BOOK MARKED
6 Books for
Special Needs Parents
Raising a child with a disability can feel confusing and isolating. These books,
recommended by Julia Wolhandler, manager of the Center for Accessibility
at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in D.C., aim to relieve some of
those difficult feelings by providing advice and understanding from medical
professionals and other parents of children with special needs.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO
CREATING A SPECIAL NEEDS
LIFE PLAN
By Hal Wright
Written for parents and professionals, this
book outlines how developing a life plan
can help children with disabilities gain
independence as they grow up. Wright
explores employment and residential
options, government programs, and
financial and legal considerations, including
special needs trusts.

MADE TO HEAR
By Laura Mauldin
Based on research from her Ph.D. dissertation,
Mauldin examines the expectations and
consequences of cochlear implant surgery. Her
focus is on the lack of information available to
help parents make an appropriate decision and
the long struggle children and their families
face once the device is implanted.

THE SILENT GARDEN
By Paul W. Ogden and
David H. Smith
First published in 1996, “The Silent Garden”
FAR FROM THE TREE
has continued to be a valuable resource for
By Andrew Solomon
Solomon, who writes about families coping parents of deaf children seeking to navigate the
with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, confusing and conflicting maze of information
autism, schizophrenia and other disabilities, provided by medical professionals and
believes that differences are what unite us. educators. Written from the perspectives of
Shareing stories of parents with children who two deaf parents, Ogden and Smith provide an
are prodigies, who were conceived in rape, who unbiased take on the challenges of raising a deaf
become criminals and who are transgender, he child and what parents can expect.

explores how people who love each other can
still struggle to accept each other.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF PERFECT
Edited by Cindy Dowling, Neil Nicoll and
RAISING A RARE GIRL
Bernadette Thomas
By Heather Lanier
Special needs parents will find comfort and
In this memoir, Lanier shares the story of wisdom in this collection of more than 50
her daughter’s ultra-rare illness, the genetic deeply personal essays written by parents of
disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, and children across the spectrum of disability.

how the diagnosis challenged all of her The essays explore the emotional journey of
preconceptions about motherhood. The book raising a child with special needs and offer
explores the sometimes radical act of loving practical advice and encouragement for other
one’s child just as they are.

parents going through it. ■
36 Washington FAMILY JULY 2021