Parents of Children with Disabilities: A Survival Guide for Fathers and Mothers

June 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Why a book specifically for parents of children with disabilities? Our experience with hundreds of families of children with special needs has revealed that many parents continue to struggle to engage with their children with special needs. They are often in denial about the impact of the disability or are actively avoiding their responsibilities. Spouses are extremely frustrated by this, and many families are damaged or even destroyed by the failure of one spouse to meet their obligations and use his or her skills and unique abilities for the good of the family. Mothers are frequently left with the challenge of raising their children as single parents. The divorce rate for parents with a special needs child is reported to be well over the national average.
The authors founded and facilitated a large support group for families that had children with disabilities. One of the things they realized after the first year was that there were a number of good resources to draw upon that parents could use to help their children, but no resources  to help the parents themselves deal with their very challenging situation.
This book will help the father and the mother of a child with special needs to better understand their feelings and behavior toward their children and family.  It will also help them understand God’s wisdom for them and what they can do to make things better for themselves and their family’s lives and what they can gain from their unique situation.
The authors raised a son with Asperger Syndrome who is now 34 years old. There are over 20 illustrations/cartoons to help the visual learner and to support key points. The length of the book (210 pages) is kept relatively short so that busy parents (especially fathers) will be more likely to read the book. Each chapter has a specific theme and each chapter ends with three or four “take-a-ways.”

Three chapters are actual life stories by families that have learned and grown from the experience of having a child with significant disabilities. The first story is about a family with a daughter with trauma at birth that left her severely impaired. The mother relates how she and her husband have grown from the experience and the amazing way their daughter positively  influenced so many. The second story is about a family with a son who has autism and the wonderful way the father has made sacrifices to care for his family. The third story is about a family whose 14-year old son almost died from a brain aneurism at age 1. The father and mother relate the very challenging experiences they faced while their son fought for his life and now, 4 years later, their struggles with physical therapy and learning challenges. The parents provide a wonderful, real life perspective that many readers will easily relate to and be inspired by their success.

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Press Barnhill is a university professor who has raised a 34-year old son diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome with his wife, Gena. Together they founded and facilitated a 350-member parent support group for families raising children with autism, Asperger Syndrome and related disabilities from 2000 - 2006.
Gena P. Barnhill, Ph.D., NCSP, author of Right Address … Wrong Planet: Children with Asperger Syndrome Becoming Adults, is an assistant professor of special education and coordinator of the Autism Certificate Program at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia and mother of an adult son with Asperger Syndrome. She has worked with children with special needs in medical and educational settings for over 30 years as a registered nurse, school counselor, school psychologist and autism coordinator. In addition to publishing over 25 articles in peer-reviewed journals and two book chapters, Gena has presented on autism and Asperger Syndrome at over 100 conferences.