THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE FOR SPECIAL NEEDS PARENTS
From the author –
Hello and welcome! You may know that I am an author, nurse practitioner and special needs parent. Have you walked the often unwelcomed path of having a child with exceptional medical needs due to issues at birth, or later illness or injury?
Or maybe you are a physician, occupational therapist or special education teacher who sees the struggles of these families and wants to offer them a resource to review at home.
The focus of The Beginner’s Guide to Special Needs Parenting is to give explicit guidance and practical information to parents who are overwhelmed or in need of directions related to life with a special needs child. This could include difficulty with:
- Building your medical team
- Addressing academics for children with special needs by birth, injury or illness.
- Developing skills with an eye toward maximum possible independence
- Future-focused preparation, recognizing that the parent will not always be there
- And more
AUTHOR BIO
Lisa Kunz is an experienced nurse practitioner and mother of a special needs child. For decades she has worked closely with patients, families, community partners and condition-specific groups specializing in physical, intellectual and mental health special needs.
Lisa has first-hand knowledge of the difficulties and uncertainties that come with having a special needs child. This book is born out of these experiences and is meant to be the type of resource that she would have wanted to have when her child was first being diagnosed. She hopes it will ease some of the very real, very distressing challenges that parents face when their child, by birth, illness or injury, come to have significant, often life-long struggles.
She graduated from Duke University and has enjoyed working in Northwest US since. When she is not working, Lisa enjoys hiking, kayaking and traveling with her family, except her cats. Rusty and Dusty prefer to stay home.
Reviews
A must read for any parent of a child with needs of any kind. Those early days after diagnosis can be very confusing and intense.
The author empathetically identifies common issues that need to be addressed (such as how to create your medical team, school and therapeutic support, building independence and more), as well as providing clear steps on how to make these happen.
As a physician and father of a special needs child myself, I feel she covers the essential bases in an approachable, supportive, and easy to understand manner. Highly recommended
— Dr. Bill Lockwood, ER and Urgent Care Physician
Thoughtwise Publishing 