Parents’ Guide to PANDAS, PANS, and Related Neuroimmune Disorders

Parents’ Guide to PANDAS, PANS, and Related Neuroimmune Disorders

Having a child who suddenly develops PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Strep), PANS (Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome) or related conditions such as encephalitis can be a daunting challenge for parents. This clear guide explains the symptoms and diagnosis of PANDAS and PANS, with treatment options and recommended strategies for supporting children at home, at school, and in community settings. The book covers key symptoms including OCD, tics, anxiety, sensory issues and personality changes, with practical advice on medical management, nutrition, lifestyle, and addressing social and behavioural needs. Each chapter also includes handy sidebars with key information to remember, and action steps for overcoming challenges, managing relapse, family self-care and providing children with the best possible support.

Demystifying PANS/PANDAS

Demystifying PANS/PANDAS

A Functional Medicine Desktop Reference on Basal Ganglia Encephalitis

Demystifying PANS/PANDAS is a unique and long overdue resource in the field of pediatric neurobehavioral health, providing a comprehensive overview of the “three-pronged approach” to assessment and care, conventional and naturopathic interventions, a trove of case studies, and plenty of clinical pearls along the way.

Even more importantly, this book provides a roadmap for practitioners and families feeling confused and isolated by this condition, empowering them to make better decisions and sparking a greater conversation about this devastating illness.

The 5 Love Languages of Your Family by Gary Chapman&Ross Campbell

The 5 Love Languages of Your Family

The 5 Love Languages of Your Family by Gary Chapman contains two bestsellers in one volume – The 5 Love Languages of Children and the % Love Languages of Teenagers.

“Are you expressing love in a language your family understands? Every child and teenager expresses and receives love through one of five communication styles, or “love languages”. If your love language is differnt from your child’s or teen’s, you’d better learn to translate-and fast-or you could miss your chance to meet their deepest emotional needs.

Find out which one of these languages your child or teenager speaks: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service.

Unconditional love is something everyone needs. The Five Love Languages of Children and The Five Love Languages of Teenagers will help you make your child or teenager feel secure, loved and more willing and open to interact with you and your family. Learn to fluently speak the love languages of your family members.”

Book Dimensions: 23cm H x 15cm W x 3cm D

Build Your Child’s Frustration Tolerance

Build Your Child’s Frustration Tolerance

“Build Your Child’s Frustration Tolerance is a self-paced growth mindset masterclass for parents and providers.

You’ll learn to foster your child’s grit and determination with practical and science-based strategies that go beyond simple encouragement.

The masterclass includes 4 video units with renowned guest parenting educators PLUS 2 bonus tracks with pre & early teen and neurodiverse parenting perspectives.

It also includes a comprehensive printable workbook with unit takeaways, journaling prompts, and activities and exercises to do with your child to help put the strategies in place.

In this on-demand course, you will learn:

  • How to uncover and avoid the hidden triggers that are the real causes of your child’s frustration.
  • How to develop a ‘frustration toolkit’ of practices and coping skills to use with your child to self-regulate and cope with challenges.
  • When to take a more emotion-based approach to help your child overcome obstacles and the urge to give up.
  • Practical strategies to help your child break free of the instant gratification mindset so they can work toward accomplishments.

Dr. Lisa Blackwell —President and Co-founder of Mindset Works with Carol Dweck, Ph.D.— has reviewed and approved this masterclass framework as being a valuable growth mindset parenting resource.

Includes lifetime access so you can go through all the materials at your own pace.

Transform Your Child’s Negative Self-Talk Into Self-Love

Transform Your Child’s Negative Self-Talk Into Self-Love

This is a masterclass for parents and caregivers where you’ll learn how to help your child quiet their inner critic to grow their confidence and self-worth.

In this on-demand course, you will learn:

  • How to respond when you hear your child’s negative self-talk (specific talking points for different situations)
  • How to avoid common shaming phrases that damage your child’s self-esteem
  • 4-step formula for responding to your child when they misbehave
  • Critical long-term strategies for growing your child’s Confidence

With your masterclass pass, you’ll get:

  • Video lessons by top parenting experts
  • Helpful printable checklists and templates

Watch a sample lesson from the Masterclass.

The Teenage Brain

The Teenage Brain

By: Frances E Jensen MD

Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, Dr. Jensen is in a unique position to explain to readers the mystery and magic of the teen brain. In this book, she brings to readers the new, sometimes astonishing findings that are buried in academic journals. She explores myths about adolescent behavior and offers practical suggestions on how to negotiate this difficult and dynamic life stage for parents and teachers, and even the teens themselves.

