I blogged briefly about this book by Dr. Robert F. Newby, PH.D. The full title is “Your Struggling Child: A Guide to Diagnosing, Understanding & Advocating for Your Child with Learning, Behavior or Emotional Problems”. It is a long title for a great book.

I am only a few chapters into it, and I think it is a must have for almost every parent, and especially for kids from foster care or with any type of trauma in their history. I very rarely read “work” books that are not about foster care, adoption or traumatized kids, but this one is pretty close. This doctor gets our kids.

Let me give you the list of chapters to see how in tune he is:

1. Helping You Better Understand Your Child
2. Charting the Problem: Notes, Checklists, and Behavior Diaries
3. How to Work with Your Child’s School
4. Getting an Outside Opinion: Teaming Up with Professionals
5. It’s Test Time: What You and Your Child Can Expect
6. Learning Difficulties: Thinking, Academics, Language, Speech & Motor Skills
7. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Other Disruptive Behavior Patterns
8. Autistic Spectrum Disorders
9. Anxiety and Traumatic Disorders
10. Mood Difficulties: Depression and Bipolar Disorder
11. Rarer, Complicating and Controversial Diagnoses

Does any of this sound like a child or issues that you’re dealing with?

One of the things about chapter two is the checklists. There are five pages of checklists on your child’s behavior. When have you ever gotten a checklist that extensive? I’m guessing never. But it’s not just about filling out the checklist and making your child fit into a category or a diagnosis. That’s one of the things I liked about this. Dr. Newby said it is more about figuring out what the symptoms are and working on helping or fixing the behaviors than labeling the child.

The other thing is that the checklists cover all aspects of a child’s life and things you don’t normally think about when you’re talking to a teacher or doctor.

The categories are:

Academic Skills
Speech/Language
Motor Skills
Self-Control and Goal-Directed Behaviors
Social Skills
Attention/Memory
Sensory Development
Repetitive or Stereotyped Behaviors
Feelings
Post Traumatic Stress

How often do you talk with a doctor about your child’s feelings? I’m guessing pretty rarely. Unless the provider is a specialist in trauma or attachment, I’ve never had anyone ask me about my child’s feelings. That not usually on their well child checklist, but it IS a part of your child, and if there are problem there, they need to be addressed.

Can you see why I’m so excited about this book? And that’s only up to chapter two.

In the back of the book, he has included thirty seven pages of resources for families. How often do you go to a provider and they have no idea where you can find support for the issues you’re dealing with?

If you have trouble getting services for your child, I would get a copy of this book as soon as you can. I am getting in touch with Dr. Newby and will keep you updated if I get more information.

Dr. Newby is a Neurophyschologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Read his credentials here.

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