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Mitchell Resources - Special Needs

A Parent’s Guide to Asperger Syndrome & High Functioning Autism: How to meet the challenges and help your child thrive - by Ozonoff, Dawson & McPartland

Children with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism tend to be very skilled at some things while facing some social difficulties. This book begins with a few chapters explaining the diagnoses. The following chapters address highlighting your child’s strength. The chapter on helping your child at home deals with understanding your child’s behaviour and helping them to be contributing members of the family. Another chapter addresses finding the right supports for your child at school. Using many practical examples, this book not only provides ideas for helping your child interact with others, but also helps you look ahead and begin to prepare your child for the future.

All about Attention Deficit Disorder: Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment (children and adults) - by Thomas Phelan

This book provides an overview of attention deficit disorder. The first part covers the impact of ADD on the family and at school, the symptoms of ADD, prognosis and causes. The second part addresses diagnosing ADD, and the third part addresses many different treatment options. The last part addresses ADD in adulthood.

(The) Anxiety Cure for Kids: A guide for parents - by Spencer, DuPont & DuPont

Children of all ages and personalities suffer from anxiety. This book presents how to overcome anxiety by confronting it every time it appears. It addresses symptoms of anxiety, deciding on the need for therapy or medication and how to cope as a parent. Using a dragon to personify fear and a wizard to personify overcoming, this book presents a step-by-step guide to helping your child. It uses real-life examples to help you understand how to help your child.

Brain Gym - by Paul & Gail Dennison

Activities to enhance brain development for special needs children.

Children with Cerebral Palsy: A parent’s guide - by Elaine Geralis

This book has been called “the first book that parents should read.” Various chapters discuss diagnosis and assessment, interventions, therapies and medical treatment. One chapter is devoted to helping you as a family – addressing your roles as parent and spouse, as well as sibling relationships. Another chapter provides guidelines to choosing an appropriate preschool and in deciding on special education.  Additional chapters include your child’s self-esteem, legal rights, and advocating for your child. At the end of the book there is an extensive glossary, a reading list, a list of special equipment suppliers and other resources.

Children with Visual Impairments: A parent’s guide - by M. Cay Holbrook

This book covers many issues faced by parents who have children with varying degrees of visual impairment. It is written by parents and professionals such as ophthalmologists, optometrists and special educators. Besides explaining visual impairments, it addresses treatment and medical issues. Chapters address issues in daily life, how it affects the family, helping your child feel good about herself, and addressing legal issues. Lots of headings make it easy to find the topics that are of most interest to you. (*To access a list of our children's books for visually impaired children, click here.)

(The) Complete Kid’s Allergy and Asthma Guide: The parent’s handbook for children of all ages - Edited by Milton Gold

This book provides comprehensive information on dealing with allergies and asthma. It was developed in cooperation with the Hospital for Sick Children. After an introduction, it discusses different allergic conditions (asthma, rhinitis, skin conditions, and food reactions) before addressing coping with allergies and asthma. Lastly, it addresses prevention of allergies.

Dreams Spoken Here (video) - by the Oberkotter Foundation

This video presents the oral deaf education option for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Employees who are Parents of Children with Disabilities: A guide for employers - by the Roeher Institute

This booklet addresses how parents are affected by raising a child with a disability and demands they face over and beyond what other parents face. It discusses how this affects them at work and what employers can do to help.

Facing Autism: Giving parents reasons for hope and guidance for help - by Lynn M. Hamilton

As autism is a spectrum disorder, there are many uncertainties about how to deal with it. The author shares her experiences as a mother of a son with autism. Many different interventions are discussed, including ABA therapy, dietary interventions, sensory integration and biomedical interventions. She emphasizes that there is hope that children with autism will show improvement if appropriate therapies are started early in life.

How to talk to your kids about MS – by Multiple Sclerosis Society Canada

This book helps you tell your children about Multiple Sclerosis. It addresses how children of different ages will react, and how the disease will affect family life.

Is my Child OK? When behaviour is a problem, when it’s not, and when to seek help - by Henry Paul

Written by an expert in children’s mental health, this book answers questions about sibling rivalry, separation anxiety, childhood eating habits, school refusal and more.  It is divided into sections such as feelings, behaviour, learning and school, the body, sexuality, family, global disorders and getting help.  Most chapters are fairly short and end with a list of suggestions of what to do.

Keys to Parenting the Asthmatic Child - by Gerald L. Klein & Vicki Timerman

This book explains what asthma is, what triggers it, its relationship to allergies and other common questions. It also discusses conditions confused with asthma and the role of exercise. Numerous chapters are spent discussing various tests and treatments. Controlling the environment to reduce the likelihood of asthma being triggered is also addressed.