The Teenage Brain is one of the first books to focus exclusively on the mind-development of adolescents. Some of the recent findings it discusses include:

How teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily “build” memories than those of adults. But this special gift has a down side: their cells’ heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can form a stronger and longer addiction than the brain of an adult.
How Venus and Mars really emerge in adolescence. In fact, studies show that girls’ brains are a full two years more mature than boys’ brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining lots of differences seen in the classroom as well as in their social behaviour.
How adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we think they are! Recent experimental and human studies show that occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot in adolescence impacts the adult I.Q.
How multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities that may result in a habitually short attention span in teenagers.
How emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than the adult. Stress in these formative years can have permanent effects on mental health and has been reported to lead to a higher risk of certain neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression.
The Teenage Brain presents hard data intermingled with accessible and relatable anecdotes drawn from Dr. Jensen’s experiences as a parent, clinician and public speaker. It offers practical suggestions on how parents, teens, schools and even the legal system can better deal with adolescents on their journey into adulthood.

The Collapse of Parenting

The Collapse of Parenting

By: Leonard Sax

An acclaimed parenting and childhood development expert argues that kids today are suffering, both physically and mentally, because parents have abdicated authority,and explains how to reverse this trend.

In The Collapse of Parenting, physician, psychologist, and internationally acclaimed author Leonard Sax presents data documenting a dramatic decline in the achievement and psychological health of American children. Sax argues that rising levels of obesity, depression, and anxiety among young people- as well as the explosion in prescribing psychiatric medications to kids- can all be traced to parents letting their kids call the shots.

Many parents are afraid of seeming too dictatorial and end up abdicating their authority rather than taking a stand with their own children. If kids refuse to eat anything green and demand pizza instead, some parents give in, inadvertently raising children who are more likely to become obese. If children are given smartphones and allowed to spend the bulk of their free time texting, playing video games, and surfing the Internet, they become increasingly reliant on peers and the media for guidance on how to live, rather than getting such guidance at home.

And if they won’t sit still in class or listen to adults, they’re often prescribed medication, a quick fix that actually undermines their self-control. In short, Sax argues, parents are failing to prioritize the parent-child relationship and are allowing a child-peer dynamic to take precedence. The result is children who have no absolute standard of right and wrong, who lack discipline, and who look to their peers and the Internet for direction, instead of looking to their parents. But there is hope. Sax shows how parents can help their kids by reasserting their authority, by limiting time with screens, by encouraging better habits at the dinner table and at bedtime, and by teaching humility and perspective.

Drawing on more than twenty-five years of experience as a family physician and psychologist, along with hundreds of interviews with children, parents, and teachers across the United States and around the world, Sax offers a blueprint parents can use to refresh and renew their relationships with their children to help their children thrive in an increasingly complicated world.

About the Author

Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D., is a doctor and psychologist, and the founder of the National Association for Choice in Education (NACE). The author of Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge, Sax lives in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Thirty Million words – Building a Child’s Brain

Thirty Million words – Building a Child’s Brain

Dana Suskind MD

The founder and director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative, Professor Dana Suskind, explains why the most important-and astoundingly simple-thing you can do for your child’s future success in life is to to talk to them.

What nurtures the brain to optimum intelligence and stability?

It is a secret hiding in plain sight: the most important thing we can do for our children is to have conversations with them. The way you talk with your growing child literally builds his or her brain. Parent talk can drastically improve school readiness and lifelong learning in everything from math to art. Indeed, parent-child talk is a fundamental, critical factor in building grit, self-control, leadership skills, and generosity. It is crucial to making the most in life of the luck you have with your genes.

This landmark account of a new scientific perspective describes what works and what doesn’t (baby talk is fine; relentless correction isn’t). Discover how to create the best “language environments” for children by following the simple structure of the Three Ts: Tune In; Talk More; Take Turns. Dr. Suskind and her colleagues around the country have worked with thousands of families; now their insights and successful, measured approaches are available to all.

This is the first book to reveal how and why the first step in nurturing successful lives is talking to children in ways that build their brains. Your family-and our nation-need to know.

*Nominated for the Books for a Better Life Award*

Brain Rules

Brain Rules

An updated and expanded edition of the international bestseller

Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details that every business leader, parent, and teacher should know – for instance, that physical activity helps to get your brain working at its best.

