Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider’s Guide to Parenting Neurodiverse Children

Pryal (A Light in the Tower), a bipolar-autistic mother of two children with ADHD and autism, offers an empathetic handbook on raising neurodiverse children. Faced with stigma and ableism, many neurodiverse kids learn to mask their differences, Pryal explains, which can lead to a lifetime of struggles with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. She encourages parents to accept their children for who they are, teach them to embrace their differences, and advocate for the accommodations needed at school, like individualized education programs. Pryal brings a personal lens to the advice, drawing on her own childhood (beginning with being kicked out of the preschool carpool for being “too disruptive”) and her experiences helping her kids face bullying and emotional dysregulation. She also cites psychologists, doctors, and neurodiversity advocates, to occasionally eye-opening effect, particularly when she discusses how teachers often fail their neurodivergent students (in one survey, 45% of teachers admitted to bullying a student). Offering clarity on everything from emotional regulation and social shaming, Pryal provides a sensitive and comprehensive resource. Parents, teachers, and others working with neurodiverse kids will find this a boon. (Nov.)