Keys to Parenting your Anxious Child - by Katharina Manassis

This book begins by addressing reasons for children’s anxiety. It continues to discuss various ways of helping your child cope, including chapters on relieving physical stress, building confidence, desensitizing your child and how to use incentives. Specific anxious behaviours are addressed, followed by a section on dealing with family members, the community and professionals.  This book is easy to read and offers practical advice for parents.

Listening to Fear: Helping kids cope, from nightmares to the nightly news – by Steven Marans

This book helps you understand your own fears, help your children express their fears, and help you to interpret their behaviour. It will equip you with skills to help your children cope.

Make a Joyful Noise (Kit) - by the Oberkotter Foundation (video also available)

This kit contains a book and a video (20 minutes). This kit is produced by an organization that advocates for teaching deaf children to speak not to sign. The booklet addresses finding out your child is hard of hearing, what are your options for communication, introduces oral deaf education, and addresses advocating for your child.  It presents almost solely the oral deaf education option.

(The) Next Steps? Caring for your preemie at home - by Canadian Institute of Child Health and Infant Development Services

This resource guide addresses many different concerns that parents of preemies have. Topics covered include survival tips, getting ready to bring your child home, feeding your child, coping with stress, and understanding your child’s development.  It is written simply with point form tips as well as stories from parents and professionals who live or work with preemies. At the end of each chapter there are books and website recommended.

(The) Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction - by Carol Stock Kranowitz

This book advocates a drug free approach to helping a child with Sensory Integration Dysfunction. It addresses both recognizing the symptoms and helping your child cope with them.

(The) Out-of-Sync Child has Fun: Activities for kids with sensory integration dysfunction - by Carol Stock Kranowitz

This book provides many activities that will help children with sensory integration dysfunctions. These activities can be done at home, at school and in the community. The first chapter discusses what sensory integration is and the symptoms of “out-of-sync” children. The activity ideas are great for all children, but particularly good to help children with sensory integration dysfunction.

Parent’s Guide to Food Allergies: Clear and complete advice from the experts on raising your food-allergic child - by Marianne S. Barber

An excellent reference for parents of allergy-prone children, this book offers information about specific foods that cause allergic reactions, tips for preventing food allergies, and advice for dealing with allergies as children enter school, develop social lives, and spend more time away from the watchful eyes of their parents.

Quality Child Care for All: A guide to integration - by the Roeher Institute

This guide addresses the terms and issues in integrative child care. It addresses the roles of staff and parents and talks about quality programs. An appendix is provided to guide you in looking for quality child care. Another appendix will help childcare providers develop a profile regarding how well their centre is able to provide integrative services for children with disabilities.

Resources for Teaching Young Children with Special Needs - by Penny Low Deiner

Signing Exact English - by Gustason, Pfetzing, & Zawolkow

A dictionary of sign language for SEE- Signing Exact English (different principles than American Sign Language).

Steps to Independence: Teaching everyday skills to children with special needs - by Bruce Baker & Alan Brightman

This step-by-step guide helps parents equip their special needs children with important skills such as self-help skills and confidence. It also provides suggestions for managing challenging behaviour.

Topics in Down Syndrome: Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome - by Patricia Logan Oelwein

This book begins with a brief history of teaching children with Down syndrome to read. It explains a method of teaching reading to children with Down syndrome that has shown to be effective over the last 20 years. The appendices provide many materials that can be copied and used in many reading programs.

Views from our Shoes: Growing up with a brother or sister with special needs - by Donald Meyer

This book is a compilation of short pieces written by siblings of children with special needs. They talk about what they like about their sibling and their worries.

Visual Impairments - by M Cay Holbrook

A great resource book offering advice on everything from diagnosis to educational technology, daily living to mobility, and emotional coping to literacy.

You and your deaf child: a self-help guide for parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children - by John W. Adams

This book is written to help parents to accept the different feelings they have about having a child with hearing impairment. It provides information on communicating with your child, how to build family unity, managing behaviour, and provides activities to help you learn new skills.

Your Anxious Child: Raising a healthy child in a frightening world - by Mary Ann Shaw

The world can be a scary place, and many children believe this at a young age. This book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with recognizing anxiety in your child; the second addresses common kinds of anxiety such as performance anxiety, trauma-induced anxiety and the role of sibling rivalry in anxiety.  The third part deals with less common causes and situations such as panic attacks, the effect of divorce on a child’s anxieties, and anxiety in special needs children.

Your Child in the Hospital: A practical guide for parents - by Nancy Keen & Rachel Prentice

From communicating with staff to your child’s pain management, this practical book is easy to read as it has many subheadings to help you find the parts that are most pertinent to your situation.  This book addresses many topics: preparing your child, coping with common procedures, siblings and long-term illnesses.

 For Children:

 For other resources on these topics, look under 'Videos/DVDs' and 'Children's books'.

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