How do we learn? What do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multitasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget – and so important to repeat new information?

In Brain Rules, Dr John Medina, a molecular biologist, shares his lifelong interest in brain science, and how it can influence the way we teach our children and the way we work. In each chapter, he describes a brain rule – what scientists know for sure about how our brains work – and offers transformative ideas for our daily lives.

In this expanded edition – which includes additional information on the brain rules and a new chapter on music – you will discover how every brain is wired differently, why memories are volatile, and how stress and sleep can influence learning. By the end, you’ll understand how your brain really works – and how to get the most out of it.

Breaking the Trance

Breaking the Trance

Recreational screen media use is quickly replacing family time, by no fault of parents. They are doing the best they can based on the information available to them, which claims nothing can be done to stop their children’s screen dependence.

Parents seeking change need a new framework for action. Breaking the Trance does not blame parents or vilify technology, but it does give parents clear and effective strategies to implement immediately. The results will restore a sense of care and connection within the family.

George T. Lynn, MA, LMHC, is a psychotherapist from Bellevue, Washington, who has pioneered the use of psychotherapy for adults and children with neuropsychological issues. George is author of the Survival Strategies for Parenting series, Genius! Nurturing the Spirit of the Wild Oppositional Child and The Asperger Plus Child. He has appeared on National Public Radio, Air America, and the Maury Povich Show to talk about his work with children who exhibit extreme behavior problems.

Cynthia C Johnson, MA, utilizes in-home individualized therapeutic tutoring to help unique K–12 learners reach their full potential. She is the founding director of the Venture Program at Bellevue College in Washington, the first degree program in the nation designed for students challenged with learning and intellectual disabilities. Her work has been featured by National Public Radio, the Chicago Tribune, Inside Higher Education, University Business Magazine, the Seattle Times, and KIRO 7. She is a Certified Mediator Practitioner in Washington State.

Red Beast Controlling Anger in Children with Asperger’s Syndrome

Red Beast

Controlling Anger in Children with Asperger’s Syndrome

Deep inside everyone, a red beast lies sleeping.

When it is asleep, the red beast is quite small, but when it wakes up, it begins to grow and grow.

This is the story of a red beast that was awakened.

Rufus is in the school playground when his friend John kicks a ball that hit him in the stomach, and wakes up the sleeping red beast: `I hate you – I’m gonna get you!’. The red beast doesn’t hear the teacher asking if he’s okay. It doesn’t see that John is sorry – how can Rufus tame the red beast?

This vibrant fully illustrated children’s storybook is written for children aged 5-9, and is an accessible, fun way to talk about anger, with useful tips about how to ‘tame the red beast’ and guidance for parents on how anger affects children with Asperger’s Syndrome.

poster for Brain-Body Parenting How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids. Mona Delahooke Ph.D

Brain-Body Parenting

Brain-Body Parenting

How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Raising Joyful, Resilient Kids

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

From a leading child psychologist comes this groundbreaking new understanding of children’s behavior, offering insight and strategies to support both parents and children.

Nominated for Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel H. Pink’s Next Big Idea Club

Over her decades as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Mona Delahooke has routinely counseled distraught parents who struggle to manage their children’s challenging, sometimes oppositional behaviors. These families are understandably focused on correcting or improving a child’s lack of compliance, emotional outbursts, tantrums, and other “out of control” behavior. But, as she has shared with these families, a perspective shift is needed. Behavior, no matter how challenging, is not the problem but a symptom; a clue about what is happening in a child’s unique physiologic makeup.

In Brain-Body Parenting, Dr. Delahooke offers a radical new approach to parenting based on her clinical experience as well as the most recent research in neuroscience and child psychology. Instead of a “top-down” approach to behavior that focuses on the thinking brain, she calls for a “bottom-up” approach that considers the essential role of the entire nervous system, which produces children’s feelings and behaviors.

When we begin to understand the biology beneath the behavior, suggests Dr. Delahooke, we give our children the resources they need to grow and thrive–and we give ourselves the gift of a happier, more connected relationship with them. Brain-Body Parenting empowers parents with tools to help their children develop self-regulation skills while also encouraging parental self-care, which is crucial for parents to have the capacity to provide the essential “co-regulation” children need. When parents shift from trying to secure compliance to supporting connection and balance in the body and mind, they unlock a deeper understanding of their child, encouraging calmer behavior, more harmonious family dynamics, and increased resilience.