Official Review: How to Cope: Parenting a Child with Spec...

[Thea Frederick]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "How to Cope: Parenting a Child with Special Needs" by Christine E. Staple Ebanks.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Do you have a child with special needs or know someone who does? Are you overwhelmed by your child’s recent diagnosis for a disability and how to even begin making sense of things? If so, How to Cope: Parenting a Child With Special Needs is a must read for you. Perhaps you have a friend that has a child with a disability, well this book is still worth the read! It is not a long book and provides an amazing amount of insight and information on various disabilities, coping strategies, and resources. Having read this, you will be able to better understand your position as a parent, or friend of a parent, with a special needs child.

Christine E. Staple Ebanks has created a wonderful and much needed resource by writing her book on parenting special needs children. She takes the reader through the various stages of coping with this new difficulty, beginning with the emotional stage. She guides the overwhelmed parent through their complex maze of emotions and explains how to approach the basic necessities of self care and family care. Later on, she helps the reader understand medical terms and the process of getting your child the help they need, meanwhile, making them aware of the many resources that are available to special needs children to help with their development.

Overall, the book is one of incredible encouragement, empathy, and strength. Not only does Ebanks help you understand yourself, but she also provides support and guidance in the technical areas of the process of raising your child. In addition, at the back of the book is an extensive index with lists of other helpful books on the same topic, websites, abbreviations of medical terms, definitions of disabilities, and much more. This book allows those with special needs children to know that no matter what they are going through and no matter how lost they are feeling, they are not alone.

The two biggest issues in this book were grammatical errors (of which there were more than ten) and a frequent use of italics and quotation marks (sometimes used together, sometimes used independently) to emphasize particular words or ideas. While this use is effective and helpful in directing the reader’s attention, the overly frequent usage was somewhat stilting to the flow of the sentences. The only other thing I can think to comment on would be that (mostly at the beginning) it felt like she kept repeating things she had already said, simply in a different context and with different wording. But that is not a huge problem, it may be what parents need to hear over and over again. Later in the book this tendency seemed to die away.

I rate this book three out of four stars. I deduct one star because of all of the grammatical errors and the distractingly frequent italicized and quoted words. Other than that, I think that it is a fantastic resource, and the author’s dedicated and empathetic personality comes out in her writing. She really reaches out to all those who are struggling with parenting special needs children. I would highly recommend this book to any parents struggling to get on their feet after the diagnosis of their child with special needs, or any parent who has known the diagnosis for a time and just needs to understand how to move forward and help their child to the best of their ability.

******
How to Cope: Parenting a Child with Special Needs
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Kelyn]

As the grandparent of a child with special needs, this book is definitely something I can appreciate. When he was born, my son and daughter-in-law were completely overwhelmed, and a book such as this might have helped. Even now, at seven years old, his care presents challenges. I'll be recommending this one to my son. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Sanju Lali]

This must be a nice book for those who have a disabled child, which needs special care. It appears that this book has many takeaways. Thanks for your insightful review.

[markodim721]

I'm sure it took a lot of courage and tact to write a book that touches on such a sensitive topic. Thanks for the good review.

[Katherine Powell-Polkey]

I am thinking of giving this book as a gift to a friend based on this review. She struggles with having a special needs child, and I hope this will help.