What I'm reading right now

When I was browsing in Border's the other day, killing time and looking for interesting books about Sensory Processing Disorder that I might have missed from browsing on-line, I happened upon this: A Different Kind of Perfect: Writings by Parents on Raising a Child with Special Needs.  I looked through it a bit -- it's a collection of essays by a bunch of different parents, about dealing with their child's issues (here is the link at Amazon) and decided that at $17, it was well worth a purchase.

I've read about half-way through.  The children the parents are writing about have Down Syndrome, genetic "defects," hearing loss, autism, and two so far have had the sensory problems that Jake has (which I was glad to see -- made me feel like less of an imposter, reading the book.)

Why do I say that?  Well, I feel like I'm kind of in a no-man's-land in the whole "special needs child" thing . . . while it's true that Jake isn't developing "normally" or "typically," we're not faced with the whole "he'll never have a normal life, never drive, never live on his own" kind of thing like so many parents have to go through.  Sure, he needs extra help and understanding right now, but I'm fairly positive -- and this isn't just a mother's hope, it's based on what I understand about his condition -- that he WILL grow up to be a normally-functioning and independent adult.  And he LOOKS normal.  And he doesn't have a label that's easy for other people to understand.  Most people and even some doctors don't know ANYTHING about SPD. 

And he will be in "main-stream" classes in school, but will probably require an IEP and possibly some special attention throughout the school day -- which isn't that odd of a thing.  Heck, when I was in K or 1st, I had to be taken out of my class a few times for some "speech therapy," simply because I had learned to talk in Texas and then moved to Montana and all the teachers thought I talked funny.  Totally not my problem.  Soon after, I was being taken out of class for a "gifted and talented" program (which even then, made me wonder why they couldn't make up their minds about me.  Heh.)

But back to the book.  I love it.  I love reading what other parents have to say.  Sure, hearing from medical professionals and all is great, but I want to talk to someone who has been there, done that, and has some perspective.  And that's what this book offers.