Changed by a Child: Companion Notes for Parents of a Child with a Disability - Softcover

Gill, Barbara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385482434 ISBN 13: 9780385482431

Publisher: Harmony, 1998

Synopsis

Raising a child with a disability can often be more isolating and frustrating than any parent ever imagines. Finally, here is a book that honestly describes the inner needs and range of issues parents with disabled children face. Changed by a Child invites parents to take a moment for themselves. Each of the brief readings offers comfort and hope as they capture the unique challenges and joys of raising a disabled child.

About this title

Review

Parenting is always tough, but parenting a child with disabilities, serious injuries, or chronic illness can be a life-changing, profoundly disrupting experience. In Changed by a Child, Barbara Gill provides brief meditations and passages about the challenges, grief, faith, hope, and other feelings and experiences of parents who have a disabled child. Gill's son has Down syndrome, and she writes with the authority and credibility of a parent who has been through it herself. The brief pieces in this small, handsome book are divided into three sections: "In the Beginning," "Rounding the Curves," and "Transformed." It's a credit to Gill's experienced wisdom and her skills as a writer that this material never becomes sentimental or sugary. Temple Grandin, a woman with autism and the author of Thinking in Pictures, writes, "I wish my own mother had had this book when I was a child. If she had read this book she would have realized that she was not alone." For those parents who do feel alone, this book may serve as a kind and compassionate companion. --Ericka Lutz

From the Publisher

"A thoughtful, touching book written by someone who has 'been there.'"--Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People

"I wish my own mother had had this book when I was a child. If she had read this book she would have realized that she was not alone."
--Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures

"Wise, funny, helpful--I wish I had had this book twenty years ago!"
--Jane McDonnell, author of News from the Border: A Mother's Memoir of Her Autistic Son

"As a mother of four, two of whom had disabilities (leukemia and autism), I found comfort, solace and resonance on every page. Changed by a Child is a book for all parents, not just parents of children with disabilities. It is comprehensive, literate, inspiring and deeply healing."
--Annabel Stehli, author of The Sound of a Miracle: A Child's Triumph over Autism

"While this book is written for parents, it should be mandatory reading for medical students, pediatricians, as well as students and practitioners in the health professions. This is a book to treasure and to read and reread many times. Barbara Gill is to be thanked for putting into words what most of us may feel but often find it difficult to describe."
--Margaret L. Bauman, M.D., Children's Neurology Service, Boston

"A treasure! Changed by a Child is an outstanding achievement. Profound, absorbing, and a great joy to read. I recommend it enthusiastically."
--Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., founder of the Autism Society of America

Edition details

• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385482434
• ISBN 13: 9780385482431
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336