which means that sometimes the explanations are confusing also (what is a queue, Mom???)-- that takes away from its effectiveness and makes for frustration. There are also a couple of publishing goofs -- wrong explanation on the page -- no excuse for that. I actually whited them out and moved the words over. Like I said -- great idea -- upbeat and useful -- but it should be noted that it is not US English.

Because so many 'college student with disability' books do a HORRIBLE job with their thesis, this book is in an important class by itself.

Addressing the prospective college student themselves, it merely requires them (if not already doing so) to assume proactive self responsibility) for accademic and personal success from the time of research to after-college graduation. Our parents legally cannot advocate in the college environment irrespective of how much they love us. So, people with disabilities need to do it themselves in the college environment!

Plus, it leaves that college environment itself wide open for application. It is correctly acknowledged that people with disabilities are NOT limited to considering only a handful of campuses. Like other prospective college students, we should consider a wide variety of factors when examining and then applying to post-secondary institutions. Certainly, we should consider if they offer an academic degree program which we are interested in/might be interested in--and if it is properly accredited so we successfully get a job with that hard-earned college degree. And finding out if you like the personality of the campus accommodations office--which we have to contact ourselves for the accomodations to commence--probably can't hurt either.

On the chapter explaining the rights of college students with disabilities. I only wish it had started out explaining the VERY large difference between a k-12 special education program and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The differences which were brought up (reasonable accommodation and the college institution not having to 'lower' program speed/standards) honestly might not be clear for some readers. Myself and other people with disabilities who were well-versed in advocacy had to explain such a difference to some prospective new campus enrollees who had assumed that everything was completely the same as their high school experiences. But the author should have already included such important legal information in the book, seeing as how it was well within her own advocacy thesis area.

Still, this book remains an invaluable resource for the special education student who is capable of performing in college--but is not finding transition advice in their immediate community.

This book was very helpful. It provided a lot of in depth information. It was so informative I shared it with others who could benefit from this information. Overall a very good purchase.

I bought this book for my daughter who has exceeded her elementary teachers expectations. She is now ready to go to college. So I looked for a book that could Guide her thru college thus aiding her to self advocate on her behalf. Knowing she would not read it, I read it. My goal is to point her to this book as she needs it. I also liked the carry over to job hunting, writing resumes', to the first day on the job. All the while providing advise for people with learning disabilities. I recommend this book to parents and their children. We will keep it.

This is for those that are dealing with learning disabilites or have trouble with thinking, inability to read, communicate, who're able to make better grades, attend colleges, take tests and/or quizzes, shoot!!!...this book tells it all. I recommend LIFE IS NOT A FAIRY TALE by American Idol winner and singer Fantasia.

I was reading live 5 or so chapters to this book and wasn't deeply depressed about it. So IMO it seems it helps me. I can't go mad. This is right s**t here.

Also in the book, it talks about the kinds of careers or jobs u wanna pursue or have an interest to, talks the type'a skills, type'a research u need in order to get in. I recommend this to all job-seekers, school/college graduates and dropouts, who are in school or just finished school, so forth.

This is the book u need if u wanna learn and acheive. I say AMEN to that.